When the free W10 was being rolled out I put it on a clunker DT PC I had about just to try it and learn a bit.

Hated it but did a bit of stuff then lost interest for months. I have just tried to fire it up and, as expected, it asked for a password. I had it "Dymo'ed" to the top of the case. Wrong! Tried several times but still would not work.

I worked my way through the Forgotten Password procedure and got to the point of "a code has been sent to the email address you provided". Checked HP laptop, no code. Waited some minutes, no code. I have been through the procedure several times and each time, "reset code sent" but it never arrives.

In desperation I managed (dunno how quite!) to get the machine to do a reset then re-install. Well over an hour later. The screen shows the same email address and wants a password which does not of course work.

Last night I was in contact with a Windows tech forum and explained the above. A guy tried to help and then I got a polite but stern warning about "not policy to help crack passwords". But I don't want that. I KNOW the original password I just want to know why Ms won't email me the reset code as they say they are doing.

Dave.

That's a tricky one. Assuming you are giving the right email address (spelling errors are the most common source of these issue), is that email address corresponding to the user which is installed on your Windows machine? If you have created a local user, MS will know nothing about it.

When you restarted, did you use the "Reset this PC" option? (you need to enter the boot options to do that, think it's pushing F12 while booting).

Many people wanting to recover passwords do so with malicious intentions, so the process is intentionally made cumbersome, with lots of checks (not just MS, but most companies do that) and - again, intentionally - designed not to reveal a great deal of why it fails, because that often offers crackers information that helps them break in. You may have noticed for example that if you put a wrong username or password, most systems don't tell you precisely which one is wrong...

Checked the spam folder? So many bogus MS emails floating around that it's a likely location.

CS70 wrote:Assuming you are giving the right email address (spelling errors are the most common source of these issue), is that email address corresponding to the user which is installed on your Windows machine? If you have created a local user, MS will know nothing about it.

If I'm reading this right and there was a local account, he wouldn't be having this issue.

Sounds like it's locked out of an "MS online linked account" currently?

If so, I'm afraid that Dave is fast learning why I refuse to sign up for one.

Pete Kaine wrote:

CS70 wrote:Assuming you are giving the right email address (spelling errors are the most common source of these issue), is that email address corresponding to the user which is installed on your Windows machine? If you have created a local user, MS will know nothing about it.

If I'm reading this right and there was a local account, he wouldn't be having this issue.

Sounds like it's locked out of an "MS online linked account" currently?

If so, I'm afraid that Dave is fast learning why I refuse to sign up for one.

You are quite correct Pete. Just a week ago I received a Lenovo T430 laptop and setup such an account BECAUSE it was "recommended". This is a policy I almost always follow with computer matters, installing a DAW for instance, since I am a numpty and assume the advice from the "professionals" is best, generally this has worked out ok.

However, when I installed the W10 freebie I did setup a local account (it would seem?) since I just used a password which happens to be my wife's confirmation name and is both unforgettable but does not appear on any official documents. As I said, the word is stuck on top of the case (I have used variants of it for other things)

The reset I did was one that leaves my files intact but I don't have anything on there I cannot live without so would another "reset" that removed all files set me back to square one?

BTW. I ran the Ms password recovery system on this W7 laptop and that time Ms DID send a code. No good for the other machine though and repeating the exercise with the desktop still resulted in no code being emailed back.

Dave.

Pete Kaine wrote:

CS70 wrote:Assuming you are giving the right email address (spelling errors are the most common source of these issue), is that email address corresponding to the user which is installed on your Windows machine? If you have created a local user, MS will know nothing about it.

If I'm reading this right and there was a local account, he wouldn't be having this issue.

Sounds like it's locked out of an "MS online linked account" currently?

If so, I'm afraid that Dave is fast learning why I refuse to sign up for one.

Dont remember the W10 installation, it asks for password only for linked accounts? I read it only that W10 had asked a password at installation and the one Dymo'ed on the case isn't right..

But yeah it's a pain in the bottom.

CS70, as I recall the chain of events..I booted up the PC the very first time and got the Windows screen asking for a simple password, no email nonsense. Naturally I typed in the one on the case that I had been using since I installed the freebie.
That was refused. I tried again making very sure to get the spelling correct, still refused. I then started the "forgotten password" option and that is when my email address came up.

