Day 20 – Multiuser logon to the rescue with a Windows 8 Tablet during the Holidays
A Windows 8 Tablet for Teaching and Learning - Day 20Monday, December 24, 2012
One of the inevitable circumstances of having a tablet around during the holidays is that more than likely a family member will want to use it. If you are like most tablet users you have your own customized way you like to have your apps setup and displayed. On the Windows 8 Start screen it is very easy to organize the Live Tiles to your preferred order. It is also very easy for someone else to mess it all up in just a few minutes. How can you protect your precious app setup, not to mention your personalized account settings, documents, and email? With a Windows 8 tablet it is easy as Windows 8 supports something called multiuser logon.
This situation is also extremely common in schools that routinely share devices among several different students each day. Using different accounts is one way to protect each individual users settings, documents, and email.
Some tablets do not have multiuser accounts and therefore anyone using the tablet can easily see all email accounts, apps, dropbox files, and other documents stored on the device. If you are one that checks the boxes to "Remember Passwords" then anyone you hand your tablet to also has access to these accounts.Signing in with a different account other than the one you regularly use is one way to prevent others seeing your documents, settings and accounts. It is also very helpful if you have children in the family as you can setup a special account for a child and only give them access to the apps that you want them to have access to.
To setup a different account in Windows 8 simply go to the Charms bar and select Settings > Change PC Settings > Users > Other Users > + Add a User
You have a choice to setup a user with another Microsoft account or you can do what I did and setup a “local user” account. To use a local account you will have to select Sign-in Without a Microsoft Account.
There are on screen instructions that walk you through the process that do a nice job of explaining the different types of accounts. If you select a local account none of your settings will be synced from other devices as it is only “local” to this tablet. This works very well for a child account and Microsoft even adds a way to limit apps for children accounts with some family protection settings.
Setting up a new user was very easy to setup on my Samsung Ativ 500T tablet. Here is a link that explains more about how to create additional User accounts in Windows 8:
To switch accounts from one user to another all you need to do is go to the Start Screen and click on the user account picture that is currently logged in (located in the upper right hand corner of the Start screen). You can then either select Sign out or click on the name of the user account you want to switch to. You will be prompted for the password for the account you are switching to.
This is actually a fast way to change users and protect your working account from others that may want to also use your tablet. If you have a picture password setup as I do you can use picture password to log in.
As you can see multiuser logon has very practical applications for families as well as in school settings. Enjoy the Holidays and your new Windows 8 Tablet!
Keep on Learning,
Dr. Grissom
Tom Grissom, Ph.D.
Dr. Grissom
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