Originally Posted by
darnatl
I updated from Windows 8 home edition to Windows 8.1 home. By old local account, I am referring to the local account I set up for the original windows 8 setup. When I updated to 8.1, I chose to use a Microsoft account to login. While I recognize the benefit, I don't think it is right for me at this time.
For example, my windows 8 local account user name was "John Doe." When I updated to 8.1, I chose to login as
JD@hotmail.com with John Doe as the user name. If I try to disconnect from the MS account, the user name section of the screen in step 7 of your tutorial is automatically populated with "John Doe." When I enter a password and hit enter, it tells me to pick another user name as "John Doe" is already in use.
Maybe I am wrongly assuming the user account listed in explorer is my previous 8.0 user account. In explorer, the expanded file tree shows: Desktop/Homegroup/John Doe; Desktop/John Doe; Desktop/This PC/Windows/Users/John Doe (and Default, Default.migrated, Guest, Public). However, currently I am unable to switch to any other accounts. If I go to Settings/Power, the only options I see is hibernate, shut down, restart.
Maybe I am just having a brain fart. In the tutorial, I see your user account associated with MS is "Shawn Brink." In step 7, you create a new local user account named "Brink." After you disconnect from your MS account and login locally as "Brink," are you then able to switch to "Shawn Brink" as a local account?
Basically when you switch from a Microsoft account to a local account, it basically disconnects (signs out) your Microsoft Account from the PC, then converts your current Microsoft account profile on the PC into a local account instead.
In my example, "Shawn Brink" was only the
display name of the Microsoft account. The account name was "Brink", which is the name of the "C:\Users\Brink" folder. I was able to sign in to the now "Brink" local account afterwards.
According to the message you got, it's saying that you already have a "C:\Users\John Doe" folder for another user account on the PC. It appears that you will need to use say "John Doe2" for the name instead.
The "Switch user" option is available on your Start screen "user name" button menu instead now by selecting an available user account to switch to.
If you like, here's a handy "Power" cascading context menu to make using them easier.