Question Unclear on the password concept

[gn842a]

I was trying to boot into Safe Mode and got asked for a password which apparently I forgot. I don't think I have a local user account. I think it is registered with Microsoft. In fact I just created a new password with Microsoft perhaps I have solved the issue.

I can say that when I log into my microsoft account it does show the computer I'm using with a lot of facts about the security system etc. So I'm pretty sure that means I did NOT create a purely local account.

I find this more than a little confusing. I do have my administrator account and I do have access to that. I just don't have access to the super-password. But maybe I do, now that it's reset.

Anyhow I guess I'll re-try, but I don't know how long it would take the new super password, if that's what it is, to make its way to my desktop. Perhaps the verification process involves direct internet access to the account....

Greg N

 

[jsmithepa]

The admin password should get you into safe mode... unless mighty W10 got fancy about this. Can't image needing Internet, all along safe mode gives u options boot with or without Internet... unless again W10 is so much special but I wager NO, you are doing something wrong.

 

[gn842a]

Well the new password from the Microsoft account didn't work so perhaps I am doomed.

 

[SgtScream]

Try with no password then admin as the password.

 

[britechguy]

The password for a Microsoft Account linked Windows 10 account is the same as that for the Microsoft Account to which it's linked, but with one slight situational exception.

One must, of course, be able to log into Windows 10 whether or not one has internet access, so the password is stored locally (in encrypted form, of course) as well. You can continue using your existing password until the first time you actually enter the changed one while you have internet access. Once it has been confirmed against the Microsoft Account the local copy is replaced.

There's nothing complicated or different, except the above and the fact that changing your password on your Microsoft Account will have an impact on your linked Windows 10 account once you've used the changed password to log in.

Local accounts, including the hidden Administrator account, work as they always have.

 

[gn842a]

Well the reason I wanted safemode was to install new AMD drivers for the new gpu. I went ahead and installed it without being in safe mode. So right now my immediate needs are taken care of. I will try a couple of these suggestions but I really don't think that the password to get on in safe mode is the same as the admin password because I can get into that.....that's what I find surprising in fact.

I will try a couple of the tricks suggested here in a bit right now I'm in the middle of a hairy long download. Not sure why it's so slow.


Greg N

 

[britechguy]

You can get into safe mode with any account that has admin privileges.

I've never used the actual Administrator account, ever, on any Windows 10 machine. If you want to restart in safe mode, the easiest way to kick that off is to use Settings, Update & Security, Recovery, Advanced Startup section - Restart now button. At least if you're already logged in and know that's what you want to do next.

If not, powering down the machine, then powering up with the power button but interrupting the process by holding it down before Windows 10 even boots, and doing this three times, will cause Windows 10 to boot into recovery mode/advanced startup from which you can select Safe Mode.

 

[Alabalcho]

Login with your MS account, create a local account with admin rights. Restart into safe mode from Recovery options, then login with the new account, do whatever you want to do, restart, then either disable or remove it.

 

[gn842a]

Login with your MS account, create a local account with admin rights. Restart into safe mode from Recovery options, then login with the new account, do whatever you want to do, restart, then either disable or remove it.

That is directionally correct, but I'm afraid that the plan stops because you can't assign your local account admin rights. Because even though it says you're an administrator, you don't in fact have administrator powers. There is more than one thread like this one out on the net. After reading several dozen such posts, and spending really about five hours trying to right the matter, I decided that this was one of those occasions where I should take advantage of the fact that I keep no data files on my C: drive. Just the OS.

So I downloaded a fresh Win 10 version to a memory stick and annihilated the C: drive. Before it did, it asked me innocently, do you want to save the files in the personal accounts???

This was a trick question. Windows had taken the name I chose for the computer and then somehow banished it when I signed up for one drive. I signed up for one drive because there was some kinda mysterious driver update on AMD that seemed to want me to do that. So I created this one drive account and as the process finished my account changed names.

The actual original account could be seen under users but there was no way to log into it. It would not come up on the banner screen after a boot, for example. You couldn't "run as administator" anything because you weren't the administrator.

So I interpreted the question "save the files in the personal accounts?" to mean "preserve all the accounts including the one you can't get into?" So I chose NO and it all vaporized.

When I reinstalled I was careful to research (on the computer upstairs) protocols for local installation to keep my OS accounts well away from Windows Cloud. So far so good. But it has been a time consuming exercise. This had nothing to do with me. It was not related to the hardware failure that led to the need for this new build or the new OS installation.

It was just Windows creating a system that could not be reversed and somehow insisting that my onecloud account had to have a different computer name than the one I installed on the machine originally.

Right now things are OK and I am very glad that I did a local install. I knew about local installs first time around I just somehow missed the choices that would have allowed me to do it. Of course, the system is designed to make the local install option not only difficult to find but look undesirable.

Greg N

 

[gn842a]

You can get into safe mode with any account that has admin privileges.

I've never used the actual Administrator account, ever, on any Windows 10 machine. If you want to restart in safe mode, the easiest way to kick that off is to use Settings, Update & Security, Recovery, Advanced Startup section - Restart now button. At least if you're already logged in and know that's what you want to do next.

If not, powering down the machine, then powering up with the power button but interrupting the process by holding it down before Windows 10 even boots, and doing this three times, will cause Windows 10 to boot into recovery mode/advanced startup from which you can select Safe Mode.

Well that last paragraph sounds like an interesting twist. I did not know that about the power button.

However, I take issue with getting into safe mode with any account that has admin privileges. That is I'm afraid not so for the chosen few. It says you have admin privileges but you don't. You can't download to the spots you want to download, and you can't log into safe mode.

Anyhow it's probably just as well that I discovered I had this issue early in the game. I should have known something foul was afoot when they change my login name on the boot up screen.
Greg N

 

[gn842a]

For more information scroll down to post #13 in this thread
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/asus-bios-5007-vs-bios-4406.3499618/post-21154409