Windows 10 Windows crashed, need some help...

MikeHawthorne

Essential Member
Microsoft Community Contributor
Hi

This morning when I booted my computer I got a message, "Your computer did not boot correctly, starting repair".

It then went to a window that said "Repairing" after a minute or so it rebooted and started the whole thing over again.

After messing with it for a while I decided to just restore from my system image.
The restore process went smoothly and when done it rebooted and I received the same message again.
I was right back where I started, so...

At this point I booted into the advanced restore options and ran Refresh.

That worked but put me back at the point of reinstalling all my software again.

At one point during the process I think it asked me if I wanted to boot into a private account or and administrator account.

Thinking that Administrator was the safer option I selected that option.
It asked for my password etc, and the process completed successfully.

My computer boots fine, but now it boots directly into the Administrator account.
No boot selection screen no password screen and no user selection screen.

Once I'm logged in I can log out, get the option screen, and select my user account.
It then boots into my setup with all my preferences etc, back to normal.

OK, now for my question.

How do I get it to either boot to my User Account, or at least give me the option screen so I can select my user account to boot into?

I've looked at User Account Settings but I don't see any options as to which account it boots to?

I don't want to disable the admin account or something that makes it unbootable again.

I'm about half way through installing all my software again, I'll finish that up tomorrow.

Any advice appreciated.

Mike

PS. My account is also shown and an Administrator account.
 
Last edited:
Open a command prompt type -> whoami

This should give you the user account on the machine.

net user will tell you what accounts are on the machine.

If you're the only user on the machine, you can create a 2nd user account that is also administrator and turn your current account into a standard account.

Under Control Panel -> User Accounts "Change account type" or "Manage another account"
 
After messing with it for a while I decided to just restore from my system image.
The restore process went smoothly and when done it rebooted and I received the same message again.
I was right back where I started, so...
That is the most interesting part of the issue to me. Why do you think that happened? And how current was the image and which software did you use to produce the image?
One more AND.... I know you often keep multiple images, did you have another to try.

With respect to the other issue of it apparently defaulting to the "Admin" account.
Is that the supposedly "hidden" Administrator's account"?
If so try changing the password on that account. Open the run dialog box and type
lusrmgr.msc
Right click the account and choose set password
 
Hi Guys!

I'm concerned about why it didn't boot too.
I have no idea what happened, it was working fine when I turned it off.

I did the restore from a image made 2 weeks ago, and I didn't try any of my older ones because they were from before the latest version update.

I was just about to make a new one.

I used EaseUS TODO backup, (I've done 6 or 7 restores since I installed Windows 10 all successful) and I'm pretty sure that it completed normally and rebooted.

The problem is that I already have an account, this is my Microsoft Account.
It's the one shown in the image below as "Mike".

What it is doing is booting directly into the account "Administrator" (the one with the red arrow pointing at it) without giving me any option to boot into my regular account.

User%20Accounts_zps5xocynem.jpg

It doesn't ask for a password or anything just boots into Administrator and then I have to log out select Mike and log back in.
I'd settle for it giving me a boot selection screen but it always just gave me the option to boot into Mike before.

It seems like I used to be able to access a small screen someplace, that showed all of the accounts and let you specify which account it booted to, in earlier versions of Windows but I can seem to find anyplace to do that in Windows 10?

I'm leery of disabling the Administrator account because I don't know what it would do if I did.

Mike
 
Last edited:
It doesn't ask for a password or anything just boots into Administrator and then I have to log out select Mike and log back in.
That's why I suggested changing the password.
Enabling that account, by default does not have a password, that password is blank and the machine is booting to that, I think (and that's just me guessing again), because it is blank or has otherwise been configured to auto-logon.
If you change the password on that account then that will break the auto logon that you are experiencing, I think.
 
Hi Trouble.

OK, I'll give that a try.
I did find the interface that I was looking for, but it didn't have an option to change the boot order the way I remembered.

User%20Accounts%202_zpsczbh5dwp.jpg


I'll report back and let you know what happens.

Mike
 
Hi Guys!

That worked!
I didn't think it did at first, it just booted to the login screen for Administrator, where I could enter a password.

Then I noticed a small arrow pointing to the left.
When I pointed at that the message "Change User" popped up.

I clicked on that and it switched to a screen that showed both users, and I was able to log into my normal account.

Thanks for the help!

I guess I'll reboot and see what it does next time but even it I always have to do this it's better than having to logout and back in every time.

Mike
 
If you can reliably use your normal Microsoft ID account and it is a member of the local administrator's group then my guess is you can safely disable the Hidden Administrator account and avoid the whole multiple users thing entirely.
 
Hi Trouble.

I'm guessing you are right, but since there is a new build a couple of weeks away I think I'll just leave it as it is for now.
When I do the install then I'll try and make sure it boots to my Microsoft account.

Thanks again for the help.

I did reboot, and it went through the same process again, so I can live with that.
I just finished reinstalling Photoshop, only a few more things to go now.

All except one of my games worked without reinstalling except Dragon Age Inquisition, it pops up a message saying to reinstall the software.

Mike
 
Did you remove the guest account for something Mike?
User_Accounts.jpg


p.s. I would un-tick the sign-in lock... I assume you already have but perhaps not.
 
Hi

The guest account still show in the User Accounts Windows?

User%20Accounts_zps5xocynem.jpg

Where is Sign In Lock, and what does it do?

Mike
 
The red circle on the image I posted above... it unlocks the default sign in settings and lets you pick what you want.
 
Hi

The guest account still show in the User Accounts Windows?

User%20Accounts_zps5xocynem.jpg

Where is Sign In Lock, and what does it do?

Mike
By default, the Administrator account is disabled for security reasons. Once disabled, it should not appear on the list any longer.
 
To disable the administrator account, enter the Computer Management Console. To do this, you can type "Computer Management" into search, or run compmgmt.msc by running Windows Key + R.

Go to "Users" and you should be able to disable it easily there:

how-to-disable-admin-acct.png
 
Thanks Mike, I'll do that!

I did refresh my computer again and it did get everything working but it retained the boot options (the first time I did it it gave me option for how I wanted it to boot, this time it skipped that step) so once I get my stuff reinstalled I'll make a system image and then disable the Administrator account.

Mike
 
Back
Top