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Windows parental controls not removed by reinstall (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/techsupport

8 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hello everyone,

a friend of mine recently bought a second-hand laptop but, as we soon discovered, the seller left parental controls on it. The computer locks itself at a set time every day and doesn't allow the user to log back in.

So I tried to help. I created a bootable USB with Windows 10, wiped the disk in the computer and reinstalled. Thinking I had solved the problem, as an OS reinstall should, in this case, I gave it back to my friend. I just received a message from her, that the laptop just locked itself again.

Why is this happening? Are the parental controls somehow tied to a unique identifier, such as the built-in Windows activation code or similar? And, most importantly, how do I remove them?

Thanks a lot :)

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[–] BangersAndMash 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is the lock possibly set in the BIOS, not windows? You can often set on and off times there.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

When it locks, it simply shows a regular Windows... window, that says something about usage time (trying to translate from our language). It doesn't turn off completely

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

maybe the reinstall preserved the parental control?, try to wipe the disk using another computer, or a bootable pendrive, and after the disk is clean reinstall windows

[–] twack 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is your friend using an online Microsoft account and not a local one? It is possible that the parental restrictions are set on their Microsoft account and not the computer.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The original one was a Microsoft account, the on my install is local

[–] twack 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Did they then immediately activate the office 365 that their parents paid for? Make sure it's still a local account, because Microsoft pushes pretty hard not to have those.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Funny thing is, they didn't pay. I installed Office 365 and activated it with my own key, and you bet I haven't put any parental control on there. I even checked if it enabled itself by chance, but it didn't. She also signed into the PC with her account, but the issue existed before we used any Microsoft account...

[–] slazer2au -1 points 1 year ago

If you can't contact the seller to remove the device from parental controls. You will have to call Microsoft and get them to do it.