Bug that forces you to set a pin when installing Windows 10

Anonymous

You guys might want to step up your testing efforts. This is a pretty obvious bug IMO. To be clear, I want to use my password and not a pin. But the UI says, "We think you will like it."... well I don't. Normally there is an option to set a pin later.... Well, this goes away permanently if you initially try to authenticate using the Windows Authenticator app.

I am prompted to set a pin, with no button to skip or proceed without one. If I bring up the dialog and cancel, that doesn't help either... You are basically stuck on that screen. I can't finish the installation because the only option to proceed is to create a pin which will replace my password -- I don't want to do that.

So to be clear:

Install Windows 10 and enter your name and password during installation... You can skip setting a pin.

Install Windows 10 and enter your name and then select authenticate with the authenticator... I successfully authenticate and then I am asked to set a pin. The option to skip is not there as in the first scenario. Starting the process over and entering a password instead does not help. It seems the option to skip is never available again. The only thing I could do was to wipe the install and start over.

Sure I could have set a pin and removed it later, but I didn't want to do that. I don't want it messing with my login.

Also asking me to file an issue on connect is not going to happen -- sorry. If you guys want to take the time to file it, then go for it. Hopefully you guys will investigate.

Ironically even this forum has a bug... When you edit an issue -- it resets the Windows version and topic.

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous

Hi Arap,

Setting up a pin on your device makes it more secured. One important difference between a password and a Hello PIN is that the PIN is tied to the specific device on which it was set up. Read more in this documentation:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/identity-protection/hello-for-business/hello-why-pin-is-better-than-password

Thus, you still have option to remove it once you've done setting it up for the first time. Kindly follow the steps below:

Open the Settings app, and click/tap on the Accounts icon.
Select Sign-in options on the left side, and click/tap on the Remove button under PIN on the right side.
Click/tap on Remove to confirm.
Type in your Microsoft account password to verify, and click/tap on OK.

Additionally, you can refer answers mentioned in this thread:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-update/i-dont-want-a-pin-number/902c5b3d-42d4-4fc8-b34e-71200e0b362d

Let us know how it turns out.

Note: Microsoft has updated the information in this reply to benefit users facing this issue.

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141 additional answers

Anonymous

2019-01-31T17:42:12+00:00

It is a poor decision to force this on the user. I'm installing Windows on computers for other people! It should not be asking computer technicians to set up personal user account information. Yes, I could bypass it by using a local account. Clients will often give me their login details so they don't have to do all this setup later to link accounts. And no, it wouldn't be secure, except no typical user in the world uses their Microsoft account for anything but logging in to Windows, so what is someone going to hack in and see all the Viagra spam junkmail stored in Outlook? It also won't let me set a simple pin like 0000 or 1111. Screw off with this - I'm gonna go write an unattended Windows install to bypass this in the future - you suck!
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Anonymous

2019-01-12T06:25:14+00:00

This is the only solution that has consistently worked on multiple computers. Repeatedly hitting ESC while clicking Create Pin over and over eventually throws an error on-screen which allows you to skip creating a pin.
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Anonymous

2019-01-04T00:26:29+00:00

Hi

I just reinstalled my new netbook as I was unable to do an update to 1709, and there was no option to "say yes and do this later". The only option was to add a PIN.

I consider this definitely to be a bug.

I found that my rapidly pressing escape and then clicking set pin, it caused an error which then allowed me to select do this later. Im sure in a month or so, when a person sees this and reports it, this bug will be prevented to stop people exploiting it abd forcing then to add a pin

This worked!!!

Throws up an error that allows you to skip. YAY!! We used their own nonsense against them!
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Anonymous

2018-06-25T06:37:23+00:00

I totally agree but what a cr*p knee-jerk liability play it is. We are now forced to sign in to our Win 10 laptops/desktops with our Microsoft accounts - email address and password, and then set a PIN which most people will assume to be 4-digit numeric. So if anyone steals a laptop now, instead of a proper password, all the have to guess is a 4 digit numeric.

To make things even worse, when the 1803 update failed on my laptop, when I finally ended up having to restore the entire operating system, I finally got to copy my files over from win.old to my new (now also <Removed> user profile) folders, Microsoft had set the newly installed One Drive to automatically copy every folder I had just moved to my newly<Removed> profile name, into One Drive. I didn't realise this until I started to wonder what the weird little icon was in the task bar. So everything, photos, private documents, everything I definitely didn't want stored in the cloud was being grabbed by Microsoft's software and uploaded to goodness' knows where, ready to be hacked whenever anyone fancied a stab.

I still haven't resolved my messed up local profile name, Microsoft defaulted it to the first 5 letters of my email address without even asking me if that was what I wanted. I know cannot change it nor create another user profile without adding yet another email address and setting up yet another Microsoft account, which I don't want to do. I used to run Vista, logged in with a unique local password, all my files were stored in my own user profile and backed up to a portable hard drive, which I was perfectly happy with. Now it seems, my personal files are at risk, from online hacking and if my laptop gets stolen.

How has Microsoft been able to just get away with destroying hardware and software security and personal account integrity in just one disastrous update?
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