Windows ten and 11 tips

How to share a Windows ten PC

Need to share a Windows 10 PC among employees or temporary workers at the function, or with family members at home? No trouble — hither'south how to do it.

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In some offices, computers are shared between two or more than employees or temporary workers. That sounds similar a recipe for disaster, but Windows 10 has great tools for assuasive multiple people to share a single PC without letting them read, edit, or delete each other'southward files and folders; apply or delete each other'due south applications; or make system-wide customizations.

These tools can also be a big help for people who piece of work from home and need to share their PC with a family fellow member some of the time. They allow you to set and log in with different user profiles and then each user has access to only their own files and folders, apps, and preferences. In this piece, I'll show you what to practise.

This commodity has been updated for the Windows 10 October 2020 Update (version 20H2). If you have an earlier release of Windows x, some things may exist slightly dissimilar.

Setting upwardly accounts for sharing a Windows ten PC

Windows 10 makes information technology easy for multiple people to share the same PC. To do it, you lot create separate accounts for each person who will employ the reckoner. Each person gets their ain storage, applications, desktops, settings, and then on.

One person, the PC'due south administrator, sets up and manages all the accounts, including a variety of organization settings that simply the administrator can access. The ambassador account is established when Windows is outset installed or used on the machine. (You tin besides upgrade other user accounts to administrator status, every bit I'll cover later in the story.)

If you're an ambassador, setting up a user account is easy. First you'll need the email address of the person for whom you want to set up an account. Ideally, this should be the sign-in information for their Microsoft account (such as an @outlook.com or @hotmail.com accost or a corporate email accost at an organization that uses Outlook) so they'll be able to utilize all of their existing Windows settings, get access to their OneDrive storage, and download and install apps from the Microsoft Store. Anybody can sign up for a Microsoft account for free.

For at present, we'll assume that the person you want to add has a Microsoft account. Afterwards I'll bear witness you how to ready an account if they don't have one and don't desire to register for 1, but annotation that you lot tin can't set up restrictions for family members unless they sign in with a Microsoft business relationship. Accounts for children tin just use an @outlook.com or @hotmail.com domain.

To add a user, click the Start push button, select Settings and then choose Accounts. On the Accounts screen, choose Family & other users from the menu on the left. To prepare up an account for a co-worker, become to the "Other users" section and click Add someone else to this PC. To fix up accounts for family members that let you set age limits, game and app restrictions, etc., instead choose Add a family fellow member nether the "Your family" department.

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After you create an account for someone else, the name appears on the Accounts page. (Click whatsoever prototype in this story to overstate it.)

On the screen that appears, enter the email address of the person for whom yous want to create a user account, click OK and then Finish. The user'south name now appears on the "Family & other users" accounts page.

Information technology also appears when yous click the icon representing the current user of the PC, midway down on the left side of the Outset carte du jour when yous click the Commencement button.

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When an account name is clicked in the Commencement card, it will testify all of the accounts on the car.

If you're the owner of the new business relationship, at that place are two ways to start using it. You lot can click the icon representing the account of the current user of the PC, midway down on the left side of the Kickoff menu. That displays all the accounts on the PC. Click your business relationship name and log into your account with your Microsoft account password. Or you can restart the PC: The Windows login screen volition now have two accounts on information technology — yours and the ambassador's. You can click your account name and log in with your Microsoft account password.

The account will accept its ain separate OneDrive storage. Each user's local files and folders won't be accessible to the other. Yous volition see the Windows apps you've installed, but not anyone else'south, and vice versa. Given that it'south a Microsoft business relationship, files and settings will sync with all other devices connected to your account.

Creating a new user business relationship without using a Microsoft account

Creating a shared PC if the other person doesn't accept or desire a Microsoft business relationship takes a little scrap more than work.

To do it, go to Settings > Accounts > Family & other users > Add someone else to this PC. (This is same selection you'll make if you're adding a family member without a Microsoft account, just remember that you won't be able to use parental controls.)

On the screen that appears, click I don't have this person's sign-in information. Then at the bottom of the adjacent screen, click Add a user without a Microsoft account.

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Y'all can add together a user who doesn't accept a Microsoft business relationship as a local account.

At present you can add a user name and a password. The person's account name volition now show up the same way as if you lot had created i using a Microsoft account.

When you create an account for someone in this way, it's called a local account. Unlike a Microsoft business relationship, it won't sync settings between devices, and information technology doesn't requite access to OneDrive. In addition, when someone has a local account, they won't be able to download or install whatsoever apps from the Microsoft Shop. They won't be able to install desktop applications on their own, either — when they endeavour to install them, they're prompted for the password of the administrator'southward account. So an ambassador will have to exist nearby to type in the password in order for them to install desktop applications.

