Windows 10 account issues
March 12, 2022 8:37 AM Subscribe
My 11yo son has logged into my windows 10 PC and now there are parental controls everywhere.
I have been running this PC for years. I have a local administrator account on it, not connected to a Microsoft account. My son wanted to install Minecraft on it, and so we went to do that. At some point, he was prompted for a Microsoft account, and entered his credentials. Now when I open settings, I see his email with 'administrator' underneath. All of my desktop icons are there, so he hasn't logged into or created a new user account.
My main issue here is that now there are parental controls on my computer. I've had to give his account permission to use Chrome on the PC by logging into my microsoft account from my iphone. I've logged him out of the Microsoft store, and rebooted, but it's still there. It seems like his account has now been connected to my local admin account, which would be a big problem. Thanks
I have been running this PC for years. I have a local administrator account on it, not connected to a Microsoft account. My son wanted to install Minecraft on it, and so we went to do that. At some point, he was prompted for a Microsoft account, and entered his credentials. Now when I open settings, I see his email with 'administrator' underneath. All of my desktop icons are there, so he hasn't logged into or created a new user account.
My main issue here is that now there are parental controls on my computer. I've had to give his account permission to use Chrome on the PC by logging into my microsoft account from my iphone. I've logged him out of the Microsoft store, and rebooted, but it's still there. It seems like his account has now been connected to my local admin account, which would be a big problem. Thanks
Best answer: I've had an issue kind of like this, (but it wasn't a child account though). My solution was to 'sign in with a local account'. It's weird the option is not there under 'your info'. I wonder if its because child accounts disable it? According to this post on Microsoft answers from a person with a similar issue, the 'sign in with a local account' should still be there, though. It does give some options to try and recover so that link is what I'd try first.
If that doesn't work, hmm, there's a few things you can try but it's hard to troubleshoot without being there. Are you logging in with his account? Is there multiple accounts under settings>email and accounts? His and yours? If there's more than one, try signing in to yours instead.
If it's the only one there then if you don't have a Microsoft account at all, you can create one for you under 'Email and Accounts>Add An Account' if the option is there. Hopefully it will let you create it as an admin account with full controls. Once that's done you can presumably have that one be the 'main' account of the PC and his should be secondary. You should be able to remove his account then. Then on the newly created account, you can make it local again by using the 'sign in with local account' option again, provided it comes back. Or if you have a Microsoft account already, you should be able to log in with it and maybe do the same thing.
If that doesn't work, I wonder if you can un-restrict his account age, and if doing that will let you admin controls back somehow? Is this an account he already had or one he made newly? One solution might be to log in to his account via: https://account.microsoft.com/ -- once in, you can check 'your info' and change his birth date to yours, and see if that lets you access admin controls on your computer, and hopefully the 'sign in with a local account' will become available again. But that's a long shot, and I'm not sure if it will even let you change the info on his account because child accounts have different rules. If you are managing his account with your Microsoft account you might be able to do something at: https://account.microsoft.com/family/ and either disable his account or remove some controls or something.
Lastly, if none of that helps here is a Microsoft answers that details what to do if the 'sign in with local account' is missing: Wrong Microsoft Account.
Sorry I couldn't be more help.
posted by Dimes at 9:45 AM on March 13, 2022
If that doesn't work, hmm, there's a few things you can try but it's hard to troubleshoot without being there. Are you logging in with his account? Is there multiple accounts under settings>email and accounts? His and yours? If there's more than one, try signing in to yours instead.
If it's the only one there then if you don't have a Microsoft account at all, you can create one for you under 'Email and Accounts>Add An Account' if the option is there. Hopefully it will let you create it as an admin account with full controls. Once that's done you can presumably have that one be the 'main' account of the PC and his should be secondary. You should be able to remove his account then. Then on the newly created account, you can make it local again by using the 'sign in with local account' option again, provided it comes back. Or if you have a Microsoft account already, you should be able to log in with it and maybe do the same thing.
If that doesn't work, I wonder if you can un-restrict his account age, and if doing that will let you admin controls back somehow? Is this an account he already had or one he made newly? One solution might be to log in to his account via: https://account.microsoft.com/ -- once in, you can check 'your info' and change his birth date to yours, and see if that lets you access admin controls on your computer, and hopefully the 'sign in with a local account' will become available again. But that's a long shot, and I'm not sure if it will even let you change the info on his account because child accounts have different rules. If you are managing his account with your Microsoft account you might be able to do something at: https://account.microsoft.com/family/ and either disable his account or remove some controls or something.
Lastly, if none of that helps here is a Microsoft answers that details what to do if the 'sign in with local account' is missing: Wrong Microsoft Account.
Sorry I couldn't be more help.
posted by Dimes at 9:45 AM on March 13, 2022
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posted by thenormshow at 8:51 AM on March 12, 2022