Windows account has been hijacked by my girlfriend

-1

As title says, my Windows account has been hijacked.

My girlfriend, logged me out of Hotmail on Chrome, and the logged into her Hotmail on Chrome last night.

Today, The only user account on the PC is hers! I couldn't log on!

I have got her to unlock it a few hours later. All my shortcuts, folders, files etc. Logged under her email/Windows account!

I created a second account, my email back on the PC and it creates a new entire profile! clean of everything that was mine.

How do I reclaim my actual account. Aka swap the email back somehow??

Doomsknight

Posted 2016-07-04T19:43:53.340

Reputation: 396

Is this Windows 10? It sounds like she signed you out of your MS account on Windows, not just Chrome. – TheWanderer – 2016-07-04T19:48:21.560

@Zacharee1 Windows 10 yes. She didnt log out, if thats what you mean. And even still, wouldnt it somehow create a second account. Rather than have taken over mine. – Doomsknight – 2016-07-04T19:52:54.313

I'm not sure. It's the only thing I can think of. Check Settings and make sure it isn't logged in as her/ – TheWanderer – 2016-07-04T19:53:39.480

@Zacharee1 It is logged in as her. thats the problem. Only one account, hers. And shes the admin. Except it is clearly my account now locked to her email / password. Its got all my setup/files etc – Doomsknight – 2016-07-04T19:57:18.423

Exactly. Check the User Account settings and log her out there, then log your account in – TheWanderer – 2016-07-04T19:57:58.020

@Zacharee1 Im at a loss, no idea how to change it. Its like its locked to her email now – Doomsknight – 2016-07-04T20:02:42.787

You went to User Accounts, then clicked Make changes to my account in PC settings then clicked Manage my Microsoft account? – TheWanderer – 2016-07-04T20:03:41.943

@Zacharee1 Yea, it just launches into outlook page, which i sign into. Found the issue. I think i must have had a local account on, and she somehow allocated it to hotmail when she signed in on chrome as it "asked her some questions" and she pressed yes on them all. To fix it, i set it back to local account mode. and set it to Paul, with no password – Doomsknight – 2016-07-04T20:10:54.053

You might want to post that as an answer then. – Journeyman Geek – 2016-07-04T23:26:15.100

Answers

To recover your account.

A question to ponder. Whos computer is this? If it's yours, then your default folder may have been hijacked. If it's your GF's computer then it was really never yours and you should have sync'd your account in the following manner.

Sync your account:

url, chrome://settings/ Sign In: Sign into your "gmail" account here.
Sign In: Advanced snyc settings... make sure bookmarks is checked and all other sync's desired. - This will ensure that any future updates will update your specific account.

If that doesn't fix it you can copy the default folder manually.

Two ways:

Way 1) Log into your girlfriends account, with her permission of course. Export the bookmarks: Bookmark Manager (Cntrl+Shift+O), Organized Menu, Export. Import bookmarks to your account: In your account. Log in. Import bookmarks is in the same method as export above, but instead import from the saved location.

Way 2) Assuming you only have one profile, the default file. Before copying, copy a backup of any profiles in this directory: C:\Users\your_profile_name\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data Before copying, copy a backup of the default provile in this directory: C:\Users\your_profile_name\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default

You may have to copy the profile folder of your girlfriends account into your default, or visa versa. That's why creating a backup is important above as to not lose anything.

Preventitive measures: Sharing, via Create users: On your PC, or laptop. Go the the control panel. User Accounts. Create new user login. You should log into the computer with your login credentials and your GF with her own credentials. This way your files are yours, and her's are hers.

Win7 http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/create-new-user-account-in-windows-vista-7/

Win10 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/instantanswers/5de907f1-f8ba-4fd9-a89d-efd23fee918c/create-a-local-user-account-in-windows-10

ejbytes

Posted 2016-07-04T19:43:53.340

Reputation: 1 819

+1 for some good ideas. turns out I must have had a local mode (if i remember i turned off my email one as i was fed up with some auto links). So switching back to local , after she hijacked it, has removed her email/password login on my account. I must note, that this is my pc, she hasnt got an account, and she isnt supposed to use my pc ;) – Doomsknight – 2016-07-04T20:13:33.243

It seems like my computer account was set as local in the user settings. When she logged into hotmail on chrome, she somehow accepted permissions for the pc to become linked to her email. So it replaced my username and password with her email and password.

To fix it, go on the user settings, and change it back to local. You can then retype your desired username and password.

Doomsknight

Posted 2016-07-04T19:43:53.340

Reputation: 396