Hi, since 2 days the process explorer.exe when started ask me for my microsoft account password, i realize it when i start my pc, win 10 home desktop 64, i’m the unique admin user and i’ve no passw for the log on so when i start my pc i suddenly see my desktop, but since 2 days i got the image attached…that ask me for my ms account passw.
this isn’t blocking cause if i click on the white arrow on the top left the image disappear and i see my desktop, this is the first time it happens…and going on and making my investigations i discover that if i shut down in task manager the explorer.exe process the desktop consequently disappear and became black and if i start again the process explorer.exe in task manager i got the same image attached asking me for my ms acc. passw., so this behaviour is tied and due to explorer.exe, infact at the winlogon there is the start of this process, so to sum up since 2 days explorer.exe when started, or at winlogon, or then manually by me in task manager, make appear the image attached asking me for ms acc. passw., the strange thing is that it isn’t blocking, i repeat that i’m able to click the white top left arrow and go suddenly to my desktop…but i’m asking here why this behaviour…is there a way to solve…??..i have also done deep antivirus scans with malwarebytes,eset on line, f secure on line,mcafee stinger and no virus has been found…so could you pls help me..?? thxs so much indeed in adv. cheers
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There are isolated problems with current patches, but they are well-known and documented on this site. |
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explorer.exe ask me for microsoft account passw.
- This topic has 139 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 2 months ago.
AuthorViewing 101 reply threadsAuthor-
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My guess is it’s OneDrive; so if you use OneDrive you should log in with a password, and if you don’t you should unlink or remove it.
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If you do NOT enter a password and cancel the window, does your PC still work?
Are you blocked from accessing anything?cheers, Paul
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@p060477 Something may have installed a shell extension on your system that gets loaded into the explorer.exe process. Following are a couple of tools that can be used to identify shell extensions.
From Microsoft — https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns Look at the content of the Explorer tab.
From NirSoft — https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html (Only supports Windows through through Win 10, not documented to support Win 11)
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Ouch!! That is too hard to read.
Open Autorun.
Select the “Explorer” tab.
Take a screenshot using “snip & sketch”.
Save the screenshot as a PNG file.
Upload the PNG file.cheers, Paul
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If you run Autoruns as Administrator it will probably display more information than the posted images.
I don’t recognize the posted image of the screen that requests your credentials.
In all the time that I have run Win 10 explorer has NEVER displayed such a screen to me!
You could try disabling some of the non-Microsoft shell extensions one by one to see if that has any effect on whether or not that screen is presented to you by the explorer process.
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Nothing in the images strikes me.
Do you get asked for credentials if –
- You start Windows in Safe mode?
- You sign-in with a local account instead of a Microsoft account?
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Try signing in with safe mode and network support.
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i put off the password request at start up years ago…and i use my pc with a local account, not microsoft,
But when you get the password request it’s for an email address ending with .it? (Partially blanked out in your first screenshot.) And that’s your Microsoft account?
So the real question is really just what needs your Microsoft account to be logged in. (I still think it’s OneDrive if you haven’t unlinked or uninstalled OneDrive.) Do you see a OneDrive Folder in File Explorer?
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this issue appears only since this 08 march 2024
@p060477, did you install any new software or any Windows Updates around the time that the problem began/1 user thanked author for this post.
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“Do you see a OneDrive Folder in File Explorer?”…:
yes,
Try unlinking OneDrive from your computer:
1. Select the OneDrive cloud in your notification area to show the OneDrive pop-up.
2. Select the OneDrive Help and Settings icon
then select Settings.
3. Go to the Account tab.
4. Select Unlink this PC.You won’t lose files or data by unlinking OneDrive from your computer. You can always access your files by signing in to OneDrive.com.
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anyway i should give a try also to unlink onedrive BUT first i ask you clearly:
the process of unlinking it is reverseable…??..i mean that after having onedrive unlinked am i also able to re-link it after my proof…??…and if yes pls should you be so kind to also explain to me how to re-link onedrive when i’ve unlinked it…??
Yes:
How to Link or Unlink OneDrive with Microsoft Account in Windows 10
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only ms updates…already tried to disinstall them but the issue does not disappear…
If your problem only just started to happen, and the only thing that you have done to the system is to install some Windows Updates, then it’s possible that one of these updates is causing the problem.
Can you revert your Windows to the state it was before the most recent updates were installed? There are at least two ways that you might be able to do this:
- By using System Restore;
- By using a backup image of your Windows drive.
If both of these options are available to you, then the simplest approach may be to try System Restore. If you discover that you have multiple restore points, then go back to each one in turn, starting with the most recent one, until you find one where the Explorer problem doesn’t show up.
Note that System Restore is not the same thing as uninstalling a Windows Update. It returns (“restores”) the Windows registry to the state it was before the updates were applied. (Unfortunately, it doesn’t work in every case.)
If you disable OneDrive as @b suggests and it solves the issue, then great–you’re all set. But if it doesn’t solve the issue, then maybe you can try System Restore next.
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Are you able to do anything while the window asking for your credentials is displayed without dismissing it by clicking on the white arrow?
Can you get to the Run dialog by pressing Win+R?
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another important investigation:
on my pc i’m using a useful tool:
Which apps start up automatically?
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@p060477, here is another suggestion: go into Task Scheduler and look for tasks that are either related to explorer.exe, or triggered “at log on”. This may provide useful clues as to what is going on.
