Microsoft to tailor Windows 10 setups based on how you use your PC

[britechguy]

@Sky-Knight, I certainly can't argue with that assertion, or the reason for it.

As the old saying goes, practice makes perfect, and actually entering your password(s) with some frequency is one of the very best ways to make sure you know what they are.

 

[carmen617]

@Sky-Knight, I certainly can't argue with that assertion, or the reason for it.

As the old saying goes, practice makes perfect, and actually entering your password(s) with some frequency is one of the very best ways to make sure you know what they are.

Unfortunately, Microsoft is pretty insistent that people set up a PIN to log onto their computers. Regardless of the actual strategy behind using a PIN, the effect for most users is that they don't know their real Microsoft account password, just the PIN. I can't tell you how many times I've had to boot a system in safe mode for one reason or another, which requires the actual password, not the PIN, and the client doesn't even know that they HAVE a password.

Now Apple really has that "practice makes perfect" thing down - forcing end users to enter their Apple ID password any time they want to download a free app is a great trick. The problem there, of course, is that people don't understand that their App Store password is the same as their iTunes password which is the same as their Apple ID password which is their Face Time password, which also happens to be their email password - so they change it in frustration when trying to install an app on their iPad, and then every other Apple device and application they have starts nagging them to re-enter their password. Plus the pin from their iPad.

 

[Porthos]

Unfortunately, Microsoft is pretty insistent that people set up a PIN to log onto their computers. Regardless of the actual strategy behind using a PIN, the effect for most users is that they don't know their real Microsoft account password, just the PIN. I can't tell you how many times I've had to boot a system in safe mode for one reason or another, which requires the actual password, not the PIN, and the client doesn't even know that they HAVE a password.

Amen there.

 

[britechguy]

Unfortunately, Microsoft is pretty insistent that people set up a PIN to log onto their computers.

Agreed. There was just a discussion about this on one of the blind technology groups I participate on (see: https://win10.groups.io/g/win10/message/47797). Under Settings, Accounts, Sign-In options you can turn off all Windows Hello options, including PIN, for Microsoft Account Linked Win10 User Accounts, which I've already done on my machine.

I also tell folks to create the PIN, but the next time they completely shut down the machine or do a Restart, pay attention on the sign-in screen and you'll see that you can toggle to your preferred login method, and I always go right back to password.

I wish, with all my heart, that all these other login methods, other than, perhaps, biometrics, were to go in to a great black hole and never return. The reason most passwords end up being forgotten is because we've given end users so darned methods to avoid having to input them. That was, and is, a mistake.