Help logging in with incorrect microsoft account

Hi everyone, just want to say thanks in advance for your time and effort! These forums are invaluable.

I'm trying to do some troubleshooting for my (very senior) father. I must admit I have little to no experience with windows 10 as all of my machines run 7, so please forgive my confusion. I'll do my best to explain the problem and what I think happened!

A week ago he decided to upgrade their windows 7 desktop (older HP) to windows 10. When asked to log into the new OS instead of choosing a local account he must have chosen to use a Microsoft account (knowing that they use a Hotmail address). For some reason he entered their Hotmail address as ".com" instead of ".ca". I'm not sure how this is possible but in doing so he inadvertently created a new Hotmail account. The problem is that their machine is now stuck at the log in screen showing the wrong (newly created ".com") Hotmail address.

I can't find any way to change the log-in address or switch users etc. If i could simply change it to the correct ".ca" address I could get in as I have the password for that email account. As he's older he doesn't recall creating a new account or have any idea of what the new password would/could be. I've tried the proper password for the ".ca" account as he knows that one but it didn't work.

The only solution I could think of was trying to get into/reset the password for the ".com" account and hope that it syncs with the windows 10 desktop. Luckily I was able to use the recovery address to change the password on the ".com" account to something I know. Their computer is showing up under "devices" connected to that account. I've tried several times over the last day with the new password and still can't log into windows 10. I read on a thread that it sometimes takes a few hours to sync but I've waited plenty long. The machine is plugged into Ethernet with a working connection so it should theoretically sync?

Any advice as to what I can to do get into this computer would be great. Im worried that my dad bricked their machine and will be looking at losing all of their photo's and files etc to a clean install of Windows.

Thanks in advance

Tony

Thanks for your reply Brink!

Yesterday I did exactly as recommended in the link,

• Option Three: To Reset Password of your Microsoft Account Online at Microsoft

This gave me access to the Microsoft account currently displaying on the windows 10 login screen (as tested by logging into outlook in a web browser). The problem is that it doesn't seem to be syncing to the computer in question as I have tried the newly reset password several times over the last 24 h with no luck. I am confident the computer is connected to a working internet connection.

Anything else I can try?

Brink said:

Sometimes it may take a few days

Is this common for it to take a few days to sync? I can't find any references to this happening elsewhere on google.

Surely there is another way to access the computer. The reset you recommended would be a total last resort as I don't want to lose all of the information and files on this computer.

TonyG said:

Is this common for it to take a few days to sync? I can't find any references to this happening elsewhere on google.

Surely there is another way to access the computer. The reset you recommended would be a total last resort as I don't want to lose all of the information and files on this computer.

Hi there. If it doesn't sync then you might try slipping the HD in another system and get the files you need. Then swap it back in and start from scratch.

Brink, I found a work-around you posted a while ago for a similar issue in windows 7:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...nge-winre.html

Isn't there anything similar for windows 10? For example, I came arcross this method which seems very similar. What are your thoughts on this? I could create a new admin account to at least get into the computer to access everything and make the necessary changes.

https://4sysops.com/archives/reset-a...s-10-password/

Thanks for all of your help

*edit* - I apologize if this method is against the forum rules or something but I wasn't able to find anything like it on tenforums.

Brink said:

Tony,

I'm afraid that won't work with a Microsoft account. It'll only work with a local account instead.

Darn, I thought I might be able to create a new user account and add it to the administrator group to gain access to the computer.

I'll give it another day to see if the password will eventually sync.

Thanks