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Your Task Scheduler doesn’t show any items that have to do with explorer.exe, but it does show two tasks that are related to OneDrive. Try disabling those two tasks and reboot the PC, to see if you’re still getting the password request. (You can always re-enable them later.)
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@p060477, You wrote that the credential screen “doesn’t block” but if you are unable to do anything except interact with it while it is visible then it IS BLOCKING.
Windows (10 & 11) shortcut key documentation (including Win+R) can be found at Keyboard shortcuts in Windows I was trying to see if you could get to the Run dialog while the credential screen is displayed. If you can, you can use it to run applications like process explorer or other diagnostic tools that might reveal information that is not present after the credential screen has been dismissed.
@b, I’m not a OneDrive user and so am not familiar with any UI that it might present. Does the description of how the credential screen behave seem standard to you (assuming you are familiar with OneDrive)?1 user thanked author for this post.
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@b, I’m not a OneDrive user and so am not familiar with any UI that it might present. Does the description of how the credential screen behave seem standard to you (assuming you are familiar with OneDrive)?
No, I would have expected OneDrive to be announced in the dialog title.
But I always sign into Windows with a Microsoft account, so I never see any requests to sign in to apps or services with that.
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@p060477, to avoid further confusion and keep you from going even further down this particular rabbit hole…
Explorer.exe is what runs the desktop and all the other programs that run during Windows startup. If it’s not running, there isn’t a desktop and you can’t run any programs. Stopping explorer.exe removes the login prompt simply because, stopping it, stops all the processes it ran when Windows started!
So, whatever’s causing the extra login, it’s not directly related to explorer.exe but some program that it runs as part of the Windows startup process.
if i disable internet connection this issue disappear…no any window asking me for ms acc.passw if i start explorer.exe
This indicates the extra login you’re seeing is directly related to an attempt to connect your PC to some “external” resource (i.e. not located on your PC) that requires a MS account login to access (i.e. Microsoft365, Outlook.com, Windows Hello for Business, etc.)
You need to drop the whole “explorer.exe is causing the problem” idea and concentrate your efforts on discovering exactly what program/process it starts that’s attempting to connect your PC to that “external” Microsoft product.
You’ve indicated this started around 8 March so, did you start using any “cloud-based” Microsoft products around that time frame?
Also bear in mind, if you’ve been using a “cloud-based” Microsoft product for a while (like OneDrive), the requirement to now login with a MS account when Windows starts could be a result of changes made to that particular product instead of changes made to your PC (i.e. prior to 8 March your PC was able to access whatever it is “without” logging in, but to access it now “requires” a MS account login.)
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how much should have i to do
We don’t know what is requesting access to your MS account so we can only make educated guesses. We need you to try our suggestions and return any information that may help us help you, but we can’t guarantee to be able to fix your issue.
Please try to remember if you made / saw any changes around the 8th.
Also check what updates were installed around that date and any apps that updated.cheers, Paul
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@p060477, At this point it is an assumption that the prompting for credentials that blocks the desktop is coming from a benign application. I don’t know if the various antimalware/antivirus applications would flag an application that simply requested credentials but did not otherwise perform bad acts.
You posted a large number of images from autoruns but they were all of the Explorer tab. There are many ways that a process can get started when the system boots and a user sign-on happens (whether automatic or not). For example, a scheduled task can be used. A service can be used. And so forth. You would need to review all of the possibilities, identify what is started and then determine whether it is benign and expected or otherwise. This may require a greater level of technical expertise than you possess.
Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to diagnose your issue remotely through conversation here at AW.
One more thought — have you tried to search the internet for the image of the screen that asks for your sign-on credentials? Perhaps someone else has encountered the same issue and made some progress.
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Your screen shots don’t really help because either they were produced after you clicked the white arrow to dismiss the login screen (i.e. whatever process caused the login screen to appear was no longer running), they don’t show the necessary info, or the text it displays isn’t English and those of us trying to help you can’t understand what it’s showing us.
Run Autoruns again but this time only attach images of the Logon tab:
And the Scheduled Tasks tab:
And we’ll see if one of the processes they display might cause the extra login screen.
Also, if you’re using any other “in the cloud” service besides OneDrive, you should try temporarily disabling it to see if that stops the login request?
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hi to you all
again, first let me thxs you all so much for all yr kind attn
here there are all the screenshoot requested
and you ask:
“Also, if you’re using any other “<em class=”gdbbx-bbcode-italic”>in the cloud” service besides OneDrive, “…:
NO any other , and i repeat that i’ve unlinked onedrive to my pc
thxs so much to you all
you are very kind, and patienceable too
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@p060477, here are a few ideas:
I. Go to this link: https://superuser.com/questions/947281/windows-10-asks-me-to-enter-a-password, try the top answer, and see if it solves the problem.
II. Can you open your Task Manager, go to the Startup tab, and post a screenshot of the list that’s shown there? We would be looking for any startup program that may be requesting/requiring that unwanted login. (If the tab gives the same list as your Startup Manager tool, there is no need to upload a screenshot.)
III. Regarding your screenshots from Autoruns: thank you. I am no expert on the inner workings of Windows and no doubt others here will be able to help with that. On those screenshots, I would be focusing on items that have a timestamp just before when your troubles began.
