I can't sign in to my work computer
Work out whether it is the PIN, the password, or the account itself, and what to do for each without locking yourself out.
Three different things live behind the sign-in screen: a PIN that belongs to this one computer, a password that belongs to your account, and the account itself. The fix depends on which one is unhappy, and guessing again and again is the one thing that makes it worse.
Do this first: read the screen
- Check Caps Lock and Num Lock. Look for the light on the keyboard. This is the most common cause by a wide margin.
- Make sure the computer is online. At the bottom right of the sign-in screen there is a network icon. A laptop away from the office needs Wi-Fi before a recent password change will work.
- Try once more, slowly. Once. Then read the message word for word and find it below.
"The PIN is incorrect"
The PIN belongs to this computer only, so it is the easiest one to get past.
- Under the PIN box, click Sign-in options.
- Choose the key icon to sign in with your password instead. Some managed computers only offer the sign-in methods we have set up, so if there is no password option, skip to telling us.
- Once you are in, you can set a new PIN under Settings, Accounts, then Sign-in options. Choose PIN, then I forgot my PIN. It will ask for your password and may send a code to your phone. If that code goes to a phone you no longer have, see New phone and Microsoft keeps asking for a code.
Do not keep retrying the PIN. After too many tries Windows makes you type a challenge phrase and then restart, and it gets slower each time.
"The password is incorrect"
The password belongs to your account, which on most of the computers we look after is the same account as your work email.
- If you changed it recently, use the new one, and make sure the computer is online so the change can reach it.
- If you are not sure what it is, stop after two careful tries and tell us. We sort out a reset with you, and we never need your old password.
More tries do not help. Too many wrong attempts lock the account for a while, and that lock is bigger than this screen: your email stops on your phone too, and so does anything else signed in with that account.
"Your account has been locked" or "locked out"
Something is still trying an old password on your behalf. Usually it is a phone, a tablet, or a saved password in a browser, and it will keep locking the account until it is found. Stop trying, tell us, and we unlock the account and track down the device doing it.
"Your account has been disabled" or "that sign-in method isn't allowed"
That is a setting on our side, not something you can fix at the screen. It is sometimes deliberate, for example on a computer being set up or retired. Tell us and we sort it.
"No logon servers available" or "we can't sign you in with this credential"
On an office computer this means it cannot reach the office network. Check the network cable or Wi-Fi, wait a minute, and restart. If it keeps happening, tell us; it is usually a network problem rather than yours.
Please do not reset the computer, create a new account, call a number from a search result, or let anyone other than us connect to it. Those settings are managed on purpose, and working around them costs more time than a text to us.
Did this not sort it out?
After two careful tries. Tell us the exact message on the screen, whether it was the PIN box or the password box, and whether your email still works on your phone. That last one tells us straight away whether it is the account or the computer.
Tell Michael which step you got to and what the screen says. A photo of the screen from your phone is perfect.