Account of the last owner won't go away ?

I got this laptop (see my specs) from my uncle who already built his own gaming PC. He gave it to me as is, and the only files inside are just gaming stuffs (Steam, Walkthrough Docs, Cheats, etc.) nothing important.

I requested my more tech-savvy friend to reinstall windows on this machine, but he refused saying if there's nothing big wrong with it, then it's unnecessary. So I went on deleting stuffs, including my uncle's account. From settings app to control panel, all I see is just my account, there's no other account, not even guest ones.

Yet, every time I turn this laptop on, the first account that greet me is my unc old email... It's not until I either click my own profile picture on the bottom left corner or wait for the lock screen to stop displaying the account, then it will display my own.

I have no idea what's left that I didn't do to remove that old account, and it's only on the lock screen, the account doesn't appear anywhere else. It just bothers me lol

Something new that I just realized is that when I check the Windows Version using winver command, it says that this Windows 11 is registered to my uncle's old gmail account... maybe it has something to do with that ? how do I change it ? or at least just a way to remove the nonexistent account in sign-in screen ?

check Settings > Accounts > Emails & Accounts
remove his email if linked

open command prompt and type:
what accounts show?

I would just do a built in reset of the pc and start over.


Use the remove everything option.

Then set up the pc from scratch.

The above options are valid

However, for me, whenever I take over a computer - no matter from whom - a clean install is absolute

A reset and remove everything completely wipes Windows and boots up to OOBE just like a clean install. You start fresh just like a clean install. You can do that from recovery.
settingss>system>recovery

andrew129260 said:

I would just do a built in reset of the pc and start over.

Reset Windows 11 PC

This tutorial will show you how to reset Windows 11 and Remove everything or Keep my files. You can reset Windows 11 when your PC isn’t working well and it’s been a while since you installed an app, driver, or update. Resetting reinstalls Windows 11, but lets you choose whether to keep your...

www.elevenforum.com

Use the remove everything option.

Then set up the pc from scratch.

Click to expand...

I can attest that that works just fine. The only thing that is left from the old account (my son) is what I backed up to another drive before resetting the computer.

A factory reset will only work so far on most proprietary systems before it starts reaching for old defaults. Seems to me it's pulling from the backup that was registered to the original installation. Taking full ownership of your PC is rarely advised due to security risks, but this is an entirely different matter. There is a reason why people don't want to set up their Windows Installation with a Microsoft account. You are always safer with a local account. Safer from adware, safer from bloatware, and safer from bots that "think" they know better than you do. This doesn't mean that you can't make a Microsoft account later and access it from your local account. You will certainly have more control of your PC doing it this way.

Personally, I would do a fresh install on a separate, clean drive. If Windows asks for a different key after letting it scan for one I'd get a different activation key. But that's just me. User preference prevails.

br0kensp3ar said:

....or at least just a way to remove the nonexistent account in sign-in screen ?

Click to expand...

A nonexistant account on the sign-in screen is usually due to having set it up to automatically sign in. Remove it from automatic sign in and it should go away.