From that point on I was in a sea of woes of rebooting and typing in oddly shaped letters and when I got it "right" I was rewarded by "a code has been sent to the email address provided", except it never was. (no, not in spam)

I am going to have to do a "clean" install I think and I dare say I shall lose my free go as I have no way to extract a product code.

Dave.

ef37a wrote:You are quite correct Pete. Just a week ago I received a Lenovo T430 laptop and setup such an account BECAUSE it was "recommended". This is a policy I almost always follow with computer matters, installing a DAW for instance, since I am a numpty and assume the advice from the "professionals" is best, generally this has worked out ok.

Normally I'd agree it's the best course scenario, but my privacy concerns stop me handing over all the keys to the castle. By you using a Live account, they can run the same tracking and advertising metrics that Google and Apple collect, and honestly the fewer firms that do that to me, the better,.. they certainly don't do themselves any favours by making it all more awkward than it really needs to be too.

In this instance when you sign in currently, you're doing so using a Live account, which is cloud linked. Trying to pull a password as far as I'm aware isn't going to happen as it's encrypted locally but otherwise locked to the cloud id.

The plus point is that it's more secure... the minus point in this situation is that it's more secure.

Windows 7 used a far less secure local account design and as you note it was relatively easy to get into it.

ef37a wrote:I am going to have to do a "clean" install I think and I dare say I shall lose my free go as I have no way to extract a product code.

The good news is that you shouldn't need too. The way it's unique is that it locks to the first hardware combination that it's installed onto. If the main hardware set of that machine hasn't changed, in theory, it should boot straight into windows on a clean install.

Fingers crossed it does its job correctly.

Thanks (again!) Pete,
I have just finished downloading the USB W10 install to an 8G stick. GREAT trepidation! I DO not want W10 on this HP laptop! All went fine however.

My next concern is that the old desktop might not boot from the stick? I have managed to find out that it boots initially from the DVD drive. That is probably a hangover from years ago when I used to have problems with XP and made sure all PCs were left in BIOS so they looked for a optical drive boot first.

If it won't boot from USB I shall just have to BUY some DL discs! I have oodles of standard DVD-R and DVD-RW but have never bothered with DL. Why can't they just let you use two as was always the case?

I shall be poking the stick in in the next hour.

Dave.

You might have to rework the boot order in the BIOS a bit, and you might need to be choosy with the USB port (use one attached to the board and round the rear), but most machines in the last decade have been able to detect and boot from USB drives, so you should be fine.

Pete Kaine wrote:

CS70 wrote:
If I'm reading this right and there was a local account, he wouldn't be having this issue.

Sounds like it's locked out of an "MS online linked account" currently?

If so, I'm afraid that Dave is fast learning why I refuse to sign up for one.

Same here, local account everytime, trust an online provision and you're casting fate to the wind

Update.

Could not get it to boot from a stick so decided to re-install W7 and then run W10 from that?
More problems. "It" insisted on running chdsk and that took ages. I forgot W7 does not tell you to remove the DVD at one point so it went through the install loop again!

Now the PC want to run a disc check at every boot. I have a print out of how to fix it but have not got back to that yet. I can stop the check and then W7 comes up but the wireless dongle will not install, no drivers and I need to hook up a patch cable. I hope the onboard network adaptor has drivers!

Dave.

You really are better off finding a way of making that clean install of W10 and not doing an inline upgrade, a lot of these recent issues with service pack updates have been hitting inline users the hardest. Did you ensure that you picked one of the rear black USB ports, normally the up-most (by the PS2 ports) tend to be the most successful.

The fact that W10 won't install and W7 is going bonkers may also suggest you have an issue there with hardware. I'd be looking to run some DOS based hardware tests for a piece of mind at this point, memtest86 & the relevant drive checking software if it exists.

Also, try unplugging any drive in the system that isn't going to be the OS drive during the install process. Sometimes it'll throw a strop if the new OS drive isn't the primary one on the drive controller and whilst it doesn't appear to be the case here (the symptoms don't obviously fit it) I'm not going to rule it out of being a possible complication that can otherwise be easily avoided.

Yes Pete the computer does have two SATA drives in it.

You might have gathered by now that it is quite an old machine, 8yrs+ and I really don't want to take up more of anyone's time with the matter. I shall unhook the drives in turn and see how that plays then battle on as best I can, just bugs me that it was fine a few weeks ago then..Booof! PITA!

I shall get back to it later today and get a copper net connection sorted as well.

Dave.