Advice on PCs please

Strat_a_tat_tat

I've got a laptop that I bought new a few years ago... with Windows 8.1 on it. When I first bought it... to set it up, I had to establish a Microsoft account... and every time I log onto the PC,  I now have to enter my email address and my password (for my Microsoft account).  I have since upgraded the OS to Windows 10... but the sign on process is the same.

Here's my question... I now want to give the PC to someone else... but I don't want to pass it on with the only way of switching it on being via the input of my email address and Microsoft account password. How do I reset that part of my PC (and remove any record of my sign on details)?

Also... for the new user... will they need to set up a Microsoft account or is there some way of avoiding that?

Many thanks.

Heartfeltdawn

I think this will help you.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-tip-switch-back-to-a-local-account-from-a-microsoft-account/

So I would set up a local account called NEW USER with a simple password. Once you've done that, then there is an option to delete the Microsoft account details you have been using from what I remember. 

You can then give the laptop to someone else and tell them the NEW USER password. They can then change that username and password to whatever they want. 

Myranda

Have you sterilised the PC of all your ... *ahem* video research? 

Personally if I'm giving a PC to someone, I'd buy/download a new OS and metaphorically nuke the drive from orbit (it's the only way to be sure) ... no way I'd want someone seeing the sort of filth I may or may not view! Leaving a smouldering husk, or virtually blank PC... (I'm pretty good with digital forensics, if I choose to remove stuff, it's gone!)

Then the new install of windows wouldn't need a login name until they sat down and chose one

Freebird

Just reinstall your OS by pressing one of the F keys during startup. You'll need to check your model number to find out which F key it is (a.k.a factory reset).

Strat_a_tat_tat

Thanks chaps and chapesses... I won't need to totally sterilise the PC because...

1. I've not viewed anything questionable (honest guv... I've led a sheltered life). In fact, I've hardly used the PC (it wasn't my main machine... and it got a bit neglected and just gathered dust)

2. I trust the new user... as much as one can... but I'd still like to remove the sign in info... so I'll check out how best to follow your advice.

Many thanks.

Freebird

99.9% of people passing on computers do a factory  reset.

100% of smart people do a factory reset at least once a year to get rid of any gremlins and make the OS run better (it's a Windows thing!)

I factory reset my audio computer 4 times a year to make it run faster.

PS all computers users should have a data backup strategy, because all hard drives will fail eventually

Danny1969

What model is it .... for a specific model the factory restore process is different .....for an HP laptop for examaple you press F11 before booting to access the recovery partition ... other models are F12, some are done via an ap once booted into Windows

The only thing that will prevent someone who knows what they are doing accessing your old data is a sector wipe .... reinstalling the OS, doing a factory restore only deletes the FAT table. I routinely recover data for customers after they have factory restored their machines.  Drives are so big these days a 12Gb Factory restore might not overwrite any of the old data on a 500Gb harddrive

Freebird

Danny1969 said:

The only thing that will prevent someone who knows what they are doing accessing your old data is a sector wipe .... reinstalling the OS, doing a factory restore only deletes the FAT table. I routinely recover data for customers after they have factory restored their machines.  Drives are so big these days a 12Gb Factory restore might not overwrite any of the old data on a 500Gb harddrive

Yes, this is taking it to the next level, and highly recommended if you are handling sensitive data or dealing with people that you don't trust. I was just trying to keep it simple with regards to the conditions that were described above 

There are many occasions when a good data backup strategy will come in handy. I usually clone my basic OS & application setup, and backup my user data seprately. This makes the resetting of my audio computer a relatively simple process.

Myranda

Before you hand over the pc have you considered installing software that you can use to remote control it for laughs? Like just once a week log on and move their icons around, make the PC speak to them, occasionally bump the mouse... 

Sporky

Put Linux on a bootable USB drive and use whatever command it is that writes sequential 0s and 1s across the whole hard drive.

Myranda

Sporky said:

Put Linux on a bootable USB drive and use whatever command it is that writes sequential 0s and 1s across the whole hard drive.

Then for any magnetic disks re-write it (ideally swapping 1 then 0 for 0 then 1) 5 more times - because drive recovery is potentially witchcraft

darthed1981

As you have installed Windows 10, your Pcs hardware ID is now in the Microsoft servers as licensed, so you can download the Windows 10 media creator toolkit, and create a USB disk to re-format and sell with a clean install.  You just click "skip" when it asks for a product key and it magically activates anyway.

If you have an office license you are also selling, make sure you have the product key to re-install it, or use the excellent LibreOffice!  Windows 10 is very capable regarding basically everything else out of the box.

