I happen to need to use more than one Microsoft account for my work. One of them is a work/school institution type login, which is forwarded to my institution’s login page.
Occasionally I’ve had a really frustrating issue where any attempt to log in to a Microsoft service in my browser is automatically sent on to the institution’s login page, before I have a chance to choose account.
Here’s a whole list of semi-obvious stuff I tried that did absolutely nothing to resolve the issue:
- Cleared all site data / passwords / cookies etc
- Closed all browser windows
- Restarted my machine
- Googled everything I could think of
- Got embarrassed that I couldn’t log out of a website
- Had a cup of coffee
- Considered throwing PC off the roof
Anyway, what did work was this: a logout URL that I can’t see a link to anywhere, but visiting it forces logout of Microsoft (and seems to give me the option to choose account again):
https://login.microsoftonline.com/logout.srf
How it started: “Connected to Windows”
Normally I don’t have this problem, because I use two completely separate browser profiles for the different accounts. Obviously I’d made a mistake somewhere to get the wrong account on one of my profiles.
Turns out the culprit was “Connected to Windows”, which I could see from the account selection screen (on the institutional account I didn’t want). You get the option to link an account to Windows 10 when you sign in, and I must have allowed it in a caffeine-deprived daze. I think this is why my other browser profile decided it was a good idea to start using my institution login.
If you have control of this and you’ve set it by mistake, you can remove it. In Windows 10 Go to Settings > Account > Access work & school. The linked account is in there and can be removed, and you have your account selection freedom back.