Windows x and 11 tips

How to share a Windows 10 PC

Need to share a Windows 10 PC amid employees or temporary workers at the office, or with family members at home? No problem — here's how to exercise it.

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

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

This article has been updated for the Windows 10 Oct 2020 Update (version 20H2). If you have an earlier release of Windows 10, some things may be slightly different.

Setting upwardly accounts for sharing a Windows 10 PC

Windows 10 makes it easy for multiple people to share the same PC. To practice it, you create separate accounts for each person who will use the computer. Each person gets their ain storage, applications, desktops, settings, and and so on.

One person, the PC'south administrator, sets upwards and manages all the accounts, including a variety of system settings that only the administrator tin can access. The ambassador business relationship is established when Windows is first installed or used on the machine. (You tin also upgrade other user accounts to administrator status, as I'll cover later in the story.)

If you lot're an administrator, setting up a user account is like shooting fish in a barrel. First you'll need the email address of the person for whom you want to fix an account. Ideally, this should be the sign-in information for their Microsoft account (such as an @outlook.com or @hotmail.com address or a corporate email address at an organization that uses Outlook) so they'll be able to use all of their existing Windows settings, get access to their OneDrive storage, and download and install apps from the Microsoft Store. Anybody can sign upward for a Microsoft business relationship for costless.

For now, we'll assume that the person you want to add together has a Microsoft account. Later on I'll show you how to set up an business relationship if they don't have 1 and don't want to annals for ane, but notation that you can't set up restrictions for family unit members unless they sign in with a Microsoft account. Accounts for children tin can only utilize an @outlook.com or @hotmail.com domain.

To add a user, click the Start button, select Settings and then cull Accounts. On the Accounts screen, cull Family & other users from the bill of fare on the left. To fix an account for a co-worker, get to the "Other users" section and click Add someone else to this PC. To ready accounts for family members that allow you fix age limits, game and app restrictions, etc., instead choose Add a family unit member nether the "Your family" section.

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After you lot create an business relationship for someone else, the proper noun appears on the Accounts page. (Click whatsoever image in this story to enlarge it.)

On the screen that appears, enter the email accost of the person for whom you want to create a user account, click OK and and then Cease. The user's name now appears on the "Family unit & other users" accounts page.

It likewise appears when you click the icon representing the electric current user of the PC, midway downwardly on the left side of the Start menu when you click the Commencement push button.

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When an account name is clicked in the Offset menu, it will show all of the accounts on the automobile.

If you're the possessor of the new account, there are two ways to offset using it. You can click the icon representing the account of the current user of the PC, midway down on the left side of the Start carte. That displays all the accounts on the PC. Click your account name and log into your account with your Microsoft account password. Or you lot can restart the PC: The Windows login screen will now have two accounts on it — yours and the ambassador's. You can click your account proper noun and log in with your Microsoft account countersign.

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

Creating a new user account without using a Microsoft business relationship

Creating a shared PC if the other person doesn't have or want a Microsoft account takes a little chip more than piece of work.

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

On the screen that appears, click I don't have this person's sign-in data. And so at the bottom of the side by side screen, click Add together a user without a Microsoft account.

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Yous tin can add a user who doesn't take a Microsoft account as a local account.

Now y'all can add a user name and a password. The person's account name volition now show up the same way every bit if you had created ane using a Microsoft business relationship.

When y'all create an account for someone in this style, information technology's called a local account. Unlike a Microsoft account, it won't sync settings between devices, and information technology doesn't give access to OneDrive. In addition, when someone has a local account, they won't be able to download or install any apps from the Microsoft Shop. They won't exist able to install desktop applications on their ain, either — when they effort to install them, they're prompted for the password of the administrator'southward account. And so an administrator volition accept to be nearby to type in the countersign in order for them to install desktop applications.

Switching between accounts

One time your account has been set up, it's easy to switch from the business relationship currently running on the motorcar to your own. If someone else is currently using Windows 10 on the machine, and you want to use it, you can click the Offset button, click the icon representing the electric current user's account midway down on the left side of the First menu, and so click the business relationship to which you desire to switch and type in the password.

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

One affair to keep in listen when several people employ a PC with separate accounts: Even when someone is not using the PC, they still remain signed into the account unless they sign out or the PC is restarted. And so several people might be signed into accounts, even though only 1 person is actively using the PC. (This does not mean that users have any access to the others' accounts. In that location can be but ane agile account at a time; an individual user volition still demand to re-enter the password to see their account.)

To see which users are currently signed in, click the Starting time button, then click the icon representing the current user'southward account midway down on the left side of the Start menu to see all of the machine'south accounts. Look underneath each account. The words "Signed in" will appear under the appropriate accounts.

What does it mean that someone is signed into their business relationship, even if they're not currently using it? When someone is signed in, Windows 10 saves the state of that person's user account — which applications the person was running, the files they were working on, then on. That mode, when they switches back to using their business relationship, everything will be in place, and they won't have to waste time launching apps, opening files, and and so on.

This is useful, only it can be problematic too, because information technology can 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 work — if the computer is switched to some other account, and the person using that second account restarts or shuts down the arrangement, the commencement person will lose their unsaved work.

The outcome? Information technology'due south e'er a skillful thought to log out of your account before letting someone else use the same computer. It but takes a moment: Click your account proper noun at the top of the Start bill of fare then click Sign out.

Managing accounts

If yous desire to allow another user have administrator admission, information technology'due south uncomplicated to do. Select Settings > Accounts > Family & other users, click the account to which you want to requite ambassador rights, click Alter account type, then click Account type. Choose Administrator and click OK. That'll do information technology. Y'all can ever change information technology back to a standard user account later using this same method.

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Yous can change a standard user account to an Ambassador account.

It'south also piece of cake to remove accounts — as long equally you're the administrator. Select Settings > Accounts > Family unit & other users, click the business relationship you want to remove and then click Remove. A screen appears warning you that when y'all delete the account, yous also delete all information associated with it, which include files, desktop setup, apps, music and and then on. Also, note that you can but delete an business relationship if the person has signed out of Windows x.

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When yous delete an account, yous also delete all data associated with it.

One time you've got it in hand, you'll find that this is a simple and useful fashion for sharing a Windows x PC amid multiple people.

Bonus tip: Plow on the hidden Windows 10 administrator account

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

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

This subconscious account has one advantage over a normal ambassador account — when yous use it, yous won't get whatever User Account Command (UAC) prompts. That makes it much easier to troubleshoot and customize Windows, because you won't exist constantly bothered by those pesky UAC notices.

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

Information technology's easy to turn on and utilize the hidden administrator account:

  1. Make certain that you lot're using your normal Administrator account.
  2. Click the Start button, scroll downward through your apps and click Windows Arrangement.
  3. Right-click Control Prompt from the drop-down card that appears, then click More than and select Run as administrator. The control prompt launches. Await in the prompt'due south championship bar — it will read "Administrator: Control Prompt."
  4. At the control prompt, blazon cyberspace user administrator /agile:yeah and press the Enter

That turns on the hidden ambassador business relationship. It volition appear on the Windows ten login screen and on the Starting time menu screen — just click information technology to apply it as you would any other account.

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When y'all plough on your PC's hidden ambassador account, it shows upward just like any other account in Windows x.

If you want to disable the subconscious account, follow steps 1 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 most recently updated in January 2021.

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