How to Change Windows 8 Logon Way between Local Account and Microsoft Account

Different from previous Windows operational systems, there are two main kinds of ways to login in to Windows 8, local accounts and Microsoft account.

Microsoft account is the special characteristic for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. With it, computer user could access data and files in Windows 8 remotely. And just because of this feature, one more way is available for Windows 8 password reset.

Now this passage mainly introduces how to change Windows 8 logon way between local account and Microsoft account.

• Change Windows 8 logon way in Start Screen
• Change Windows 8 logon way in Change PC Settings

1. Change Windows 8 logon way in Start Screen

On Start Screen, you could see your account just singing into Windows 8. Click it and choose “Sign out” option to turn to logon screen. Choose local user account or Microsoft account you want to login in to Windows 8 with.

For example, you change Windows 8 logon way from local user account to Microsoft account. Choose Microsoft account, generally taken with email address. Type in password and click OK.

2. Change Windows 8 logon way in Change PC Settings

Move the mouse to the right-upper side of window, choose Settings and select “Change PC Settings” at the bottom side of window. On the PC settings window, click Users, you would see which kind of account you have used to login into Windows 8.

If you have signed in to Windows 8 with Microsoft account, there will be an option “Switch to a local account”.

 

 Click it and a window pops up. Current account password has to be typed in.

A new window pops up, and user name and password are needed. At this time, you have to create new local account actually.

 

Click “Next” and “Sign out and finish”, a new local account has been created and you can login in to Windows 8 with this new local account.

Related articles:

• Four ways to create Windows 8 logon password and how to use
• How to enable or disable Windows 8 admin account
• How to enter Windows 8 safe mode with four effective ways
• How to find administrator password in Windows 8/8.1 laptop
• How to login into Windows computer with default administrator 
• Change domain administrator password Windows server 2012 r2

How to Reinstall Office without Disk or Product Key

After we buy a new computer, besides Windows installation, there are still other programs having to be installed on new computer, such as common Microsoft Office. Almost all of computer users use it to work or write something, or do with data. But unfortunately, we always encounter some problems when we prepare to install full version of Microsoft Office. How to reinstall Office successfully becomes a new problem for us after we get new computer and Windows system.

We can discuss this problem on three occasions:

1. How to reinstall Office without disk
2. How to reinstall Office without product key
3. How to reinstall Office without disk and product key

1. How to reinstall Office on new computer without disk

Maybe you have purchased Microsoft Office at a store or from the web, or it has come with your PC. You are given a 25-digit Microsoft Office product key. It is very important to keep the product key in safe place or write it down.

But now you lost or misplaced your Microsoft Office Disc even though you have product key. So you are unable to reinstall Office on your new computer.

Actually, at this time, you just need a personal computer and an internet connection, and you can go to Microsoft Office download page to choose the right version of Microsoft Office for you.

Step 1: Click on the green Download button under the main heading "My copy of Office came with a disk".

Step 2: Type in product key in the product key box.

2. How to reinstall Office without product key

When you have purchased Microsoft Office, there would be Office product key for you. But now Office product key has been lost and only Microsoft Office disc is saved in computer. How to reinstall Office on another new computer?

At this moment, the main step is to find out Office product key. According to the previous installation of Office in your old computer, you could find its product key with software, iSunshare Product Key Finder.

Step 1: Run Product Key Finder on your old computer. And click “Start Recovery” to recover product keys for programs installing on computer now.

Save Office product key to a text file after all the product keys appear in software window.

Step 2: Install Microsoft Office on new computer and type in product key just found to complete Office reinstallation.

Tips: How to Reinstall Microsoft Office without Product Key 

3. How to reinstall Office without disc and product key

From the above introductions on two different situations, we can know if you don’t have Office disk, you can download it from:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/products/download-backup-restore-microsoft-office-products-FX103427465.aspx

If you have lost Office product key, Product Key Finder could help you find it out on your old computer.

After all Office disk and product key has been prepared, begin to reinstall Office on your new computer.

Related articles:

• How to activate Office 2013 without product key
• What matters needed attention if reinstall Windows 7 after forgot password
• Find Lost Windows/Office Product Key easily with one click
• How to Find Windows 8.1 Activation Key

How to Disable Password Reveal Button on Windows 8/8.1 Logon Screen

When we start Windows 8/8.1 computer and after typing user password in text password box in logon screen, there is an image just like an eye, Password Reveal Button, representing “display password”. When you click the image, you could see password you have typed in.

