Account automatically locks after login

Mexican712 · 03 Jan 2018

So, here is the situation, Win10 boots up fine, after entering the username password, the account automatically locks itself taking me back to the login screen. Just for clarification, is NOT that the account is locked in the sense of failed passwords. The correct password is entered, it looks as if it will load the desktop, but then it takes me back to the login screen. It acts as if Win+L was type after entering the password or something like that because I can see "Locking" just before the login screen appears again.
I have tried to boot into safe boot but the same thing happens there.
I was able to create another account and that one logs in fine. I even removed the password of the first account, but same behavior. If I try enough times, I can vaguely see what looks like Edge has loaded with several tabs. So, there is something under the first account that forces a lock or something similar.

Has anyone experienced something like this? This is my in-laws laptop so, I cannot just reset it or create a replacement account because all their stuff is in that first account. Any suggestions?

pepanee · 03 Jan 2018

Welcome to these forums.

I'm slightly confused: You were able to remove the password from the account that auto-locks? How did you manage to do that? Because if you can log into that account without having it auto-lock you out, then we can try some things :)

Mexican712 · 04 Jan 2018

pepanee said:

Welcome to these forums.

I'm slightly confused: You were able to remove the password from the account that auto-locks? How did you manage to do that? Because if you can log into that account without having it auto-lock you out, then we can try some things :)

So, I used a Win10 usb boot to change a few files to allow me for CMD access. That, gave me the opportunity to create a new account and also remove the password (running "control userpasswords2") of the first account. However, even when there is no password (after selecting the account I click on "Sign In") it briefly gives me "Welcome" and right after I can see "Locking". So, unfortunately, no progress.

pepanee · 04 Jan 2018

Go back to CMD: Generate a List of Startup Programs via Command Line or PowerShell

Then search online on how to disable startup items through CMD that you may suspect could be causing this.

Mexican712 · 04 Jan 2018

pepanee said:

Then search online on how to disable startup items through CMD that you may suspect could be causing this.

The strange part is that on the newly created account, I am able to login fine and the desktop loads correctly. However, not with the first account. My thinking is, I would expect both accounts to behave the same if it is something in the startup. So, I am wondering, if I will be able to get an accurate list of what runs on startup for that specific account if I use the other account to get the list.

pepanee · 04 Jan 2018

Hmm. From your post I'm assuming that once you have CMD prompt open, it's not through the "locked out" account. That it's just a general CMD prompt. I'm not too familiar with things that way. Maybe somebody else has more input on this.

But also, see if you can search online on methods on how to open the CMD prompt from that "locked out" user acount.

• run cmd prompt for user account from different account - Bing
• run elevated command prompt (or application) as another user

Mexican712 · 04 Jan 2018

Here is a video of the issue:

The "Alane" account is the first/original that has the issue. The other is the one I was able to create afterwards and works fine. I had to reenable a password because "runas" requires that username you are trying to run the command as has a password.

Running the startup list as suggested by pepane as the first username returns basically the same startup items as the new account with the addition of "Google Update" (Chrome?) and "Send to OneNote":
(Not sure why the image does not link via "Insert Image URL")
https://i.imgur.com/ZWWMkqa.jpg