Hello everyone,

a friend of mine recently bought a second-hand laptop but, as we soon discovered, the seller left parental controls on it. The computer locks itself at a set time every day and doesn’t allow the user to log back in.

So I tried to help. I created a bootable USB with Windows 10, wiped the disk in the computer and reinstalled. Thinking I had solved the problem, as an OS reinstall should, in this case, I gave it back to my friend. I just received a message from her, that the laptop just locked itself again.

Why is this happening? Are the parental controls somehow tied to a unique identifier, such as the built-in Windows activation code or similar? And, most importantly, how do I remove them?

Thanks a lot :)

  • @BangersAndMash
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    61 year ago

    Is the lock possibly set in the BIOS, not windows? You can often set on and off times there.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      21 year ago

      When it locks, it simply shows a regular Windows… window, that says something about usage time (trying to translate from our language). It doesn’t turn off completely

  • @[email protected]
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    1 year ago

    maybe the reinstall preserved the parental control?, try to wipe the disk using another computer, or a bootable pendrive, and after the disk is clean reinstall windows

  • @twack
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    11 year ago

    Is your friend using an online Microsoft account and not a local one? It is possible that the parental restrictions are set on their Microsoft account and not the computer.

      • @twack
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        21 year ago

        Did they then immediately activate the office 365 that their parents paid for? Make sure it’s still a local account, because Microsoft pushes pretty hard not to have those.

        • @[email protected]OP
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          11 year ago

          Funny thing is, they didn’t pay. I installed Office 365 and activated it with my own key, and you bet I haven’t put any parental control on there. I even checked if it enabled itself by chance, but it didn’t. She also signed into the PC with her account, but the issue existed before we used any Microsoft account…

  • slazer2au
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    -11 year ago

    If you can’t contact the seller to remove the device from parental controls. You will have to call Microsoft and get them to do it.