Recently, one of my reader reported me an issue with using Microsoft account. In this case, he was unable to sign-in with Microsoft account on UWP apps on Windows 10.

He wrote:

By default, the Microsoft Store logs me on with my organization’s credential. When I log out and try to log in with a Microsoft account, I get the message:

Can’t sign in with a Microsoft account

This program is blocked by group policy. For more information, contact your system administrator.

0x8000704ec

FIX Cant Sign In With A Microsoft Account In Windows 10

I suggested him to check Accounts: Block Microsoft accounts security/Group Policy setting and set it to Disabled or default state. This solution seems working for him.

So if you’re also victim of this issue, you can try below mentioned registry solution and fix it for yourself. The registry solution is equivalent to setting Accounts: Block Microsoft accounts security/Group Policy setting to Disabled, but its benefit is that it works on all Windows editions (yes= on Windows 10 Home also).

FIX: Can’t Sign In With A Microsoft Account, This Program Is Blocked By Group Policy In Windows 10

Registry Disclaimer: The further steps will involve registry manipulation. Making mistakes while manipulating registry could affect your system adversely. So be careful while editing registry entries and create a System Restore point first.

1. Press W8K + R and put regedit in Run dialog box to open Registry Editor (if you’re not familiar with Registry Editor, then click here). Click OK.

Windows 10 Registry Editor

2. In left pane of Registry Editor window, navigate to following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

FIX Cant Sign In With A Microsoft Account In Windows 10

3. Now in the right pane of System registry key, you might see NoConnectedUser named registry DWORD (REG_DWORD) which might be set to either 1 or 3. Double click on this registry DWORD to modify its Value data:

FIX Cant Sign In With A Microsoft Account In Windows 10

4. Finally, set the Value data to 0 and click OK. Close Registry Editor and reboot to make changes effective.

After restart, you must be able to add or sign-in with a Microsoft account in apps/Windows 10.

Hope this helps!

4 Comments

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  • AM

    Both these above methods do not seem to work for me.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Is your system part of domain?

  • Andre

    This did not worked for me

  • Michael Moser

    For me neither… :-( There must be some other setting that’s still blocking this.

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