As others have pointed out, this does leave your files on the disk in a recoverable state, so you may or may not want to use a linux live usb drive to write random 1s and 0s on the disk.  This does take ages though and you only need to do it once, if you have anything that anyone would want to recover that badly, you should use thermite!

Myranda

darthed1981 said:

As you have installed Windows 10, your Pcs hardware ID is now in the Microsoft servers as licensed, so you can download the Windows 10 media creator toolkit, and create a USB disk to re-format and sell with a clean install.  You just click "skip" when it asks for a product key and it magically activates anyway.

If you have an office license you are also selling, make sure you have the product key to re-install it, or use the excellent LibreOffice!  Windows 10 is very capable regarding basically everything else out of the box.

As others have pointed out, this does leave your files on the disk in a recoverable state, so you may or may not want to use a linux live usb drive to write random 1s and 0s on the disk.  This does take ages though and you only need to do it once, if you have anything that anyone would want to recover that badly, you should use thermite!

Actually the recommendation for random 1s and 0s rewrites is to do it 6-7 times to be sure nothing can be recovered... and you could set a batch script for Linux to start as soon as it's finished the first time, leave it over night and not notice the time taken

ThePrettyDamned

Myranda said:

darthed1981 said:

As you have installed Windows 10, your Pcs hardware ID is now in the Microsoft servers as licensed, so you can download the Windows 10 media creator toolkit, and create a USB disk to re-format and sell with a clean install.  You just click "skip" when it asks for a product key and it magically activates anyway.

If you have an office license you are also selling, make sure you have the product key to re-install it, or use the excellent LibreOffice!  Windows 10 is very capable regarding basically everything else out of the box.

As others have pointed out, this does leave your files on the disk in a recoverable state, so you may or may not want to use a linux live usb drive to write random 1s and 0s on the disk.  This does take ages though and you only need to do it once, if you have anything that anyone would want to recover that badly, you should use thermite!

Actually the recommendation for random 1s and 0s rewrites is to do it 6-7 times to be sure nothing can be recovered... and you could set a batch script for Linux to start as soon as it's finished the first time, leave it over night and not notice the time taken

I would be very interested in exactly how to do this as we have a few old laptops and a desktop we'd like to sell or get rid of (where do they even go?) but we are well aware the risks of leaving information on drives. 

Do you have a good link? Be much appreciated! 

Danny1969

If you do a standard long format in Win 7 or similar your not be able to recover anything .... just connect a drive to a win 7 machine via Sata to USB caddie, rightclick the drive, choose format and take the tick out of the box that says quick format. 
It can take a couple of hours to format a drive in this way. Longer for very large drives. In my own tests I haven't been able to recover anything other than partition information once a drive has been formatted like this.

Another way is to take a large folder of films or similar, make a copy, make a copy of that etc and everytime you do it the size doubles. Once all sectors of the drive have been overwritten any recovery of previous data is impossible

Emp_Fab

Myranda said:

..no way I'd want someone seeing the sort of filth I may or may not view! 

Can I see it ?

Sporky

Myranda said:

Sporky said:

Put Linux on a bootable USB drive and use whatever command it is that writes sequential 0s and 1s across the whole hard drive.

Then for any magnetic disks re-write it (ideally swapping 1 then 0 for 0 then 1) 5 more times - because drive recovery is potentially witchcraft

Depends whether or not you're selling the PC to GCHQ.

oaf

https://sourceforge.net/projects/dban/

Strat_a_tat_tat

Thanks everyone.

Great advice.

All sorted now.  :-)

darthed1981

Myranda said:

darthed1981 said:

As you have installed Windows 10, your Pcs hardware ID is now in the Microsoft servers as licensed, so you can download the Windows 10 media creator toolkit, and create a USB disk to re-format and sell with a clean install.  You just click "skip" when it asks for a product key and it magically activates anyway.

If you have an office license you are also selling, make sure you have the product key to re-install it, or use the excellent LibreOffice!  Windows 10 is very capable regarding basically everything else out of the box.

As others have pointed out, this does leave your files on the disk in a recoverable state, so you may or may not want to use a linux live usb drive to write random 1s and 0s on the disk.  This does take ages though and you only need to do it once, if you have anything that anyone would want to recover that badly, you should use thermite!

Actually the recommendation for random 1s and 0s rewrites is to do it 6-7 times to be sure nothing can be recovered... and you could set a batch script for Linux to start as soon as it's finished the first time, leave it over night and not notice the time taken

Yeah but you really only need to do it once, the odds of recovering anything after this are staggeringly low.  Maybe twice in case there is a flaw in the program you are using.

As others have said typically you are not selling to GCHQ and if you have anything they'd be interested in you should destroy the drive ( and stop doing it, seriously)