Switching between accounts

Once your account has been ready, it's easy to switch from the account currently running on the machine to your own. If someone else is currently using Windows 10 on the machine, and yous want to use it, yous tin can click the Start button, click the icon representing the current user's account midway downwards on the left side of the Outset menu, then click the account to which you want to switch and type in the password.

You can, of course, as well log in from the lock screen, which displays all of the user accounts on the machine.

One thing to keep in mind when several people use a PC with split up accounts: Fifty-fifty when someone is not using the PC, they all the same remain signed into the business relationship unless they sign out or the PC is restarted. Then several people might be signed into accounts, fifty-fifty though only ane person is actively using the PC. (This does not mean that users have any admission to the others' accounts. There tin be simply one agile account at a time; an individual user volition still need to re-enter the password to see their account.)

To run into which users are currently signed in, click the Starting time button, then click the icon representing the current user'due south account midway downwards on the left side of the Commencement menu to see all of the car's accounts. Look underneath each account. The words "Signed in" will appear under the appropriate accounts.

What does information technology mean that someone is signed into their business relationship, even if they're not currently using it? When someone is signed in, Windows x saves the state of that person's user account — which applications the person was running, the files they were working on, and and then on. That way, when they switches dorsum to using their account, everything will be in place, and they won't have to waste matter time launching apps, opening files, and and then on.

This is useful, but information technology can be problematic as well, because information technology tin lead to lost work. When a PC is restarted or shut down, all users on it are automatically logged off. Say someone is logged into their account and hasn't yet saved piece of work — if the computer is switched to another account, and the person using that second account restarts or shuts down the organisation, the start person volition lose their unsaved work.

The upshot? It's always a good idea to log out of your account before letting someone else use the aforementioned computer. Information technology but takes a moment: Click your account name at the summit of the Start carte and and so click Sign out.

Managing accounts

If you want to let another user have administrator access, it'south simple to practice. Select Settings > Accounts > Family & other users, click the account to which you want to give administrator rights, click Change business relationship type, then click Business relationship type. Choose Administrator and click OK. That'll do it. You tin can e'er alter it back to a standard user account later using this same method.

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You tin change a standard user account to an Ambassador business relationship.

It's also easy to remove accounts — as long equally you're the administrator. Select Settings > Accounts > Family & other users, click the account you desire to remove and and then click Remove. A screen appears warning you that when y'all delete the account, yous also delete all data associated with information technology, which include files, desktop setup, apps, music and so on. Also, note that you lot tin can only delete an account if the person has signed out of Windows x.

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When you delete an business relationship, you also delete all information associated with it.

Once yous've got it in hand, you lot'll find that this is a elementary and useful manner for sharing a Windows x PC amidst multiple people.

Bonus tip: Turn on the hidden Windows 10 administrator account

I've got one more than tip for you: how to turn on something that is sort of a super-administrator account hidden in Windows 10.

Equally I explained previously, the account you create when you install Windows is the PC's administrator account — it gives you control over how Windows 10 works on the PC, what other accounts can be created and and so on. Merely Windows 10 also sets up a hidden administrator business relationship during installation.

This hidden account has one reward over a normal administrator account — when yous employ it, you won't get any User Business relationship Control (UAC) prompts. That makes information technology much easier to troubleshoot and customize Windows, considering you won't be constantly bothered by those pesky UAC notices.

Some people refer to this hidden administrator business relationship as an elevated account, and a normal one as an un-elevated account.

Information technology's piece of cake to turn on and use the subconscious administrator account:

  1. Make sure that y'all're using your normal Administrator account.
  2. Click the Starting time button, scroll down through your apps and click Windows System.
  3. Correct-click Command Prompt from the drib-down carte that appears, and so click More than and select Run as administrator. The command prompt launches. Look in the prompt's title bar — it will read "Administrator: Command Prompt."
  4. At the control prompt, type cyberspace user administrator /active:yeah and printing the Enter

That turns on the hidden ambassador account. Information technology will appear on the Windows 10 login screen and on the Outset menu screen — just click it to utilise it as you would any other business relationship.

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When you turn on your PC's subconscious administrator business relationship, it shows upwardly just like whatever other account in Windows ten.

If you lot want to disable the hidden business relationship, follow steps i through 3, and at the command prompt, type net user administrator /active:no and press Enter.

This article was originally published in March 2016 and about recently updated in January 2021.

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