Windows 10 How do I re-enable another account on Win10?

Nomad of Norad

Extraordinary Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2009
My elderly dad's machine got updated from Win7 to Win10 without me anticipating it, and it brought a raft of issues that I'm having to deal with, but I'm just going to focus on one of them for this thread: I had TWO user accounts set up on the machine under Win7, the one that was originally created when we got the machine and is in his name, and a second one I'd created to fix a weird issue that happened at one point to his account. I had left that 2nd account in place, but the original account had more stuff stored on it. Anyway, when it updated the system to Win10, it latched onto whichever account appeared alphabetically first.... which was that SECOND account that I'd made to fix the other account.

I vaguely remember there being a warning in some article somewhere that it would do something like that, and that one should turn off any extra accounts so that the update will latch onto the one you WANT it to... but I didn't anticipate that Dad would receive a "Let me update you to Win10" dialog in the near term and say to himself, "Sure, why not? >>click!!<<"

** FACEDESKS **

So, anyway, IS there an easy way to get that account back re-enabled so I can select it from power up? I can get to the account settings pane, and I've gone to the Family & Friends selection (or whatever the heck that one was called) and the account is there, but there doesn't seem to be any kind of checkbox that looks like its related to this, there's only enable and disable, and it looks like the other account is enabled.

Note that I have NOT turned on any kind of Microsoft web account thing on that machine yet, I had clicked on the do-this-later button, so if switching between local accounts is dependent on doing that FIRST, it also brings up the issue of not wanting that Microsoft account tied to the 2nd account I'D made. oO

So, where do I go from here? Oo
 
IS there an easy way to get that account back re-enabled so I can select it from power up?
If you have a image backup of before you upgraded yes... otherwise no, not really
So, where do I go from here? Oo

I'd make a fresh install of WX and then make that (new account) the Microsoft id... the old now upgraded to wx boot and this new fresh WX boot will get along together just fine as a dual boot if you don't want to lose the old settings yet.

... You can of course wipe the lot and get w7 installed as a new boot to start fresh back at the begining... which is offen the best option with Mums/ Dads but you know him better than I do and perhaps he is a facebook GOD!
 
Are both accounts converted to W10 or only one of them?
From what I see here is that both accounts appear in the bottom left corner of the W10 login screen. Click one either one and log in and it gets converted.
And is not there a C:\Windows.old directory with almost everything?

Hope this helps also,
Henk
 
Well, in my case, when I turn the machine on, it just launches into the one account.

It used be, when this was a Win7 machine, that when you turned the machine on, both my account and his account would show up to select from, and you'd click one or the other to log in. Now, when you turn the machine on, it just logs straight into my account instead of his, with no account buttons showing up at all during startup.

How would I check to see if the other account got converted?

If I go through Control Panel into User Accounts, the other one shows up in there, and there's the option to deactivate and activate it (and it appears to be activated, there), I just can't do much of anything else with it.
 
In the bottom lefthand corner of on the login screen, where you enter your password, the other account should show up. Click on it!

If you don't use passwords, you will not see the login screen. In that case just change your account to using a password and next time you log in you get a change to select the other account and upgrade it.

Hope this helps
 
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Grrrr.... they forced you to HAVE to use passwords to enable the showing of multiple accounts? I can imagine needing them in a commercial environment where they don't want someone walking in off the street and stealing your trade secrets or something, but in a family household they're pointless.
 
Just after answering to you, I realized that once signed in automaticly, almost launched into an account, you also can sign off to go to that screen.

But have you upgraded that other account?
 
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