The Windows 10 login screen shows you two things; the email account you sign in with if you use a Microsoft account, and your preferred password type. If you use your Microsoft account password, you’re asked to enter it. If you use a PIN, the login screen asks you to enter the PIN. The login screen shouldn’t identify which type of password you use to everyone but that’s an argument for another day. The login screen also shows your email and that’s a bit more concerning. Thankfully, there’s an ill-placed option that lets you hide your email from the login screen in Windows 10.
Hide Email From Login Screen
Open the Settings app and go to Account. Select the Sign-in options tab and scroll all the way down to the Privacy section. Here, you’ll see an option ‘Show account details (e.g. email address) on sign-in screen. Turn it off and your email will be hidden from the login screen.
This option has been there since the Anniversary Update which arrived last year. Most Windows 10 users should already have it, or the later Creators Update. It’s still present in the latest stable version of Windows 10; the Fall Creators Update.
Although it doesn’t explicitly say what, this option will also hide other information from the login screen regarding your account. There really isn’t anything else that’s visible on the login screen other than your email so we can only guess what else will be removed. It goes without saying that this option should be placed somewhere a bit more obvious like the Your Info or the Email & app accounts tab.
Hiding your email from the login screen will not have any sort of impact on how you sign in. If you use a PIN, or an alphanumeric password, you will use it the same way you always did. At no point will your email address be revealed. This is set on a per-user basis so if you have multiple accounts added to your Windows 10 system, you will have to hide the email from the login screen for each account individually.
A publicly visible email ID might not be a huge security risk if you’re at work and it’s your work email that’s visible. For personal accounts though, this can pose a threat. If you were to walk away from your system, or just lock it in public someone could memorize your email. Considering the quality of cameras that phones have today, a photo might do the trick.
