Like everyone I've had customers call me saying they lost their Windows login password. Can you tell at the login screen if the password is for a local account or tied to a MS account? How about legacy vs. UEFI secure boot at login?
Install Windows 21H1 without Internet - set up local user only?
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Sky-Knight
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Systems that have tracking devices report in as well, and whatever else Microsoft puts into that account in the future. This is M365... the service is growing and changing weekly!
The point is it isn't ours, and for liability at least it shouldn't be in there. Besides, for practical purposes there are limits on how many machines an account can have, so unless you want to be maintaining a ton of accounts... get your clients' stuff out of your account!
@Diggs Windows 11 will not support legacy boot... Windows 10 will and all that's dead in 2025. Windows Hello works on Windows 11 just as it does on Windows 10, same as bitlocker and all the rest. Only difference is Windows 11 Home will require the integration to set all this in motion.
britechguy
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@Diggs,
In answer to your second question first, I have never seen anything that gives any indication about what's going on with UEFI in the normal Windows login screen. Unless you jump into UEFI prior to Windows ever showing anything I'm not aware of anything that would tell you that. There probably is, though, but I've not used it, but even then it wouldn't be anything on the login screen.
The first question is an "it depends" sort of situation. I know of very few people who create local accounts that are more than one "word" long. So if you see "Diggs" on the login screen there's at least a decent chance it's a local account, though it's not guaranteed. For Microsoft account linked Win10/11 user accounts, what will display on the screen is not usually an email address but the first and last name the person has entered in their Microsoft Account, which is at least a big hint.
I just tried looking at one of my laptops, but I have the one and only local account set up to login without needing to enter a password so it's different in that you really don't go through the typical lock screen sequence.
In answer to your second question first, I have never seen anything that gives any indication about what's going on with UEFI in the normal Windows login screen. Unless you jump into UEFI prior to Windows ever showing anything I'm not aware of anything that would tell you that. There probably is, though, but I've not used it, but even then it wouldn't be anything on the login screen.
The first question is an "it depends" sort of situation. I know of very few people who create local accounts that are more than one "word" long. So if you see "Diggs" on the login screen there's at least a decent chance it's a local account, though it's not guaranteed. For Microsoft account linked Win10/11 user accounts, what will display on the screen is not usually an email address but the first and last name the person has entered in their Microsoft Account, which is at least a big hint.
I just tried looking at one of my laptops, but I have the one and only local account set up to login without needing to enter a password so it's different in that you really don't go through the typical lock screen sequence.
Sky-Knight
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@britechguy I've seen a ton of accounts with two names be local. So there are many circumstances that I don't know the account is integrated until I try to use it. A good portion of the time though, those accounts appear as email addresses.
But there isn't a direct indicator of account type on the Welcome screen sadly. We can make an educated guess, but that's not a perfect process.
Bleh this is going to be such a mess...
But there isn't a direct indicator of account type on the Welcome screen sadly. We can make an educated guess, but that's not a perfect process.
Bleh this is going to be such a mess...
nlinecomputers
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I’m $120 per hour. The upgrade from home to pro is $99 on Amazon. You can either pay me the labor to dick with it and bugger a work around just to keep your local account on home or you can upgrade and get one without hassle.
Well for UEFI when Windows is booting you should see the manufacturers logo above the spinner, ie HP, Dell, Gigabyte, etc.
As for telling what the account is at the screen if you go to reset password:
Local Account - Has no password reset usb or security questions:
Local account - has security questions:
Microsoft account - "Reset Pin"
Microsoft account - Reset Password:
Attempting to reset the password should guide you as to if the account is local or Microsoft account.
As for telling what the account is at the screen if you go to reset password:
Local Account - Has no password reset usb or security questions:
Local account - has security questions:
Microsoft account - "Reset Pin"
Microsoft account - Reset Password:
Attempting to reset the password should guide you as to if the account is local or Microsoft account.
timeshifter
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So even a free Microsoft account (not paying for Microsoft 365) is essentially using Azure Active Directory (albeit in limited form and options)?
Sky-Knight
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Yes...
Which shouldn't shock you, Outlook.com is M365 on trial mode, it's always been hosted exchange with extras. XBox is integrated too... ALL of that is Azure AD based, and always has been.
Why would Microsoft maintain a separate technology for these things? You're just a member of their tenant! And their drive to make a single sign-on for all the things has never changed.
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Sky-Knight
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Not to mention opt out of being the beta tester for new updates...
Seriously, Pro or bust!
For custom-built PCs, the MS account can be used to re-activate after hardware changes such as new motherboard. And yes this works for both retail and OEM licences!
The PC can be switched to MS account login just prior to motherboard change, and after the change & activation with the MS account it can be reverted back to local account if preferred.
Sky-Knight
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The Microsoft login doesn't actually have anything to do with the device's enrollment in a given account! Though I haven't tried to use that to reactivate Windows.
If using a local account login, the device enrolment does not occur. Well it didn't in earlier releases anyway, so I usually switch to MS acct login temporarily to ensure the enrolment occurs if I'm about to change hardware. It might enrol with local account in recent releases though, because even local account users usually have a MS account stored in their profile (specified for OneDrive or Office and remembered by the OS).
Sky-Knight
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This is true, configuring the login automates the device's enrollment. But you can enroll it manually via the microsoft.com account, devices section...
I think... I could very much be wrong here. Microsoft changes so much so quickly it's hard to keep up.
There's also the MS Store enrollment which is separate, and that one is limited to 10 devices per account.
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