On one hand, it allows computer users the opportunity to check the spelling of password before clicking the arrow button to log in. On the other hand, there is a potential security problem. So in the consideration of computer security, you can choose to disable Password Reveal Button or let it be default settings. Now this article mainly introduce two ways to disable password reveal button. The main steps to enable “display password reveal button” are similar.

You can disable the Password Reveal Button on the Windows 8 logon screen with a registry tweak or with an edit by the Local Group Policy.

Way 1: Disable password reveal button in Local Group Policy

If you are using Windows 8 professional, you can disable Password Reveal Button by changing a Group Policy setting.

1. Press Win + R to open Run box and type in “gpedit.msc”, press Enter to open Local Group Policy Editor.

2. Navigate to: Computer Configuration - Administrative Templates – Windows Components – Credential User Interface

3. On the right side of Local Group Policy Editor window, there is one option “Do not display the password reveal button”. Double click it and a new window would appear, which is about “password reveal button” configuration.

4. Choose “Enabled” option to disable the password reveal button. And then click “Apply” and “OK” and close Local Group Policy Editor.

If your Windows comes with Local Group Policy Editor, you can disable password reveal button there. If not, you can disable the Password Reveal Button with registry tweak.  

Way 2: Disable password reveal button in registry editor

1. Suppose you are using the standard version of Windows 8, press Win + R to access Run dialog box, typing “Regedit” and click OK. And then open following:

HKEY_ LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows

2. When you access the Windows subkey, you’ll add a new key called CredUI. Right click Windows and then select New-Key, name new key CredUI.

3. Right click the CredUI key and select New-DWORD. When the new value appears, name it DisablePasswordReveal.

4. Double click the new value and set value data to 1. To put the new setting into action, click “OK” and close Registry Editor. Restart your system.

After you disable Password Reveal Button, no matter which method you use, when you login in to Windows 8 again, you would find the difference on Windows 8 password box. There is no image eye in the text password box after typing user password.

More articles to read:

• How to Create, Delete or Format Disk Partition in Windows 8 Computer
• How to Improve Windows 8 Picture Password Security
• How to Bypass or Disable Lock Screen for Windows 8
• 10 General Secure Settings Options for Windows 8
• Configure Windows 7 Security Settings and Deployment

How to Improve Windows 8 Picture Password Security

In order to make new gesture-based password safe for Windows 8 computer like text-based password, we have to improve picture password security. Before talking about how to improve, let’s see why picture password is easily cracked.

Why Windows 8 picture password can be cracked easily

Setting up a gesture-based password involves choosing a picture from one’s Picture Library folder and drawing three points on the image. Windows 8 accepts three kinds of gestures on picture, taps, lines and circles. And Windows 8 subdivides the image into a 100*100 grid and stores the input points as grid coordinates.

1. But users aren’t very good at selecting random points on their images. They tend to pick common points of interest, such as eyes, faces or discrete objects.

As a result, passwords derived from this constrained set have much less variability than randomly generated passwords. They’re easier to crack.

2. There is no picture-password-strength meter similar to systems that prevent people from choosing weak text-based passwords.

So when computer users have set weak picture password, they still don’t know.

3. There have been some researchers’ experimental model and attack framework allowing them to crack 48% of password for previously unseen pictures in one dataset and 24% in another.

Because of wrong password setting method above and incomplete password setting mechanism, Windows 8 picture password would be cracked easily.

How to improve picture password security?

From the above introduction of the reason why Windows 8 gesture-based password is cracked easily, and the analysis of PIN code, character password and picture password in the table below, you could find what you should do to improve Windows 8 picture password security.

Length	10-digit PIN	Simple a-z character set password	More complex character set password	Multi-gesture picture password
1	10	26	n/a	2,554
2	100	676	n/a	1,581,773
3	1,000	17,576	81,120	1,155,509,083
4	10,000	456,976	4,218,240	612,157,353,732
5	100,000	11,881,376	182,790,400	398,046,621,309,172
6	1,000,000	308,915,776	7,128,825,600
7	10,000,000	8,031,810,176	259,489,251,840
8	100,000,000	208,827,064,576	8,995,627,397,120

1. Microsoft should integrate the researchers’ PGA attack to inform users of potential number of guessed it would take to access their system. 
2. Choose one individual picture and portions to make three gestures.
3. Take the most complex gesture line to create gestures.

