
I am locked out of my PC because of Windows 8 Login catch-22 - ionwake
I wanted to use my calendar in Windows Metro.   No biggie right?  Wrong.<p>I get forced to create a &quot;microsoft account&quot;, I have to come with a random email address, which I do, followed by a password, equally as long and random. I do.
It asks me for my phone, I say no thanks later.<p>I reboot my PC.<p>My login has suddenly changed.  It displays the email address I just used to setup my calendar.  My password doesn&#x27;t work.<p>Panic.<p>I try again, now it has done a remote server checked, determined I have had too many tries and asks me to use an ONLINE recovery sysem OR Enter in my last password.<p>There was no last password, it is a brand new top of the range laptop.  Ofcourse it wont let me enter in no password.<p>I go online with my 2nd laptop, I click on password recovery.<p>It asks me for &quot;subjects&quot; and &quot;emails in my sent folder&quot; to verify my ID.<p>I have none, it is a brand new account.<p>I just received this in the mail.  Notice it is &#x27;unmonitored&#x27; and there is are contact details for me to get ahold of someone, seeing as this is apparently all automated.<p>&quot;Microsoft Account - Unmonitored Automated Email &lt;unmonitored@microsoft.com&gt;
16:06 (11 minutes ago)<p>We recently received a request to recover your Microsoft account <i></i><i></i><i>@outlook.com. Unfortunately, our automated system has determined that the information you provided was not sufficient for us to validate your account ownership.  Microsoft takes the security and privacy of our customers very seriously, and our commitment to protecting your personal information requires that we take the utmost care in ensuring that you are the account owner.&quot;<p>I no longer have a computer I can use, which my professional life depends on, I might even get fired over not being to use my computer today.<p>Please let me make this clear - there was no indication at any point the password for my MACHINE was going to be reset to be this new password I was using for an &quot;Outlook&quot; email address I was prompted to create when trying to use the Calendar application, which is why I naturally did not spend time memorizing these details.<p>WTF microsoft.  All this, without warning, because I wanted to try and sync my calendar.<p></i><i></i>UPDATE - Please if there is ANYONE at Microsoft who can help me access my machine please contact me, I am ofcourse using the same IP address as I did when I signed up for the account, and remember just about all of the credentials I used when signing up. ( I dont remember the password perfectly obviously).  <i></i><p>Update 2: RECEIVED 2ND REJECTION
Microsoft Account - Unmonitored Automated Email &lt;unmonitored@microsoft.com&gt; 16:15 (20 minutes ago)
to me We recently received a request to recover your Microsoft account *@outlook.com. Unfortunately, our automated system has determined that the information you provided was not sufficient for us to validate your account ownership. Microsoft takes the security and privacy of our customers very seriously, and our commitment to protecting your personal information requires that we take the utmost care in ensuring that you are the account owner.
======
yuhong
There is the trick to boot from another media, rename utilman.exe (in
system32) to something else, copy cmd.exe to utilman.exe. Reboot to original
installation, then Win-U will open a command prompt. use net user _username
password_ /add then net localgroup administrators _username_ /add to create a
new local account. Don't forget to rename your backup of utilman.exe back
afterwards. You may have to take ownership then change permissions in order to
do so.

~~~
RexRollman
When my father died last year, I came into possession of his laptop, which was
secured by s MS account. While the hack you are talking about allowed me to
create a second admin account and recover files, it would not allow me to
reset his personal Microsoft account password.

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svennek
My advice: Boot a linux live distro (like Knoppix or systemrescue cd), move
your data to an external harddrive.

Reinstall OS (factory reset?) and learn :)

~~~
ionwake
Thank you, this is a great idea, I just wonder if I will lose all of my
registry settings.

~~~
PeterWhittaker
You may be able to role back to a registry before the offending change.

I did this once when an AVG update borked my system before a vacation: Got
back, could not boot. Googling confirmed a significant AVG bug, repaired
within hours of my applying the update.

Booted Knoppix, found a registry file dated just before the update (Windows at
the time saved the last handful - this was XP several years ago), deleted the
more recent ones, may have done some renaming, rebooted whilst holding my
breath.

All was well.

Linux, the ultimate Windows recovery tool.

------
greyskull
Is it common for people to create accounts without noting the credentials? I'm
not saying MS is without fault here, but I would think one would at least note
the details long enough to get what one needs.

