Page 920 - Windows 10 May 2019 Update The Missing Manual: The Book That Should Have Been in the Box

It happens—somebody graduates, somebody gets fired, somebody dumps

you. Sooner or later, you may need to delete an account from your PC.

If you’re signed in with an administrator account, you have the power to
kill off other people’s accounts. To do that, open → → Accounts →

“Family & other users.”

Select the account name, choose “Change account type,” and hit either
Remove (to remove a local account) or Block (to prevent a Microsoft

account holder from signing in; you can re-Allow them later, if necessary).
Use the drop-down menu to choose Administrator or Standard User.
Confirm by choosing “Delete account and data” or “Block.”

A few more points about deleting accounts:

You can’t delete the account you’re signed into.

You can’t delete the final administrator account. One must
remain.

You can create a new account with the same name and
password as one you deleted earlier, but in Windows’ head, it’s

still not the same account.

Don’t manipulate accounts manually (by fooling around in the
Users folder). Create, delete, and rename them using only Settings

or the Control Panel. Otherwise, you’ll wind up with duplicate or
triplicate folders in the Users folder, with the PC name tacked onto
the end of the original account name (Bob, Bob.DELL, and so on)

—a sure recipe for confusion.

Tip

If you’re an administrator, don’t miss the Users tab of the Task Manager dialog box. (Press
Ctrl+Shift+Esc to get to the Task Manager.) It offers a handy, centralized list of all the people
signed into your machine and contains buttons that let you sign them off or disconnect them. This
can be handy whenever you need some information, a troubleshooting session, or a power trip.