Problem with suddenly changed password on windows 11 start up.

glasskuter said:

I tried every way in the world to make that text color but it never would stick using FF so I finally gave up. Today I tried it in Edge and it took. Does red look better?

Click to expand...

You should also leave a message to new users how to use like, helpful and great support

The-Hive said:

use like, helpful and great support

Click to expand...

Nah, that would be taking it too far. A simple thank you is enough. We're all here because we enjoy trying to help others. If someone posts their fix and it happened to be something I suggested, I would feel good about it, but the recognition from the working peers on this forum is what's valuable to me because you know how much effort sometimes goes into helping someone solve a problem. In the same vein, if I suggest something out in left field, I expect other members to call me on it as long as they will do it respectfully and don't try to make me out as a total idiot, which has happened. Like I said, we're all in the same boat.

@glasskuter Woops, it wasn't meant that way, I meant that if you help someone or suggest things and never hear anything back you don't know if they took your advice or if it helped or cured their problem

The-Hive said:

never hear anything back

Click to expand...

Yeah, but that's what I hoped to accomplish with my signature without being pushy. Since I joined this forum I have seen all the effort folks have made to help but 80% of the time threads are left dangling with the responders left wondering.. Hmm. Maybe I will change that signature up a bit. Stay tuned.

One of the first things they taught us in Malware Removal school is never help someone login to a computer, because you don't know if they are a hacker or some kid trying to get into their mom or dad's computer !! Not sure if this apply's to her case or not ! I'm having a hard time understanding what exactly she wants, i think she say's she can log into her computer but only 1 of the drives that she has a password or pin for ! Is that your understanding glasskutter ??
Chuck

If I'm not mistaken doesn't one have to use a MS account to use a pin? If so couldn't they use the I forgot my password and have MS send them a temp password to the email address they used to make their MS account with?

flashh4 said:

never help someone login to a computer

Click to expand...

That's very true, but hackers know how to do this already and have no need to ask . As far as it being a kid, of course there's always that chance, but there's no information found here that can't be found elsewhere if one looks hard enough. In this particular case, desperation practically bled from the post. Sometimes, we have to go with our gut and I went with mine. Post #17 is my read on the lady's situation.

Winuser said:

use a MS account

Click to expand...

That's one of the big issues here. She has yet to answer what kind of account she uses. Both @Porthos and I have asked.

Sometimes it's harder to find the right fix to login, there are many ways & you have to look in the right places to find a fix that works ! There are at least 10 i know of, Hope she comes back so she can give more info !
Chuck

glasskuter said:

That's one of the big issues here. She has yet to answer what kind of account she uses. Both @Porthos and I have asked.

Click to expand...

Can someone setup a pin without a MS account? I'm thinking that a pin is a part of the Windows Hello and an account is needed.

I am REALLY embarrassed guys/gals.. I have windows10 on both installations (1 per SSD). I dont know why win 11 got in my head, doh. Still I imagine it couldnt be THAT different.

Also the newest is that I can login to my favored install, but the ONLY way out is to load up a drive that will have a key.,, it has it set for Drive F being the key (thats my external drive).. and as soon as I try it it denies me. I have been working on it for the entirety for a day.

Please forgive me for the mistake,and if my post needs to be moved , I understand. Please don't delete though because it has gotten worse. The windows install that does work on a superficial level not only wont let me play games i was able to finagle it to play yesterday, EVERYTHING wants an admin password. I tried all day desperate guessing and trying to get past the windows login screen to no avail. I know its frowned upon, but if some kind soul would help, I would send them cryptocurrency for their time. I will lose many programs ifI were to format ,and I can't get into half of them now.

I am now just getting off work to reply to your suggestions. So I will be reading shortly. Thank you so much, and if anyone can help, bless them. My elderly mom and dad use my computer from time to time, but havent in some weeks,sonoway they madea mistake.

Thank *ALL* of you for your help,it's invaluable. I simply cant afford 280$ an hour whichisthe going rate for traveling techs. I have a feeling its one ofthose things that once you get it , you feel foolish for not have figured the problem out. Take care everyone, whether you have an answer for me or not,and early merry christmas!

Winuser said:

Can someone setup a pin without a MS account

Click to expand...

You know, you are right. I need to remove the part about setting up a pin in my instructions. Thanks for catching that for me.

@FatPat No one here is compensated in any way for their efforts nor do we ever have direct access to someone else's computer. It is up to the mods whether your post will be moved to tenforums. That said, since your situation is declining, my only suggestion at this point is a clean install of Windows 10 (or 11). You have more going on than a simple password lockout. IF THE DRIVE IS ENCRYPTED, IT WILL HAVE TO BE REFORMATTED BEFORE YOU CAN INSTALL WINDOWS. My other suggestion is to NOT use two boot drives in your machine. If you want two operating systems you can use either dual boot or a virtual machine to accomplish what you want. That is the specific purpose of either.

To recover your personal files if you don't have them backed up, that SSD can be installed in an extender or with a cheap sata to usb adapter and the files can be copied from it. Sometimes this can be done from within windows but due to permission issues I have had better luck using a Linux distro live usb for that purpose. The only way to recover games is if their installation files are stored somewhere on that SSD. NOTE: IF THESE FILES ARE ENCRYPTED THEY CAN NOT BE RECOVERED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE ENCRYPTION KEY

I wish you luck.

@Winuser done!

@FatPat, have you tried to get MS to send a temporary password to your email address?

@glasskuter, I don't completely know how using a pin number works. I do know this much. I was having trouble using my pin number on my Acer Spin laptop that was running Windows 10. Sometimes it would work and sometimes it wasn't recognized, and I would have to use my password. I solve my problem by going into the Bios and resetting the TPM. After I restarted the laptop, I had to setup the pin number again. I never had a problem with the pin number again.

Winuser said:

I never had a problem with the pin number again

Click to expand...

To say that jumping back and forth between SSDs using passwords, pins, whatever, is highly irregular is an understatement. Back in the old days of basic bios it wouldn't have mattered much, but who the heck knows how the TPM has been interpreting all this. Then she stated her issues started with a power surge so I approached it as some form of user profile corruption. Now she says she's able to login but can't get to any of her stuff because it asks for some kind of key which may or may not be a bitlocker key. So to say I am totally confused by what is actually going on at this point is putting it mildly and I am unable to put it all together since I cannot SEE what's happening. Whatever is happening, I think she's spinning her wheels trying to fix it. IMO a clean install is the only answer and bitlocker should be turned off beforehand. If bitlocker is involved in all this and she doesn't know its key, no one can recover her data, either. If she wants multiple OS's she should do it the right way, dual boot or VM, and above all, use a Microsoft account so that she can recover her login information if need be.

I'm not sure how she managed to finally get logged in. I reread the first post and I think the Bios got corrupted when the power surge happened. If Bitlocker got turned on it wasn't by the power surge. If bitlocker is turned on and she doesn't have the key to unlock the files or folders than there isn't much she can do. Without a backup image that was made before the problem started a clean install is the only way I know of to get the computer working correctly again. Sadly, with a clean install she will lose everything and have to start over.

@Winuser I'm glad someone else sees the situation as I do. I don't understand how she finally got logged in either.