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FBackup and CIE Middleware are the only 2 that stand out. Are they recent?
cheers, Paul
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hi to you all
again, first let me thxs you all so much for all yr kind attn
@Paul T:no…i’ve them, Cie FBackup , since years
if you mean this:
” Right-click the Windows Logo (Start Button) and click “Run”
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netplwizand click “OK” - Uncheck “Users must enter a username and password to use this computer.”
see my attachment:
i’ve no box to uncheck
..cause i’ve already take off the possibility to have passw.to my ony user pc’s admin acct
i also copied here my regedit key:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\PasswordLess\Device]
“DevicePasswordLessBuildVersion”=dword:00000002the value 2 means Passwordless ON
https://www.top-password.com/blog/enable-or-disable-passwordless-login-for-microsoft-accounts/
thxs so much to you all
you are very helpful, kind
and patienceable too
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What is the size of Explorer.exe ?
Did you check the file with virus total ?
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/5779777a3b945db41a30179677d9e394a499875ce52c8c8cc8491c454646c1321 user thanked author for this post.
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What is the size of Explorer.exe ?
Did you check the file with virus total ?
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/5779777a3b945db41a30179677d9e394a499875ce52c8c8cc8491c454646c132hi and thxs
yes first investigation was surely this on virustotal and the results were total trusted and clean…
thxs so much for yr kind attn
cheers
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Can you upload screen shot of security tab ?
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hi and thxs again for yr precious attn.
here it is
, only trustedinstaller has the “complete control” ,
hope this helps, let me know
thxs so much indeed again
cheers
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@p060477, You never told us if you tried starting your system in safe mode WITH network support.
I asked you to do this because if you can start in safe mode with an active network and the credential screen does NOT appear then it suggests that something else besides explorer.exe is the source of the issue.
Also, please post the content of the autoruns “Services” tab.
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bootin in safe mode WITH network support: NO ISSUE…the credential screen does NOT appear
This proves explorer.exe is not causing the login prompt as it also starts everything when using safe mode.
So, once again, the whole “explorer.exe might be causing this” idea is a complete waste of time and everyone should stop suggesting it could be!!
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Your safe mode results give us the critical info needed to help isolate exactly what is causing it because, when in safe mode, any non-essential Microsoft programs/services/drivers and all 3rd party programs/services.drivers are disabled (i.e. they don’t get loaded/started.)Here’s how to proceed to figure out what process on your PC is causing this.
1st, lets determine if it’s a particular service as follows:
Boot Windows into normal mode where you see the prompt
1- Click the arrow at the login prompt to gain access to the desktop.
2- Press the Windows key + R to open a Run prompt.
3- Enter cmd and press the Enter key.
4- Type in the following and then press the Enter key.
net start >C:\ActiveServices_normal-mode.txt
This will create a text file in the root of your C: drive containing a list of all the “currently running” services for normal mode.
Now boot into safe mode with network support and repeat the above steps but enter this as the last step in the cmd prompt.
net start >C:\ActiveServices_safe-mode.txt
This will create a text file in the root of your C: drive containing a list of all the “currently running” services for safe mode.
Attach the two files you created (ActiveServices_normal-mode.txt & ActiveServices_safe-mode.txt) to your reply so we can compare the differences between the two modes and possibly ID which service might be causing the login prompt.
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Ok, first I removed all the services listed in your ActiveServices_safe-mode.txt file from your ActiveServices_normal-mode.txt file.
Second, after translating the service names to English so I could compare them (“wasn’t really expecting that“), I removed all the services that run in normal-mode on my Windows 10 (where I don’t get such a prompt) from your ActiveServices_normal-mode.txt file.
Finally, I removed any services that obviously wouldn’t cause a MS account login prompt which left these 2 services that “could” be causing it.
Assistente per l'accesso all'account Microsoft = Microsoft account sign-in assistant OneSyncSvc_3ec3e (AKA Sync Host) = OneSyncSvc (AKA Sincronizzare l'host)
Notes:
Microsoft account sign-in assistant enables user sign-in through Microsoft account identity services.
OneSyncSvc (AKA Sync Host) synchronizes your Microsoft Account, OneDrive, Windows Mail, Contacts, Calendar and various other apps.
I’d suggest temporarily disabling both these services as follows:
1- Click the arrow at the login prompt to gain access to the desktop.
2- Press the Windows key + R to open a Run prompt.
3- Enter msconfig and press the Enter key.
4- Select the Services tab
5- Scroll down the list until you find Assistente per l’accesso all’account Microsoft and uncheck it’s box.
6- Scroll down the list until you find OneSyncSvc_????? and uncheck it’s box (note: ????? will be a hex number.)
Reboot your PC and see if that stops the prompt from appearing?
If this works, re-enable each service one by one to isolate exactly which one is causing the prompt to appear and then we can discuss whether that service’s startup type should be changed to manual instead of automatic.
If this doesn’t work, we’ll need to proceed to the next step and try to isolate which program/app causes it.
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first let me thank you again:
the situation changed, with something also very strange…
i did:
5- Scroll down the list until you find “Assistente per l’accesso all’account Microsoft” and uncheck it’s box. 6- Scroll down the list until you find “OneSyncSvc_?????” and uncheck it’s box (note: ????? will be a hex number.)
