Signing in to Windows 8

Brink · Apr 16, 2012

How to "Sign in" or "Log in" to Windows 8 and 8.1

Information

There have been many reports of how the sign in process for Windows 8 is not very intuitive, so I decided to create this tutorial to help with that. Once you sign in for the first time, you will be fine. It's just a matter of getting use to logging in being different than previous versions of Windows.

"Log in" is now called "Sign in" in Windows 8. Windows 8 starts up to the lock screen by default now instead of the traditional log on screen as in previous versions of Windows.

This tutorial will help show you the new method of how to sign in (log in) to a user account in Windows 8.

Here's How:

1. From the lock screen, do either one of the actions below to go to the sign in (log on) screen. (see screenshots below)

Press any key.
Click/tap on the lock screen.
Click/tap and hold on the lock screen, drag (swipe) the lock screen all the way up, and release.
If you have Secure sign-in enabled, then press Ctrl+Alt+Delete.

2. If you have more than one user account on the PC, then you can select the user account you want to sign in to by clicking/taping on it's account picture. (see screenshot below)

3. Click/tap on the sign-in options link (not needed for password), and do step 4, 5, or 6 below depending on if you want to sign in to your user account with a password, fingerprint, picture password, or a PIN.

4. Type in the password of the selected local account or Microsoft account, press Enter or click/tap on the enter arrow

icon, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: If you wish to sign in to another user account instead, then click/tap on the back arrow at the top left to go back to step 2 to do so.

5. Click/tap on the fingerprint icon, scan a registered finger on the fingerprint reader, and go to step 8 below. (see screenshots below)

Note

If you like, you could also just swipe your finger over the fingerprint reader from the lock or sign in screen to automatically sign in to your user account without having to do step 2 or 3 above.

6. Click/tap on the picture password icon, draw the picture password of the selected user account, and go to step 8 below. (see screenshot below)

7. Click/tap on the PIN icon, enter the PIN number of the selected user account, and go to step 8 below. (see screenshot below)

8. You will now be signed in, and open to the Start screen in Windows 8. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: If you like, you can click/tap on the Desktop app tile to go to your desktop.

That's it,
Shawn

Signing in to Windows 8

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