Local Account / Microsoft Account Sign-In Issue

After a W10 update, my sign-in changed to using my Microsoft Account email address. I deleted it from the registry.

Now I'm seeing a strange inconsistency between my account settings and what the Start menu displays.

In the Start menu, my profile shows my name and email address and labels it as a Microsoft account. But when I go to Settings > Accounts > Your Info, it clearly shows that I’m using a Local Account with Administrator privileges, and it even offers the option to “Sign in with a Microsoft account instead,” which should only appear if I'm not already linked. So, Windows treats the account like a Microsoft account in one place and a local account in another. This seems like either cached Microsoft account info or a partial unlink that didn’t update visually across the system.

How can I resolve this back to sign-in without using Microsoft credentials as it was before?

Brink said:

Hello, and welcome to the forum.

You can check using option two in the tutorial below to see if the Microsoft account is listed there to remove.

Add and Remove Accounts used by other apps in Windows 10

Thank you for your reply.

Following Option Two, my Microsoft account is the only "Account used by other apps" entry. The only option is to Manage it. When clicked, it prompts for my password in a browser window. I no longer have it after 10 years, and so far have not been able to retrieve it from MS.

Brink said:

When you go to Settings > Accounts > Your info, do you see a Stop signing in to all Microsoft apps automatically link?

If so, click on that link. You should then be able to remove the Microsoft account from Accounts used by other apps above.

No. There is only Sign in with a Microsoft account instead.

That's part of the strange inconsistency.

Brink said:

Inconsistent indeed.

Let's check in netplwiz to see if the Microsoft account may be listed there to delete.

It is not.

There are four User Names: mine, my wife's, HomeGroupUser$ and Guest.

Brink said:

Let's check using an option below to see if the display name (aka: "full name") for your local account may be the culprit since it's not showing a Microsoft account tied to it.

Change Display Name of Account in Windows 11 | Windows 11 Forum

Pardon my ignorance, but I'm not sure what I should do? Change my local user name? It's currently Mark without a last name and the full name field is empty. My first and last name appear on my Microsoft sign in.

Thank you for your patience.