BUT there is really NO way to uncheck OneSyncSvc…: when i click on “apply” only the “Assistente per l’accesso all’account Microsoft” remains correctly unchecked…the other:”OneSyncSvc” re-gets its black flag…so it returns, incredibly , checked…why…?? rebootin in this way now the situations slightly changed…it appears ,for a millisecond, a blue screen window with a white script: “un momento…” (maybe in yr english s.o. should be : please wait… or something similar i guess…) and then my desktop appears finally without the screen credentials window, so now i do not have to Click the arrow at the login prompt to gain access to the desktop. I attach here a screenshoot cause i did also my try to manually close explorer.exe in task and then to re-start it and in this way this new blu screen window appears for a longer time make me able to screenhoot it.
What you think of all of this?
there is really NO way to uncheck OneSyncSvc, i re-underline that i’ve unlinked onedrive from my pc as per:
https://td.usnh.edu/TDClient/60/Portal/KB/ArticleDet?ID=4013
maybe the new image attached, with the white script: un momento…
is still due to this service that i’m not able to uncheck…
i attach also 2 screenshoots from autoruns tab services where you see 2 onesyncsvc…
onesyncsvc and onesyncsvc+hex number
i highlighted their properties cause they seems different…hope this helps…
I re-thank you from the very deep of my heart. Cheers
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BUT there is really NO way to uncheck OneSyncSvc…: when i click on “apply” only the “Assistente per l’accesso all’account Microsoft” remains correctly unchecked…the other:”OneSyncSvc” re-gets its black flag…so it returns, incredibly , checked…why…??
@p060477, if you can live without OneDrive, then I would suggest uninstalling it. Not simply unlinking it, but removing it entirely from your PC. You can use the uninstall instructions that Microsoft provides here under the heading “Hide or Uninstall OneDrive”.After uninstalling OneDrive, you can reboot and see if the blue splash screen stops appearing.
About that OneSyncSvc service, I uninstalled OneDrive soon after I bought my Windows 10 PC, but that service is still running. I have the same experience as you: when I try to disable it and click on Apply, it gets the check mark back. Below the list of services in msconfig, it says, “Note that some secure Microsoft services may not be disabled”. It looks like this is one of them.
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From the screenshots for OneSyncSvc it appears that it is what is called a “per-user” service. This is something that was implemented beginning with Windows 10. There are two significant distinctions between a per-user service and a “regular” window service. Per-user services are created for a user at sign-on time based on a template in the registry . The registry entry for a per-user service is deleted by the system when a user signs-off. So unlike a regular windows service for which one running instance can exist (before users sign-on) a running instance of a per-user service can exist for every signed-on user. The other very significant difference is that per-user services run in the security context of the signed-on user and also run in that user’s interactive logon session. Regular windows services run in an their own isolated non-interactive session.
To absolutely prevent a per-user service from being created when you sign-in to windows you need to edit the registry entry for the service template. Under HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services the key name OneSyncSvc is the template. The per-user service is the key named OneSyncSvc_3f18c. The hex characters following “OneSyncSvc_” will change with every sign-in. If the template key does have a value named “UserServiceFlags” (type REG_DWORD) I expect its entry is 3. To prevent the system from creating the per-user service at sign-on change the UserServiceFlags value from 3 to 0 (zero). If the UserServiceFlags value does not exist you can create it with the registry editor. When you are done remember to reset the entry back to 3 from 0.
The other option is to let the system create a per-user service but change its start type to disabled. Since per-user services are created/deleted with every sign-on/sign-off you must make this change directly in the registry by editing the template key. It should have a value named “Start” (type REG_DWORD) with a numeric entry (probably 2 or 3). Record the value for later restoration and change the registry data to 4. This edit causes per-user services to be created with a Start type of Disabled instead of Automatic or Manual.
For example, this is what the above registry data could like like in a template for a per user service –
Note that the template configures the per-user service for Manual start (Start = 3) and the system will create the per-user service at sign-on (UserServiceFlags = 3).
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About that OneSyncSvc service, I uninstalled OneDrive soon after I bought my Windows 10 PC, but that service is still running
I haven’t uninstalled OneDrive nor unlinked yet I don’t have OneSyncSvc service.
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Huh, interesting. I wonder what accounts for the difference.
The Microsoft link I gave to @p060477 contains the following disclaimer about uninstalling OneDrive:
OneDrive is built in to some versions of Windows and can’t be uninstalled.
Maybe OneSyncSvc is another thing that can be changed in some Windows versions but not in others?
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Turn off, disable, or uninstall OneDrive
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The link in your reply leads to the same Web page that I gave @p060477 up above.
I can’t reproduce your screenshot because OneDrive was uninstalled soon after I bought that PC.
We still need to hear tom @p060477 whether he/she can uninstall OneDrive. The ability to do this, or to disable that OneSyncSvc via GUI, appears to be different from one PC to another.
N.B.: After posting the above, I saw that OneDrive is now uninstalled on @p060477’s computer, and that the blue login screen is still showing up.
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@p060477, Please go back to my earlier post about per-user services. Read it slowly and carefully. If you want to prevent the system from creating a per-user service at sign-on you must edit the registry. If you want to allow the system to create a per-user service at sign-on but have its start type set to Disabled you must edit the registry.
The registry key under HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Service that needs to be edited is the one that does NOT have the hex characters following the underscore character (_). As I said earlier that is the template (i.e., edit OneSyncSvc NOT OneSyncSvc_xxxx).
For this particular issue use the registry editor, not autoruns or msconfig.