~~~
DanBC
It depends what the account is!

I'm a bit scared about all my accounts. I do mot currently understand which
account depends on what bit of information.

That leaves me vulnerable. For example, if this phone dies and Google starts
asking me for a password and 2FA I have no idea what I'd do.

I have several pieces of hardware that I use to login across a wide range of
accounts. I guess I need to print out a list of passwords and 2FA codes and
set two phones as backup IDs.

I really wish someone would just fix authentication. :-/

~~~
riking
Go print a set of backup codes for google! It'll be 10 9-digit numbers, use
them when you lose your phone.

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pavlov
Since it's a brand new laptop, just reinstall Windows? There's probably a
restore partition that you can boot into which will do that.

~~~
Osiris
This is what I was going to suggest. There is an advanced boot option to
restore back to factory default, assuming the computer came with Windows 8
pre-installed.

~~~
ionwake
I am going to have to do this , the annoyance is I just spent the weekend
installing my IDE and DBs = ( The amount of time I have spent setting up the
machine, over two days, if I count it as "work time" which I won't, would add
up to approximately half the price of the laptop itself.

~~~
VLM
This is a good advertisement for Puppet as a configuration engine. Set up a
box, get it talking to the puppetmaster, tell the puppetmaster you've got a
dev box (which implies all that IDE and DB stuff) sit back and wait and it
just works.

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jnevill
Similar issues with xbox. The stupid crap Microsoft makes you jump through to
recover an account that is only set up to make on of their pieces of software
or hardware work is insane. It took me two days to get access back to my
account so I could unlock a game for my 7 year old on his xbox. Microsoft's
security requirements are garbage.

~~~
DanBC
You'll have similar problems with Apple and Google.

------
colanderman
Who is your employer, that they would fire you because one of your
(apparently) two usable computers is out of commission for a day?

I don't know the specifics of your situation so I could be wrong, but unless
your employer has actually said "I will fire you if you ever have computer
issues, grr!", your job is probably not in jeopardy. Shit happens, employers
understand.

(If in fact your employer _is_ enough of a dick to fire you over this, then,
ouch… good luck!)

------
Intermernet
If you press escape on the login screen do you still have the option to login
with your old account, or has it changed the name and password on your
existing profile?

~~~
ionwake
Nothing happens when I press escape. I have the same thumbnail and name, but
now I see the new outlook email address under it.

~~~
Intermernet
Damn. I'd recommend offline backup and re-install, or try NTPasswd
([http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/](http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/))
to reset and enable the Administrator account, then password reset your
account from there.

It will almost certainly break the MS account sync, and I'm not sure what
state your account will be in with regards to online services etc, but it
should at least allow you to access your account on the PC.

------
arenaninja
I was wary of the whole e-mail thing... It does state at some point in tiny
letters or some such that it is changing your system credentials to the
e-mail/pw combo, so I decided it was best to not set it up (I don't want to
type an e-mail, I might not even want credentials).

Unfortunately I have no useful advice for you, I can only say that you have my
sympathies

~~~
ionwake
Thanks man

------
Mandatum
You should try buying from their store in a country with only 1 IP. You're
required to have a MS account, but you can't create an account because the IP
has "too many" accounts created on it.

I contacted Support who told me to go do it on a public wifi.

What? Firstly, one country, one IP.

Secondly, you want me to submit my credit card details over wifi?

WTF.

------
ionwake
UPDATE 3 :

I H A V E A C C E S S

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE FOR YOUR HELP

JUST A REMINDER - Microsoft if one of my all time favorite companies, and
slips like these happen in protocols and large organisations, I hope I was
able to highlight the problem and hopefully it will be fixed soon.

