I hate Windows 8 more and more every time I try to use it. I recently updated my son's PC to 8.1 and now he has to sign in to his Live account with his password at startup. So I looked up how to change this, and it worked (soft of) but now it wants, which I'm guess is, a local password. Instead of showing his ***.hotmail.com email address it now shows his name, for example "Joe" and asks for a password. I've never given his computer a password and it never required one before the update to 8.1. If I leave it blank then it tells me it's incorrect; if I use his Live password it tells me it's incorrect. So I have to change it back to signing in with Live and it lets me in. I just want the computer to boot up Windows and be ready with no interaction required. What am I missing?
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Windows 8.1 - Removing Password Requirement
- Thread starter htpc_user
- Start date
The local admin account must have a password as I recall. But once you do that you should be able to set this. I'm not a big fan of autologin but I do enterprise security not childrens laptops.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows-vista/turn-on-automatic-logon
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows-vista/turn-on-automatic-logon
So sign in with Live and change the password for user Joe.
Also, teaching kids password security is a good thing, typing a few characters to log in won't kill him but will at an early age imprint that passwords are important. Just my 2 cents of course, you can of course raise your kid however you like.
I tried doing that, but to change the password for "Joe" it asks for the old password to "Joe" and it doesn't have one. I've never set a password for his computer because I don't like using them. And I know he's never set one because all he ever does is turn it on and start playing games.
It's not that it's that big of a deal for him to type the password in, but I would kind of like to know how to disable it for my own purposes. I was thinking that maybe one day I might get 8.1 for the HTPC and if I do I want it to boot straight to Media Center and not have to be stopped for a password.
Windows 8 will not allow a straight boot to WMC to the best of my knowledge. One of the MANY things I hate about 8
Log in with Live account, delete local user Joe, create local user Joe, set password?
If you can sign in to outlook/hotmail from a web browser, check or change your password there.
I also recommend setting his pc not to require a password when waking from sleep, that way 90% of the time he won't need to enter one, since you should just sleep the pc instead of shutting it down.
And you can also set a 'pin', which is just 3-4 numbers, easier to remember and doesn't require changing the hotmail password, which is more dangerous to do. Set the pin and write it on a postit attached to the monitor.
I also recommend setting his pc not to require a password when waking from sleep, that way 90% of the time he won't need to enter one, since you should just sleep the pc instead of shutting it down.
And you can also set a 'pin', which is just 3-4 numbers, easier to remember and doesn't require changing the hotmail password, which is more dangerous to do. Set the pin and write it on a postit attached to the monitor.
Windows 8 will not allow a straight boot to WMC to the best of my knowledge. One of the MANY things I hate about 8
I set my son's PC to boot to WMC to see if it would work right after I installed Windows 8 on it. I thought that it was not doing it either, but then I found out it WAS actually booting to Media Center; the problem was that since Windows 8 would only boot to the Start screen you couldn't see that Media Center was actually up and running until you went to Desktop. But now with 8.1 where I can set it to boot to the Desktop then if Media Center is set to start automatically when Windows is started then it should come right up. That is one thing I plan on trying this weekend.
ManofGod
[H]F Junkie
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It is a pretty straightforward affair. Netplwiz, select proper account (Usually the one that is selected right off the bat), uncheck require password, type in twice, click ok, done. I am not certain what you did prior to this but this always works. (I do that on my home computer only though, not my work computer or tablet.)
SuperSubZero
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I hope that by the time a "kid" of today enters the workforce, they aren't still relying on passwords. Science can do better.
I'd encourage learning to type the password. Eventually, it will matter. The first time a kid over takes over the pc and logs into their facebook account or gaming account, or sends email as them., you'll want some security. Even a simple password is better than none. That being said, if you want a dead simple password, don't make it the live/hotmail account password. Even better would be removing their admin rights.
Use a password removal program that has a boot disc feature. After that you boot with cd/usb that you created then go into the program then go to Administrator then remove the password for that. Most programs can't remove the windows 8 password but when the program tries to it will activate the account by removing the disabled status of the account. Doing the password reset on the administrator account will cause that account previously disabled to appear at startup then after that you get to go to profiles in control panel and change the password on the other accounts. After your done you can go to command prompt with administrative privileges. Type in this and restart the computer to disable the account again.
net user administrator /active:no
You can't change an account though that was made online. Only local account passwords can be changed pretty much. You have to deal with his actual account password on his account online if it was an online account that was used.
net user administrator /active:no
You can't change an account though that was made online. Only local account passwords can be changed pretty much. You have to deal with his actual account password on his account online if it was an online account that was used.