microsoft challenge phase

[Charlie1969]

HP should seriously be challenging microsoft and their "challenge phrase". I spent hours on the phone to microsoft having been locked out of my own computer for 8 days over Christmas. Eventually took it to a compter repair shop who spent hours reinstalling windows. Customers DO NOT WANT this unnecessary additional "security" which MS states to prevent "brutal threats". The most brutal threat/ attack was from Microsoft.

[itsmyname]

@Charlie1969 -- if you installed Windows 10 while your computer had an active Internet connection, did you choose to logon to your Microsoft account when doing the setup?  If so, then "forever", you must logon to your computer using your Microsoft account and its password.

What you could have done is to access:  http://login.live.com

to try to reset the password for your Microsoft account.

Or, if your computer is powered-off, disconnect its Ethernet cable, to prevent Internet access.

Then, when you start-up your computer, you should get different ways of logging on.

I think that there were alternatives to reinstalling Windows.  It is too bad that the technician was incompetent.  Sigh.

[WAWood]

@Charlie1969 

I agree strongly with the service opinion that @itsmyname mentioned.

I have been servicing PCs for my extended family and some friends for well over a decade and even with the limited tools I have here at home, I could have been into your PC, reset the login, and had it working for you -- easily within 30 minutes, or less.

And, since they were probably too stupid to use an HP OEM version of Windows to reinstall your notebook, that means that NOW, you probably have the generic drivers that MS installs by default.  Do not be surprised if some of the hardware features no longer work.

[Charlie1969]

Yes, and now that I have a new instalation I have not even attempted to set up another MS account. Over four days, sometimes waiting a mind numbing 4 hours for a technician, I was either cut off (very convenient) or passed to another "specialist" at least 7 times. I even contemplated writing my computer off and buying a new one. MS need to get the message that the public don't need this, nor want it.

[WAWood]

@Charlie1969 

Being restricted by "HP Expert" rules, I can not condone what @itsmyname has suggested.

A problem they failed to mention is that cloning with Macrium Reflect clones the OS, not just the other stuff -- and that has the license code of the PC it came with. So when you use that copy on a second PC, it's no different than swapping the physical drives -- and at some point, that copy of Window is likely to deactivate itself, and since HP does not hand out OEM licenses, there will be no way for you to properly reactivate it.

[itsmyname]

@WAWood --  that has the license code of the PC it came with

I respectfully disagree. 

Note that the "cloned" disk-drive contains "half-installed" Windows 10. 

When booting from that disk-drive, it resumes & completes the installation of Windows.

Since the computer at some time was running the HP-modified version Windows 10, and it was "activated", Microsoft knows the 25-character product-key that is linked to the computer. So, completing the installation of Windows, via the "cloned" disk-drive, should cause the Windows Installer to "call home" to retrieve that product-key.

Also, for motherboards that are "designed for Windows 10", the 25-character product-key is embedded in the motherboard.  So, the Windows Installer can extract that product-key, even when there is no active Internet connection.  Note that there do exist utilities that can extract the product-key from the motherboard -- both third-party programs and a Windows PowerShell script. Then, if necessary, after Windows is installed, the "change product key" function can be used to activate Windows with that extracted product-key.