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As EricB pointed out, to disable OneSync you need to use regedit and change the Start value from 3 to 4.
Note: you may have to change the “owner” of the OneSyncSvc key in order to make the change.
Right-click the OneSyncSvc key name and check whether Administrators has “Full Control” under the Allow column.
If they do and your user has Admin rights, you should be able to change it.
If they don’t and/or your user doesn’t have Admin rights.
1- Click the Advanced button at the bottom right.
2- Click the Change option to the right of the current owner; which should be SYSTEM.
3- Depending on whether your user has Admin rights or not, enter either Administrators or your Username in the “Select User or Group” box.
4- Click OK twice to return to the Permission windows.
5- Select Administrators/your Username an check the “Full Control” box.
You should now be able to change the Start value to 4.
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Uninstalling OneDrive might not be the complete solution since doing that doesn’t disable the OneSyncSvc.
See the above posts on how to actually disable it.
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@p060477, All that means is that the per-user OneSyncSvc_xxx was not the source of the credential screen.
Now that you know how to disable per-user services if you encounter any more of them I suggest you consider my earlier post about disabling items that appear in the autoruns Everything tab one by one followed by reboot/sign-in to find the source of the problem by process of elimination.
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I’d suggest downloading and running Sysinternals Process Monitor.
Set up filters for what processes and registry keys you want to watch.
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At this point it’s probably not another service that’s causing the new prompt you’re seeing but a program/app that runs during startup that requires one of the 2 services you’ve now disabled (i.e. you’re now getting the “please wait” prompt because it’s trying to access a service that’s not running.)
So, run msconfig again and select the Startup tab:
1- Disable half of the items listed (i.e. uncheck the box by their names) and reboot to see if the prompt still appears.
2- If that doesn’t work, re-enable the ones you disabled, disable the other half, then reboot to see if it still appears.
If either of those steps works, then simply re-enabling each of the ones you disabled (one at a time) until you find the particular one that causes the prompt to appear.
If those steps don’t work, then it’s going to be a lot more difficult (although not impossible) to figure out what’s causing the prompt.
BTW, because you got that new style prompt before the OneSync service was disabled, I “‘suspect” it’s the Assistente per l’accesso all’account Microsoft service it’s trying to access which would indicate, whatever it is, it’s attempting to access something that requires a MS account login (and we now know it’s not OneDrive.)
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At this point it’s probably not another service that’s causing the new prompt you’re seeing but a program/app that runs during startup that requires one of the 2 services you’ve now disabled (i.e. you’re now getting the “please wait” prompt because it’s trying to access a service that’s not running.)
So, run msconfig again and select the Startup tab:
1- Disable half of the items listed (i.e. uncheck the box by their names) and reboot to see if the prompt still appears.
2- If that doesn’t work, re-enable the ones you disabled, disable the other half, then reboot to see if it still appears.
If either of those steps works, then simply re-enabling each of the ones you disabled (one at a time) until you find the particular one that causes the prompt to appear.
If those steps don’t work, then it’s going to be a lot more difficult (although not impossible) to figure out what’s causing the prompt.
BTW, because you got that new style prompt before the OneSync service was disabled, I “‘suspect” it’s the Assistente per l’accesso all’account Microsoft service it’s trying to access which would indicate, whatever it is, it’s attempting to access something that requires a MS account login (and we now know it’s not OneDrive.)
done, msconfig tab start up make me go to task manager tab start up, maybe this is win 10 home behaviour,anyway i disable all the process…issue still remains…
you write:
“I “suspect” it’s the Assistente per l’accesso all’account Microsoft it’s trying to access which would indicate, whatever it is, it’s attempting to access something that requires a MS account login”…:
me too think this
…so looking at all my screenshoots and
text files about normal and safe bootin
i’ve already uploaded here
are you able to make me investigate narrowing the field of possibilities…??
for me and my very few skills and knowledge is like to find a needle in a haystack….
hoping you still have the so very kind patience to continue helping me
i re-thank you so very much indeed
cheers
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“I “suspect” it’s the Assistente per l’accesso all’account Microsoft it’s trying to access which would indicate, whatever it is, it’s attempting to access something that requires a MS account login”…: me too think this
@p060477, here is another idea: go to Services in the Microsoft Management Console. (From the Start menu, you should be able to type in “Services” or the equivalent in Italian, then from the results you can click on either “Services” or “services.msc” to open the console.)Once you have the list of services, look for the Assistente per l’accesso all’account Microsoft (the name of this service in English is Microsoft Account Sign-In Assistant). Now check both the Status and the Startup Type for this service, and report what you see. (A screenshot should be OK.)
In my case, this service is not running (the Status field is blank) and, for the Startup Type, it says “Manual (Trigger Start)”.
1 user thanked author for this post.
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Ok, it’s not a program/app that gets auto-started by Windows so the next thing to check is whether it’s something that’s scheduled to always run when Windows starts.
To make it “easier” for you to do a screen capture that’ll show them, download NirSoft’s Task Scheduler Viewer from the following link.
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/taskschedulerview-x64.zip
Extract the contents of the zip file and run TaskSchedulerView.exe.
Click the Last Run column twice so it sorts the “most recently run” tasks to the top like this.
And then take screen shots to show the tasks and post them here
Note: only capture an image of the ones that ran that day like the in the above image.
