User password not accepted after holiday

A friend recently returned from a 2 week holiday.

His W10 desktop PC now rejects his password and will not let him in. He assures me that he had not changed the password. He has doubled checked that caps/num lock, etc, are not active. I believe him.

He was coerced into creating an MS (online) account when he first set the PC up (over a year ago) in the form of <his_name>@outlook.com.

He has tried to reset the password via the relevant MS pages but has been locked out for two consecutive 24 hours periods. he provided his mobile phone number, entered the code and then failed questions such as his mother's maiden name

I suggested that he contact MS support chat. They asked a number of questions, such as have you ever purchased anything via your MS profile. Unfortunately he hasn't, nor has he ever used <his_name>@outlook.com to send emails.

Unhelpfully they simply stated that as someone had tried to change the password, he should just create a new MS online profile- completely sidestepping the fact that he can't log into his PC if he creates a new online profile.

I am happy to go to his tomorrow and use the W10 DVD to create a new (local) user on the PC. He thinks that his copy of W10 is the home edition.

If it is Home,

1. is it safe to assume that the original data will not be encrypted?

2. When you boot your PC, is MS really double checking your (locally) entered password with the one stored online? In the event of the keyboard being at fault, and for example a key not functionally properly, if I take a new keyboard will the PC still expect his regular password or will it go online and and notice that it has suspended his MS account?

Any advice before I go there (in approx 24 hours) will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Know how to enable the built-in administrator account using option 4 here:
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/...a.html#option4

Also try logging in with the computer disconnected from the internet. Logging in with no internet connection makes the computer look for the password stored on the computer vice the internet, but this likely will not work since he has already been denied with the computer connected to the internet.

My mother is having a similar problem though she claims it sometimes lets her in and sometimes does not. are we assuming a hack for these or some kind of odd bug

Urgh...

Got there, armed with a W10 cd.

Disconnected the Wifi and asked him to enter his password as normal.

THEN I asked him to click on the icon to show him the password that he had entered.

He noticed that the @ had now become a ".

Yep, the machine had defaulted to the US American keyboard at login. He had never installed the US keyboard but for whatever reason the machine defaulted to it.

He was able to log in, at which point it defaulted back to UK English for the (only) user profile.

I have deleted the US language option and set up an additional admin account.

imaginarynumber said:

Urgh...

... the @ had now become a "

there should be a law against using @ or " in a password :)

That give me an idea - with the ENG INTL keyboard I can set the password to PÄSSWÖRD for extra security (?)

Seriously though, with multiple keyboards installed the clue should have been an 'input method' button at the bottom right of the login screen.

Bree said:

Seriously though, with multiple keyboards installed the clue should have been an 'input method' button at the bottom right of the login screen.

That's the weird thing though. I don't recall ever seeing it there before, that said, the last time I used his PC was about a year ago.

I don't understand why Windows has decided to install (and revert to) the US keyboard. There was only one user and that user was set to UK English.

Although I deleted the US option from his profile, I don't know how to delete it from the log in screen?

Kari said:

This does not completely remove the US input language (keyboard layout) but it sets UK English as default on login screen:

1.) Press WIN + R to open Run dialog

2.) Type control intl.cpl, press Enter to open Control Panel's Regional settings

3.) Select Administrative tab, select Copy settings:

4.) Check that Input Language under Current user is correct, in your case English (United Kingdom), change in settings if not

5.) Select Copy your current settings to Welcome screen and system accounts, click OK:

Kari

Great.

Thanks Karl