- Starting Up Windows 8
- Signing In to Windows 8
- Handling Special Windows 8 Startup Situations
- Exiting Windows
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Signing In to Windows 8
With your computer running and Windows 8 booted up, the next step is to sign in to Windows. You’ll find a helpful step-by-step list to help you sign in successfully in a page or so. Before starting down the list, there are a few new alternatives to the venerable password in Windows 8 to talk about.
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If you wonder if “signing in” is the same as “logging in,” you are correct. Microsoft has adopted the term, “signing in” to describe that process to identify one’s self to Windows 8.
You probably are accustomed to entering a password to access secured content on websites, as well as to sign in to computers, tablets, and some software programs. The passwords you use might be a randomly-generated string of numbers and letters or they might be the names of members of your family or perhaps the name of your favorite sports hero.
Windows 8 provides an alternative to the password for use when signing-in. When you create your new account in Windows 8, you need to supply a password, but you can also specify use one of two new sign-in options, replacing the use of the password after you initially supply it. These two options are PIN and Picture Password. Besides saving you the repetitive stress of entering your password often, these two new options offer a lot of flexibility to determine how to access your user account. Plus, using them will certainly impress your friends and family!
- PIN—A PIN is a 4-digit number you use to identify yourself when you sign in to Windows. A PIN is particularly useful to tablet users who normally don’t have a physical keyboard. On a tablet, a virtual keyboard appears on the screen as you sign in to Windows, enabling you to enter just your PIN to access Windows.
- Picture Password—If you have enjoyed drawing mustaches and other funny shapes on pictures of your friends and family, this is the password replacement for you. A picture password is a combination of a picture and touch gestures. To define a picture password, you choose a picture from your Pictures folder and then make three gestures, which can be your choice to tap or draw a line or circle. Windows records the position of the gestures, their length and the order in which you make them.
If you did not set up Windows, be sure to ask the person that did set up Windows if a PIN or Picture Password is used. For information on setting up one of these two options, refer to Chapter 10.
With all the preparation and explanations behind you, follow these steps to sign in to Windows 8:
- You can sign in to Windows if the Welcome screen, also known as the Lock screen, appears, as shown in Figure 1.4. The picture in your Welcome/Lock screen might be different than the one shown here, but you can tell you’re in the right place if you see the time and date superimposed on your picture.
Figure 1.4.The Windows Welcome screen appears when Windows 8 is locked, such as occurs if you do not enter your user ID and password promptly, or if you enter the command to lock Windows.
- From the Welcome screen, swipe up, tap the spacebar, or click once on the screen. Any of these three gestures reveals the sign-in screen.
- Select your portrait if more than one portrait appears (see Figure 1.5). If your portrait is the only portrait on the screen, skip this step and continue with step 4.
Figure 1.5. Select your portrait to sign in to Windows 8.
- Your portrait should appear alone on the screen. From there, how you sign in depends on the type of password protection you have. Use the directions in the set of following sections that matches how your log in account is set up.
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Signing In with Your Password
To sign in with your password, select your account from the sign in screen, as described in the previous section, and then follow these steps:
- The cursor will be flashing inside the Password box, as shown in Figure 1.6. If it is not flashing, tap or click once in the Password box.
Figure 1.6. The flashing vertical line indicates you should enter your password.
- Type your password. If you want to verify you entered your password correctly, tap-and-hold or click-and-hold the eye-shaped icon near the end of the Password box, as shown in Figure 1.7.
Figure 1.7. You can check that you entered your password accurately.
- Select the arrow tile at the end of the Password box, or press Enter.
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Signing In with Your PIN
To sign in with your PIN, follow these steps:
- If the last time you signed in you used your PIN, a screen like the one shown in Figure 1.8 appears.
Figure 1.8. Windows “remembers” if you last signed-in with a PIN.
If you signed in last with your password or picture password, tap or click Sign-in options. The three sign-in tiles appear. Next, tap or click the PIN tile.
- The cursor should be flashing inside the PIN box. If it is not flashing, tap or click once in the PIN box.
- Enter your PIN. Note that you will be signed in immediately after correctly entering the last digit of your PIN.
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Signing In with Your Picture Password
To sign in with your picture password, follow these steps:
- If the last time you signed in, you used your picture password, a screen like the one shown in Figure 1.9 appears. (Your picture will be different than the one shown here.)
Figure 1.9.The Picture Password screen appears if you last signed in using your picture password.
If you signed in last with your password or PIN, tap or click Sign-in options. The three sign-in tiles appear. Next, tap or click the picture password tile. The Picture Password screen appears.
- Make your three gestures on the picture.
- If you made a mistake, Windows 8 prompts you to try again. Select OK and (more accurately) make your three touch gestures on the picture. To redo the gestures before Windows prompts you, select Start Over. If you successfully make the three gestures, you are signed in and the Start screen appears.
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