BTW, I checked and, while the Assistente per l’accesso all’account Microsoft service “depends” on the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) service to work, there are no services that “depend” on it to run (i.e. disabling it will not cause some other service to fail.)
1 user thanked author for this post.
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As I indicated, we only needed to see those task that ran that day so your images task3-1, task4-1 & task5-1 weren’t really necessary since the dates all those tasks last ran was before today’s date of 18/03/2024.
While there are some tasks showing some error codes, mostly related to “file not found”, the one task that ran today that jumps out at me is the Work Folders Logon S… on the task1-1 image that runs at logon.
I googled the visible part of the task name it “seems” to be the Work Folders Logon Synchronization task which keeps your files in sync automatically as long as your PC or device is connected to the Internet.
I’d suggest temporarily disabling it as follows and see if that makes a difference.
1- Press the Windows key + R to open a Run prompt.
2- Enter cmd and press the Enter key.
4- Type in the following and then press the Enter key.
schtasks /Change /TN "\Microsoft\Windows\Work Folders\Work Folders Logon Synchronization" /Disable
Reboot and see if the prompt still appears?
If the prompt still shows up, you can re-enable that task by using the above steps and replacing /Disable with /Enable.
1 user thanked author for this post.
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Have you ever told us if anything happens if you do sign into this mystery dialog box with your Microsoft Account password? (I searched the thread.)
1 user thanked author for this post.
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Have you ever told us if anything happens if you do sign into this mystery dialog box with your Microsoft Account password? (I searched the thread.)
@b:i really do not want to sign in until i really know from which ,for me unknown still now,source it is started…this is why i’m trying,with yr fondamental and so precious help,
to identify which is the strange unknown hidden source that start it
thxs so much for yr kind attn
cheers
1 user thanked author for this post.
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Personally, I don’t see any other services/apps/scheduled tasks in any of the screen shots you’ve provided that should require a MS account login at startup. of course I don’t use all the same services/apps/scheduled tasks that you do.
In fact, I deliberately disabled a lot of the ones your systems shows as being used and don’t even have a MS account.
At this point, I’ve pretty much exhausted all the “regular items” (i.e. services, autoruns & scheduled tasks) that I suspected might be causing it so, unless someone else has some ideas on what it might be using your screen shots, I’m left with only 2 more things to check.
Because you disabled the MS account login service (Assistente per l’accesso all’account Microsoft), whatever it is is now failing to work properly (i.e. you’re getting that “please wait” prompt instead of the MS account login prompt.)
That means Windows “should” be recording some sort of error message for that process in either the Reliability Monitor or Event Logs (or maybe in both.)
Because it’s much easier to access/view, lets take a look at the Reliability Monitor first.
1- Press the Windows key + R to open a Run prompt.
2- Type in the following and then press the Enter key.
C:\Windows\System32\perfmon.exe /rel
Take a screen shot and post it so we can see if there’s anything it reports that’s worth looking into.
BTW, as far as we know, no one else has encountered this particular issue so, whatever it is, it’s unique to your particular setup (i.e. some Microsoft service, program or app that you’re using that others don’t) which makes it that much harder to ID it!
1 user thanked author for this post.
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And there’s the answer!
The event log shows the Microsoft-Windows-User Device Registration process is trying to access Windows Hello for Business but can’t because it will not start. Normally those 2 processes are only used if a PC needs to connected to an Azure AD (AAD) network.
So the question now is: Did you started using an Azure AD network around 8 March when the prompt started showing up?
If yes.
That’s why you started getting the prompt and, if you still need to access the AAD network, you’ll need to re-enable those items we asked you to disable so you can login and have it available.
If no.
You need to disconnect from Azure AD to stop the login prompt.
4 users thanked author for this post.
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Azure AD network
1) “Did you started using an Azure AD network “…NEVER
2) “You need to disconnect from Azure AD to stop the login prompt.”…:
…but i really do not have it in my pc…
i read the link you gave but the instructions given really did not apply to my pc situation…
in the linked tutorial is written..:
“you will see your Azure AD account underWork or school users “…
i really do not have it…i attach here the screenshoots…
so how to solve..??..
thank you again for yr kind helping and gentle patience
cheers
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“again making sure not to disable anything essential to start windows as demonstrate by safe mode”…. this is the problem…the main for me..i’m not really an expert and so skilled..so the probabilities of making some very dangerous are too high for me..
@p060477, I believe that you can protect against the possibility of doing something that will mes up your system, by using System Restore. (Others reading this: please correct me if this is wrong!)From your Start menu, type “restore point” (without the quotation marks). One of the top results should be, “Create a restore point”. Click on it and then allow the system to make changes.
You will then get a System Properties dialog, showing you the tab for System Protection. in the lower half of the dialog, you will see a list of the drives that are on your PC, such as “Windows (C) (System)”. Click on the top button to Configure, then select the radio button to “Turn on system protection”. Click OK on that and then click on the second button to Create a restore point.
Once the restore point is created, you will have a fallback position that you can return to if you disable something (as @EricB recommends) that causes a problem. System Restore will put everything back to the way it was before you started disabling items in Autoruns.
Separately, I also highly recommend that you create a backup system image of your Windows drive. There are many free or paid programs to do this, and they will offer a solution for all sorts of dangers including disk failure and data corruption, so this is something that you should be doing anyway.
1 user thanked author for this post.