Now there would be 100 million possible lines set on a picture. It will be more difficult to guess out picture password if what you do is based on the above suggestions. That will increase both security and the memorability of the password.

But in a word, before appearance of better password setting mechanism, gesture-based password had better be another way to access Windows 8. If we want to protect Windows 8 better, we should create powerful local user password, or encrypt important data in Windows 8 computer.

More articles:

• Four ways to create Windows 8 logon password and how to use
• Windows 8 security knowledge
• Three Major Differences between Windows 8 and Windows 7 – Security/Design/Version
• 10 General Secure Settings Options for Windows 8
• How to Enable or Disable Windows 8 Admin Account

How to Login into Windows Computer with Default Administrator

This following passage is intended to introduce simple ways to access Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1 with admin privileges and rights when you have password protected login user accounts or you have forgotten Windows login password.

One: How to login into Windows XP with default blank administrator password

Steps to access Windows XP with default administrator

1. Restart your computer
2. Press F8 before the Windows boot screen appears. Do not press F5 as used on the NT/9x versions of Windows. You will be prompted with a boot options menu.
3. Select the “Start Windows in Safe Mode” option.Windows “Welcome” screen appears only with 640x480 resolution.
   You will not be able to change this mode even in Display options, while Windows is running in Safe Mode.
4. Find the icon for the administrator user.
5. The Safe Mode Windows screen will display some other users on your system.
   Login as the administrator.
6. Press Yes at the prompt asking if you would like to continue using Safe Mode.
7. Open command prompt. Click Start – Run, and type in “cmd” and press Enter. Command Prompt window appears and it allows you to manage files and change settings on your computer without restricts.
8. Change the password for administrator.
9. Type command: net user <user name> <user password>.
10. Press Enter and administrator <user name> password would be changed to be <user password>.
11. Exit command shell and locked out of the administrative account. Reboot computer and login into Windows XP again with it, now type in new password you just set and press Enter.

Two: How to login into Windows 7/Vista with default administrator password?

Windows 7 built-in administrator has unrestricted access right on computer. But it is not prompted by UAC by default to provide confirmation before allowed to make any changes that require elevated administrator permissions since it is an elevated account. So you have to enable Windows 7 built-in administrator  first in Local Users and Groups or Command Prompt, Local Security Policy, System Recovery (WinRE) at Boot.

1. Remove all floppy disk, CDs, and DVDs from your computer and restart your computer.

Click the Start button, click the arrow next to the Shut Down/Lock (Windows Vista) button, and then click Restart.

2. Do one of the following:

• If your computer has a single operating system installed, press and hold the F8 key as your computer restarts. You need to press F8 before the Windows logo appears. If the Windows logo appears, you'll need to try again by waiting until the Windows logon prompt appears, and then shutting down and restarting your computer.
• If your computer has more than one operating system, use the arrow keys to highlight the operating system you want to start in safe mode, and then press F8.

3.  On the Advanced Boot Options screen, use the arrow keys to highlight the safe mode option you want, and then press Enter. For more information about options, see Advanced startup options (including safe mode).

4.  Log on to your computer with a user account that has administrator rights.

When your computer is in safe mode, you'll see the words Safe Mode in the corners of your monitor. To exit safe mode, restart your computer and let Windows start normally.

Three: How to login into Windows 8/8.1 with default admin password

By default, the local administrator in Windows 8 is disabled. So if you want to login into Windows 8/8.1 computers with default administrator account, you have to enable Windows 8/8.1 built-in administrator in Command Prompt, Command Prompt at Boot, Local Users and Groups, Local Security Policy etc.

1. Restart Windows 8/8.1 computer.
2. On Windows logon screen, if you couldn’t see administrator, click “back arrow” button to select another user account. Administrator can be found there.
3. Click it to choose administrator and login with it.

Once if you have set password for default administrator and forgotten or lost its password, the above ways would not help you to access Windows computer. You need other ways to bypass Windows password to login or reset Windows password before logon Windows.

Related passages or videos:

• Bypass Windows 8 Login password – Sign in Windows automatically
• How to Enable or Disable Windows 8 Admin Account
• How to remove Windows 7 logon password