Thanks again everyone!!!

~~~
QuantumGood
Congratulations! What worked? I put _everything_ into LastPass, even if manual
entry needed, and a history of changes into notes. This has saved me more than
once from unexpected situations.

~~~
ionwake
Having been the victim of several hacks I am paranoid to the extent I never
keep my passes together, or online. but yes manually recording it somewhere
would have been wise.

Better yet coming up with a good protocol myself for password generation!

I solved it by a combination of rebooting the PC to stop the "You have tried
too many times" catch and then essentially guessing different permutations
from would I thought it was. Eventually I cracked my own pass = )

Funnily enough I type so fast I had to go through this process 2 times before
successfully resetting it

------
Someone1234
I had a very similar problem with Skype (also now a Microsoft company).

I had been using this Skype account for years. Suddenly one day out of the
blue my account was suspended and I was asked to recover it, no biggy I
thought, since I had access to the email account AND didn't set it up with
gibberish (i.e. real name, real address, etc).

Here is what Skype asked for (with remarks):

    
    
          - Contact email (easy)    
          - Account Creation year (who knows this?!)    
          - Country of registration (easy)    
          - Payment history (huge problem, discussed below)    
          - Skype 3 contacts (buggy, needs the Skype usernames, not "friendly" names)   
    

On the face of it this seems "easy." Except it is super buggy/finicky and
Skype's support has zero alternatives. In fact they told me to register a new
Skype account if I couldn't complete the form(!). They even sent that reply to
my registered email address.

The main issue I had with the above form was, Account Creation Year (I didn't
know it!), Skype contacts (it needs either Skype name (e.g. BSmith123) or
email address, NOT profile names/friendly names e.g. "Bob Smith").

Payment history is just horrifyingly terrible. I tried my current credit card
(nope), current debit card (nope), old debit card (nope), and even somehow
tracked down my long since cancelled old credit card (nope). I also tried
other with a comment (nope).

After being without access to my Skype account for several weeks, I tried
setting my Payment History to "Never paid for Skype" even though I actually
had (many many times)! Worked. After logging in I had an expired credit card
on the account (one of the ones I tried several times).

In order to finally gain access to an account I lost access to for reasons I
still don't understand, I had to:

    
    