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I’ve been looking through the thread and the attachments and can’t find this info anywhere.
In the SearchBox, type winver and hit Enter. Post a screenshot, please.
1 user thanked author for this post.
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In the past i’ve a restore point and a disk image back up, with easeus todo back up free, BUT when a deep trouble comes in …noone of these could have been able to save my pc…so now i’m very very disillusioned….hope you could understand…history teaches..and in personal , i repeat “personal”, experience taught this…apologize me….
attached the screenshoot
i’m running windows 10 home…so i could not have windows hello for business..
am i wrong…??
i read the link you gave but the instructions given really did not apply to my pc situation…
in the linked tutorial is written..:
“you will see your Azure AD account underWork or school users “…
i really do not have it…
already attached the screenshoots of my account settings…
so how to solve..??..
thank you again for yr kind attn and precious helping
cheers
1 user thanked author for this post.
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Since this is now on day 11 (2 days prior to the thread start), it might be time to do an in-place upgrade…
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html
1 user thanked author for this post.
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To avoid further confusion and so everyone knows exactly that’s going on, here’s the English translation of the relevant section of the event log item @p060477 attached.
Registry name: Microsoft-Windows-User Device Registration/Admin Source: Microsoft-Windows-User Device Registration Date: 03/19/2024 16:59:47 Event ID: 360 Activity Category: None Level: Warning Keyword: User: pc\ Computer: PC Description: Windows Hello for Business provisioning will not start.
For those who can’t follow it, here’s what’s that means.
On 19 March at 16:59:47 (i.e. while Windows was starting after a reboot) the Microsoft-Windows-User Device Registration process attempted to connect to an external resource that requires Windows Hello for Business validation.
Because the MS account login service has been disabled, it was unable to create the Windows Hello for Business login prompt needed to connect to that external resource and, because it couldn’t, the above event warning was recorded.
This is directly related to the fact the MS account login prompt changed to a “please wait” prompt after the MS account login service was disabled!
As I pointed out above, the combination of those two processes normally only happens if a PC has been configured to connect to an Azure AD type network (AD = Active Directory.)
BTW, the name “Windows Hello for Business” is actually very misleading because AD type networks are used by lots of organizations that are not businesses (i.e. libraries, universities/colleges, government agencies, etc.) IMHO, a “much” better name would have been Windows Hello for Active Directory or Enhanced Windows Hello, but that’s getting off-topic so…
At this point, trying to go back and disable other services, apps or scheduled tasks probably isn’t going to help because configuring a Windows Hello connection to an external resource is a one and done process!
You register the connection the first time you use the external resource and then the Microsoft-Windows-User Device Registration process, which controls all externally registered devices (i.e. cloud resources), will initiate the connection whenever Windows boots up; not some other service, app or scheduled task.
Just like the only way to remove a particular drive, mouse, keyboard, USB hub, etc., etc. after you’ve connected (registered) it with Windows by plugging it into your PC is to delete the driver for that particular device, the only way to remove such an external resource is to delete (unregister) the connection to it.
Since @p060477’s above screen shots don’t show an AD type network connection under his login options, I’m not sure exactly how whatever it is got connected to his PC in the first place nor how to go about removing that connection?
Maybe others with more experience in dealing with external Windows Hello for Business type resources can address that?
1 user thanked author for this post.
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FWIW, My system only has a local account. It is not domain joined. I have never used OneDrive or anything that requires a Microsoft Account sign-in. I’ve never seen a credential screen as described by @p060477. Regardless, my event logs are filled with entries for the same Event 360 and the detail looks like this –
1 user thanked author for this post.
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Did some searching on the internet and ran across instructions on how to disable Windows Hello for Business post logon provisioning (which is what the prompt you’re seeing “should” be) that might help eliminate it??
Here’s how to do it:
1- Press the Windows key + R to open a Run prompt.
3- Enter cmd and press the Enter key.
4- Type in the following, one line at a time, and press the Enter key.
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\PassportForWork" /v Enabled /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\PassportForWork" /v DisablePostLogonProvisioning /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
5- Reboot.
If the prompt doesn’t appear, then your problem is solved and you can reset all the things you’ve disabled back to normal.
If it does still appear, then I’m out of ideas and you’ll need help from someone else.
If you need/want to restore the above settings back to their normal Not Configured state, here’s how:
1- Press the Windows key + R to open a Run prompt.
3- Enter cmd and press the Enter key.
4- Type in the following and press the Enter key.
reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\PassportForWork" /f
BTW, like @EricB I also only use a local account and have never used OneDrive, nor anything else that requires a MS account login, but there are no event 360 items in my event logs.
1 user thanked author for this post.
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Done a check to mine and is set to 1 (see screenshoot)
My settings for AllowSignInOptions are exactly the same as yours and, since I’m not getting that MS account login prompt, changing it probably won’t get rid of the prompt for you.
Of course it won’t hurt to try changing it to 0 to see if it does or not but, if it doesn’t, you should change it back to 1.
Also, as I indicated previously, I’m out of ideas on how to proceed so you should now turn to some of the other users for advice on further troubleshooting.
I’m only one amongst the “august crowd” of experts here. There are a lot of other Askwoodie users with tons of knowledge that can continue to help you!
As a final “helpful” post, I’ll point this out:
Whatever is causing this is something unique to your Windows configuration that got changed right before you started seeing the MS account login prompt around 8 March.
