transferred surface pro to wife, how to set up ownership?

Question

I just bought a surface laptop 4 and gave my surface pro 7 to my wife to replace her old clunky Dell laptop. I did things in a poor manner transferring all her files first, and now she has a machine that still has me as registered owner, still requires my windows hello "face", and requires clicking on her profile in edge before it's "hers".

What's the easiest way to get this machine to be "hers"? I'd rather not reset it and have to reload s/w and data again. I don't want to wing it here and cause issues.

Thanks!

ken

Answer 1

I don't know if you are running Windowsm10 or 11. Go to Settings, Accounts, Family and other users. Add your wife's Microsoft account as OTHER USER not family. Give the account administrative privileges. See Create and Manage User Accounts and Privileges in Windows 10 (groovypost.com)

Windows 10

Windows 11

don't remove the SP7 from your account until a few days after you are sure everything is working the way you want.

Answer 2

You can TRY this, but you should back up files and data on the Surface you want to keep "just in case". And be prepared to reimage from the downloadable recovery image https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/surfacerecoveryimage  to start fresh.

1. Remove Hello face sign in from your account in Settings. Remove Your Face from Windows Hello in Windows 10 | Tutorials (tenforums.com)
2. Verify you can sign in with your password after restarting. Do this twice.
3. Verify that your wife's login is a Microsoft Account and (important) that she has administrative privileges and is not a Standard User. Do this from YOUR account. Change if necessary and restart.
4. Change YOUR account from a Microsoft Account to a local account. Restart.
5. Login with wife's Microsoft Account. Restart, login a second time with wife's Microsoft Account.
6. Now go in and remove YOUR local account while logged in with Wife's account.

If the above fails, you should use the recovery image to start fresh with her account.

Answer 3

Barb,

I am wondering if this matters, on my Microsoft account under "devices" I have the new laptop4 and the surface 7. On her Microsoft account she has the surface 7 and her old Dell. Should I remove the surface 7 from my account before or after this is finalized?

On step 3, you say "verify your wife's login". At this point the only login on the pro7 is my login which she currently has to use.

I am unclear as to how she can obtain a login for the pro7.

thanks for helping!

Answer 4

Thanks again, I've set her up as an administrator as you instructed. One thing though, all of her photos, some apps etc are not accessible from her login since - I assume - they were loaded under my account. How can I give her account access to everything loaded on the surface before I move ahead with the steps in your initial post?

Do I just move folders from my user name to hers, or public using file explorer?

Answer 5

Create a folder on the Surface named Pics. Log in to your account and move them there. Microsoft Store apps will need to be reinstalled in her account when she logs in.