Why can't I add a second Work or School Account as a User on my Windows Computer?

Question

I am owner of/working at several companies. One of the companies (Company/Tenant A) has set up a Multi-Tenant-Organization and my user is being provisioned to another tenant (Company/Tenant B). So there is a UPN sebastian@companyA.com and one UPN sebastian@companyB.com.

So far I have been working within both tenants under my User Account from Company/Tenant A on my Windows computer. But as things are easy to get mixed up, I wanted to create a separate User Account for my User (that's been federated from Tenant A) for Company/Tenant B on my Windows computer. But which ever way I choose, if I am logged in with sebastian@companyA.com and want to create a new User sebastian@companyB.com Windows either complains the "That workplace or school account couldn't be found. Check the account name and try again." or "sebastian@companyB.com is not a Microsoft Account".

Any Ideas? I just want separate Windows Users per UPN.

Forwarded from: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_11-wintop_account/why-cant-i-add-a-second-work-or-school-account-as/c53e3393-9140-4033-a0b4-968e52db7902?messageId=5b911d81-e2b8-4015-bb6f-a6760c01deb5

Answer 1

Hello,

You try to create a separate user account on your Windows computer for your work accounts that are federated across multiple tenants.

Some solutions that maybe solve your problem:

1. Create Local Accounts for Each Tenant:
   • Instead of using your federated accounts directly, you can create separate local user accounts on your Windows computer and then link each one to the corresponding tenant account. This way, you'll have a dedicated local user profile on your computer for each UPN, making it less likely to run into conflicts.
   • Steps:
     1. Go to Settings → Accounts → Family & other users.
     2. Select Add someone else to this PC.
     3. Instead of adding an email address, select I don’t have this person’s sign-in information and then choose Add a user without a Microsoft account.
     4. Create a local user account.
     5. After that, log into that local user account and link your sebastian@companyB.com to this new Windows profile by adding it as a Work or School account.
2. Use Microsoft Edge Profiles or Browser-Based Separation: If the separation of accounts is primarily for Office 365 or web-based access to different tenants, using Microsoft Edge (or another browser) with distinct profiles for each UPN might solve the problem:
   • In Edge, you can create multiple profiles, each signed into different Microsoft 365/Azure accounts. This will allow you to keep your work environments distinct without creating new Windows user accounts.
   • This can be particularly useful if you only need the separation for apps like Teams, SharePoint, or Outlook.
3. Check Tenant and Federation Setup: Ensure that both Tenant A and Tenant B have the appropriate configurations for cross-tenant access and federation. Sometimes, cross-tenant federation can cause issues with login scenarios. Working with your IT admins to ensure that the accounts are fully federated and allowed in both tenants might help.
4. Try Azure AD Join: Instead of using traditional Microsoft Accounts, see if your IT department can set up an Azure AD Join scenario where you can register both tenants separately under the Azure AD identity management system.

Let me know if you need any further details on any of these steps!

Best regards,

Vassilis

Answer 2

Hello

It sounds like you're trying to manage multiple user accounts across different tenants on your Windows computer, which can indeed be tricky. Here are some steps and considerations that might help you achieve this:

 

Cross-Tenant Synchronization: Ensure that cross-tenant synchronization is properly configured. This allows users from one tenant to be recognized in another tenant. You can configure this in the Microsoft 365 admin center and Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) .

 

Configure cross-tenant synchronization - Microsoft Entra ID | Microsoft Learn

 

UPN Configuration: Make sure that the UPNs (User Principal Names) are correctly configured in Active Directory. You can add multiple UPN suffixes for specific users in Active Directory Users and Computers by enabling Advanced Features and modifying the UPN Suffixes in the Attribute Editor .

 

itexperience.net

 

Multi-Tenant Organization Setup: Verify that your multi-tenant organization setup is correctly configured. This involves defining a boundary around the tenants belonging to your organization and configuring cross-tenant access settings for B2B collaboration .

 

What is a multitenant organization in Microsoft Entra ID? - Microsoft Entra ID | Microsoft Learn