For that to have happened would require one of the follow must have taken place around that time frame:
1- Some Microsoft service, app or scheduled task was updated to a new version that now requires a MS account login.
You indicated Windows was updated (and your Winver screen shot verifies the March updates were installed) but was anything else updated around 8 March?
2- Some program/app you use was auto-updated and now requires a MS account login.
You indicated you used the startup tab of Task Manager to disable all the auto-start items and the prompt didn’t disappear, which would seem to indicate that didn’t happen.
3- Some on-line Microsoft service you’re using, such as OneDrive, now requires a MS account login were before 8 March it didn’t.
You removed OneDrive and still get the prompt, so it wasn’t that, and you’ve indicated you don’t use any other on-line Microsoft services. Did you sign up for any new on-line service around 8 March?
4- Your PC is connected to an Azure AD type network which requires Windows Hello for business verification; and thus a MS account logon.
We’ve been unable to find such a connection so you can disable it. Have you ever been or recently connected to a external business network?
That pretty much covers all the various options I can think of that could have changed your Windows configuration such that it now requires a MS account login during boot up.
At this point my only further suggestion would be to leave things as they are (i.e. the “please wait” prompt that disappears after a short while) and just continue using your PC as normal until you run across a particular program/app/on-line service you use that no longer works.
That’ll be the specific item that now requires a MS account logon and you’ll know whether it’s something you need to use or not?
Since you haven’t complained about something you regularly use no longer working, I suspect whatever it is will be something you don’t need/use, but only time will tell.
If it turns out to be something you do need to use, re-enable the various items we had you disable so you can continue to use it and please post back to this thread to let us know you figured out what it was.
If it turns out to be something you do not need to use, please post back to this thread to let us know you figured out what it was and we’ll try to help you figure out how to completely disable it.
Good luck!
3 users thanked author for this post.
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@p060477, You could create a new local standard user account (non-Administrator). When you logon using the new account if the credential screen is displayed that would suggest that the problem is system-wide. On the other hand, if it is not displayed then the problem would seem to be specific to your usual account. If that is the case then identifying the differences between what is started at logon for the new account compared to your usual account might be informative.
1 user thanked author for this post.
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Thanks for making us guess instead of telling us!
Have you posted your question anywhere else other than here, Microsoft Community and TenForums.com?
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Do some research –
i’m really not an expert
That’s how you become one…
1 user thanked author for this post.
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…i repeat that i’m not an expert and also english is really not my mother language…
so i pray you to indicate me a place where i should be able to upload the .pml file..as it was an image…of course if image is nearly 3 mb should be much more fast…
in my case is nearly 308mb…pls indicate me a site where i should be able to choose the file, click upload, and then,of course maybe take also hours due to the size, give you the link
to be clear i mean something like:
cheers
An image uploading site like postimages.org is not what you need. That’s for uploading images (photographs, screenshots, illustrations).
What you need to use is a file-sharing service like Dropbox, OneDrive, or (my personal favorite) WeTransfer.
Because the Process Monitor log file may contain private information, I would suggest uploading it to whichever service you select, and then sharing the download link here via private message to people who have been trying to help you and who can interpret the log file’s contents. That is, don’t publicly post the download link!
1 user thanked author for this post.
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Because the Process Monitor log file may contain private information
I personally have never seen any in a PML file.
1 user thanked author for this post.
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…don’t know you have been eligied for an exclusive… anyway if i do not pay someone for being my exclusive person… or i sign a contract with him including that clause i think i’m free to share with much more person my issues
Some perspective on cross-posting –
Whenever you cross-post, it’s considered common courtesy to include the link(s) to the other site(s) you’ve posted the issue on.
It helps eliminate confusion, and wasting other people’s time researching and suggesting things that have already been done.
It’s fine to ask for help on other sites…however, it’s simply a courtesy to let everyone know who is trying to help you what’s been done so far.
If, for example, someone spent quite a bit of time researching, and perhaps even testing your issue, it would be frustrating for that person to find out it had already been done on the “xyz.com” forum.
When the links are posted, helpers can check in and see whether something has been tried (and worked…or didn’t) before committing their time.
3 users thanked author for this post.
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Have you tries Disabling app store updates…
1 user thanked author for this post.
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You want the Edge update routines or Edge won’t update. Unfortunately that means you also get some of MS imposed behaviour.
cheers, Paul
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You want the Edge update routines or Edge won’t update. Unfortunately that means you also get some of MS imposed behaviour.
cheers, Paul
obviously i really do not want it…
“Unfortunately that means you also get some of MS imposed behaviour”…:
…also Jacques de La Palice should be able to say this…
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Dude,
Stop being a jerk.
Actually, I was the one who noticed you cross-posted without providing links, and said so in a post above.
You don’t seem to care about anyone else other than yourself, or you would have apologized…and posted the links.
You may have noticed that over the past week or so, NO ONE has replied to you in this thread offering help.
So actually, you are fortunate that @b asked for information.
If you keep up with this “who is on my side” crap, eventually…no one will be willing to help you.
And you will have no one to blame but yourself.
4 users thanked author for this post.
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for the pleasure of you ALL…. (even if only n0ads really deserve it…)
If you intend to alienate the other members of the Askwoody community you are doing a fine job.
1 user thanked author for this post.
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This Topic is now closed
1 user thanked author for this post.
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