Probably the most basic question you’ve ever received about Microsoft Windows 8, but it’s legit: I have two accounts set up so that I don’t surf the Web as an administrator. But for the life of me, I can’t figure out how to log out of one of my Windows 8 accounts so I can log in to the other account when I need to. What’s the secret?
When I first saw this question I thought “really? what the deuce?” but then I looked more closely at Windows 8 and you’re right, since there’s no Start menu with sleep, restart and log out options, it is rather harder to figure out how to sign off from your Win8 account so you can sign in as someone else. Worse, the only place you can actually get to the sign out option is from the Start screen, so if you’re more focused on the Desktop because you’re an old school Windows user, well, you’ll never see it.
Why this is the case is a puzzle too, as it seems like it’d be a very logical option to have, perhaps, on the charm bar, but as I’ll show you, it’s not hard to find but you have to be awake and really seeing what you’re looking at.
Well, without much ado, I can show you where the “Sign Off” option is, but let’s make this interesting and start by having me show you where it’s not.
For example, on the charms bar, “Settings” –> “Power” would be a logical place to find it, but here’s what you see:
A perfect place for “Sign Off” as an option, but it’s not.
Turns out that it’s only on the Start screen, as I said. Go there and look at the top right. It’ll show the logged in account name like this:
No indication that it’s clickable, but it is. Click on your name or icon and…
Ah, there’s what you seek! Click on Sign out and you’ll be dropped back to the Windows 8 login screen.
Why it’s so darn hard to find this is unclear, but at least you now know and can switch accounts without having to restart!