Technology in terms you understand. Sign up for the Confident Computing newsletter for weekly solutions to make your life easier. Click here and get The Ask Leo! Guide to Staying Safe on the Internet — FREE Edition as my thank you for subscribing!

10 comments on “Microsoft Account Recovery Code”

  1. Leo – I remember asking for an “Account Recovery Code” a few years ago (and THAT is what it was called), but I don’t use Microsoft Outlook. What could it have been for? My Windows OS? I have a “little black book” I keep important information in, but there’s nothing in it about an “Account Recovery Code”. Hopefully, you could list “common” software/services that use an “Account Recovery Code” so it’ll jog my ailing memory.

    Reply
    • This is all about accounts related to Microsoft — your “Microsoft account”. Could be Outlook.com, could be Hotmail, could be the account you login to your PC with, could be many other things.

      Reply
  2. Good morning Leo,
    Regarding the Microsoft Account recovery code. I have three PCs that do a variety of task relative to our home. All are Win 10 and appear to use the same Microsoft account. Do I need to have an account recovery code for each PC or just one overall recovery code?
    Thank you for you help,

    Wally

    Reply
    • That’s a good question. The answer is probably useful for a lot of people. You would only need one for the account. It’s used to recover the account password and since all three computers can be accessed using the same password, they all have the same password. Even if you have a different PIN for each machine, you’d still only need one for all three computers.

      Reply
  3. Returning new Lenovo laptop. I want to erase setup with passwords. The “Reset this PC” on Lenovo is not accepting the 25-digit recovery code. Why? It will accept the numbers, but the not the digits.

    Reply

Leave a reply:

Before commenting please:

  • Read the article.
  • Comment on the article.
  • No personal information.
  • No spam.

Comments violating those rules will be removed. Comments that don't add value will be removed, including off-topic or content-free comments, or comments that look even a little bit like spam. All comments containing links and certain keywords will be moderated before publication.

I want comments to be valuable for everyone, including those who come later and take the time to read.