          - Search through several boxes looking for old cards    
          - Pull down a backup of my Skype profile and extract Skype profile names for my contacts using an SQLite tool     
          - Search tons of historic emails for my creation date (never did find it)   
          - Contact support half a dozen times (they were utterly unhelpful).

~~~
mbrundle
I had almost exactly this issue with Skype earlier this year - they locked my
account from using credit, meaning that although I can still log in and make
free Skype-to-Skype calls, I still have $10 of Skype credit that it prevents
me from using (as I got locked out soon after an auto topup). From what I
could tell, my account was compromised for a week, and there were several
spurious messages being sent from it, until I finally realised and changed the
account password. I emailed customer support several times to unlock it, and
provided a whole host of legacy data about the account (which had been set up
back in 2005) and how it had been used over that time, but none of it helped
them to confirm my identity. Out of frustration, I wrote to them to get them
to point out exactly where it said that they could take this type action. They
couldn't give me a clear answer, and like the above poster, they suggested I
just create a new account. Here's the (almost kafkaesque) replies I received
from them:

    
    
      > Hello,
      >
      > I understand that your concern. Please see all the 
      > answers to the following questions. 
      > 
      > 1. To have this issue escalated to a senior manager.
      >
      > Please be informed that this case has already been 
      > investigated by the higher department and the result 
      > is that the account should be remain restricted.
      >
      > 2. To have it pointed out where in the Terms and 
      > Conditions it says that you're unable to tell me 
      > the underlying reason for the restriction.
      >
      > I am sorry but we cannot disclose the specific reason 
      > why the account is suspended. You may just refer to 
      > Terms of Use number 11. 
      > 
      > 3. To have it pointed out where in the Terms and 
      > Conditions it says that you're unable to refund me 
      > the money on my account. OR to have the $10 credit 
      > on the account refunded to my Paypal account.
      > 
      > Kindly review Terms of Use number 10.6. 
      > 
      > 4. To have all my payment methods removed from the 
      > account, to avoid the potential for abuse.
      >
      > I would like to apologize but we no longer have the
      > option to make changes on the account since it has
      > already been suspended due to this kind of concern.
      >
      >5. To have the account completely shut down, not just 
      > restricted. (OR to have it pointed out in where in 
      > the Terms and Conditions it says you're unable to do this.)
      >
      > It is already our internal rule that we cannot make 
      > any changes on the account like cancelling the 
      > account once it has been suspended or restricted. 
      >
      > I hope that I was able to answer all your inquiry and 
      > I would like to apologize if we can no longer assist 
      > you further regarding your concern.
      >
      > Best regards,
      >
      > Diana B.
      > Skype Customer Service
    

====

    
    
      > Hello,
      > 
      > I am sorry to know that your account has been restricted. 
      > I understand how important it is to recover your account.
      > However, your account has been detected that there are 
      > some activities which are contrary to Skype's Terms and
      > Conditions have taken place via your Skype account.
      > 
      > Following our investigation, we are unable to reinstate
      > your account. Please understand that we are unable to
      > explain the specific reason for restricting your account
      > and this account needs to be remain restricted.
      >
      > However, you are always welcome to create new account
      > to continuously enjoy the free services and features
      > from Skype.
      >
      > Best regards,
      >
      > Diana B.
      > Skype Customer Service
    
    

To add insult to injury, I notified Paypal (which I used for the auto topup
payments) to reverse the charge, owing to misconduct by Microsoft in refusing
to unlock the account. After a week in which they did "their own
investigation", where they didn't even contact me for any corroborary info,
they refused to issue a refund. All I got was this 2-line reply:

    
    
      > We have concluded our investigation into this case. Unfortunately, at this
      > time we are unable to decide this claim in your favor.
    

Made me think that they're secretly in cahoots with Microsoft. I was pretty
livid about the whole experience, and it's seriously damaged my trust in
Microsoft services.

------
haliphax
I've been caught in this catch-22 due to my hotmail account getting hacked a
while back, but it's not tied to my Windows login -- just everything else to
do with Microsoft. I guess I'll actually have to get it squared away soon,
because it's taken down my Twitter account (minus one OAuth-authorized app
that I can still use) and will soon take down Dreamspark, as well. :( Terrible
system! I only ever used my hotmail account for MSN, so I can't answer any of
their e-mail-related questions.

------
cozy1955
I am having the same problem! I have been trying for several days to sign in
to outlook to retrieve my email w/o success.They keep asking for my code to
protect my security which they say they will send me one by phone..I've yet to
receive it. After several attempts this a.m. was told too many attempts to
obtain code and to try again in a week. What am I doing wrong? Fortunately I
can retrieve email and f.b. on my kindle. I am not a computer guru so very
frustrated!

------
benologist
If you get past this you can disable using your outlook account in lieu of one
actually on your PC. I found the default to be incredibly annoying having to
type in the stuff 1password generated.

[http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/windows-and-office/quick-
ti...](http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/windows-and-office/quick-tip-change-
to-a-local-account-in-windows-81/)

------
ansible
Well, for future reference, it is still possible to create a local-only
account with Windows 8. The process is made intentionally obscure and
cumbersome. However, I always do this, and don't have my login account tied to
Microsoft.

------
chrisBob
Is there a Microsoft store that you can visit with this laptop? I have heard
they provide free tech support even to computers not purchased in store.

~~~
ionwake
Unfortunately no stores in UK

------
mariusz79
[http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/](http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/)

------
Bahamut
Call their technical support.

~~~
ionwake
There is no number!

~~~
Moto7451
Sure there is: 1 (800) 642-7676 should be their CS line

~~~
edoceo
+1 425 882 8080

------
calewis
lol

------
VLM
"which my professional life depends on"

windows isn't ready for the enterprise

