Installing W10 on new laptop

Copper Contributor

Hi all,

My 18 year old granddaughter, who is computer literate but knows zero about operating systems, installed W10 on a new computer. For some reason the setup procedure would not accept her login credentials using her email address. She had to add a new account using her phone number. Does anyone know why she couldn't use her email account, and should I create a local admin account and remove her phone number account, or do a complete reinstall?

Thank you,

Rick

20 Replies

@Rick.Lizotte As far as setting up her system, the best practice would be to create a Local Admin account for setup and permissions purposes, and from that account, create a new Standard User (without Admin privileges) linked to her Microsoft email address.

 

Using an Admin account as a "daily driver" is risky, particularly if she'll be doing any regular web browsing from it, because it can allow full read/write access to system resources without prompting for user authorization.

@anashbur Thanks for your reply.  She spends some time on the web, so that's what I recommended.  She's logging on under phone number account with a non admin account.

Hi,
was she using her Microsoft email address?
Microsoft Email addresses have @outlook.com , @hotmail.com and @live.com suffixes.
Hmm?

I like to use "Local Accounts" for my installs which do not rely on any outside account to login and with no password which makes it safer from "The Internet". For the home or student or small business this is a great setup it boots right to the desktop...automatically.

Complete re-install

Connecting to Microsoft account is Not unsafe.

@HotCakeX No.  She uses her gmail account.

Complete reinstall because someone is probably entering the wrong Email address?

@TRUSTMEDIA That's what I've heard.  Thanks for the confirmation.

@Rick.Lizotte 


@Rick.Lizotte wrote:

@HotCakeX No.  She uses her gmail account.


I thought so,

well Windows 10 only supports Microsoft accounts.

you need to create a Microsoft account first with Gmail or any other email address that you have

 

How to create a Windows 10 account using any email address

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-windows-10-account-using-gmail-email-address

How to sign in to your Microsoft account

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4028195/microsoft-account-how-to-sign-in

@Rick.Lizotte 


@Rick.Lizotte wrote:

@TRUSTMEDIA That's what I've heard.  Thanks for the confirmation.


if someone told you that using Microsoft account makes you unsafe then using Gmail, Apple ID, Facebook, Instagram and everything else on the Internet makes you unsafe too, even more.

 

Microsoft themselves are the ones helping other companies and government from getting hacked by foreign countries.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/finance/other/microsoft-seizes-network-of-50-domains-from-hacker-group-wit...

@HotCakeX Got it.  Thanks.

@HotCakeX I feel completely safe using my MS account.  If I said something that indicated otherwise I wasn't making myself clear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You're welcome, and it's okay Dw :)

I don't think it's unsafe but I have had a lot of clients locked out of their computers because they can't remember their password they have for really no reason...@HotCakeX 

Tell them to write them down something?
there are password recovery process using phone number or alternative Email address.

To get back into your account as quickly as possible, try these basic troubleshooting steps:

 

  • Verify that Caps Lock is turned off and your email address is spelled correctly. 
  • Clear your browser history (here's how for Microsoft Edge and for Internet Explorer).
  • Try signing into your account from a different internet browser.

If you can't remember your password or it's not working

 

You can reset your Microsoft account password by following these steps:

 

  1. Go to the Recover your account page.
  2. Enter the email address, phone number, or Skype ID you used when you made your Microsoft account. This could be any email address, or an email ending in a Microsoft domain like hotmail . com or outlook . com.
  3. If you have security info on your account, we'll send a one-time code to the alternate phone number or email address you gave us. After you enter that code on the next screen, you'll be able to make a new password.
  4. Enter your new password, then select Next.