Friday, July 31, 2015

Can't Sign In To Microsoft Account in Windows 10

Solved - Cannot login to Microsoft Account and Cortana on Windows 10
I recently upgraded Windows 8.1 Pro to Windows 10 and now have been unable to login to Cortana or my windows account properly.  My computer is logged into a domain (work computer).

Everytime I hit the search or Cortana logo, I would be prompted to login, I would, and it would seem to accept it, but nothing happens.  Every time I click search it says "Let's pick up where you left off" and then prompts me to login again. So basically, every single time I click the search box in windows 10 I am asked to login to my microsoft account.

 If I login to any other Microsoft apps (store, weather, etc) I am also presented the option to login to my Microsoft account.  It will accept the login, and ask if I want to make it my default account system wide, if I say yes, I get "We're sorry, but we weren't able to make this Microsoft account your default account for Windows.  Don't worry, we will sign you into this app.  If you want to use this account to sign in to Windows, you can set that up in the Accounts section of Settings."

 I tried everything under the sun, short of a wipe and restart.  Deleting and recreating accounts, restoring, etc.  Nothing would let me login properly to Cortana and My Microsoft Windows 10 account, until this:

  1. Delete any fragments of Microsoft account sign-ins, including ones that you see under account settings in control panel. (start, settings, accounts, "other accounts you use").  In my case, I had already deleted it previously.
  2. Delete any local accounts that are specific to Microsoft accounts.  Hit start, type user accounts, manage user accounts, delete the Microsoft account if applicable (the one listed with an email address).  Important!: be sure you add a LOCAL admin or domain admin account so you can still login, don't lock yourself out.
  3. Edit your registry (start, type 'regedit')  navigate to
    HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\IdentityCRL\StoredIdentities
    Here, you will see the account that is giving you trouble.  Delete (Right click the email address and click delete).
  4. Add the account back.  Start, settings, Accounts, - add your Microsoft Account.
    Done!

     


5 comments:

Squicker said...

Thank you! Reg part fixed it for me

Anonymous said...

Cheers worked a treat

Unknown said...

Please can i have some help i cant see stored identites

Unknown said...

I cant see it as well. :(

Unknown said...

i can see the account causing trouble but it wont let me delete it.. it shows some kind of errors every time.
please help me