Things to do before granting access to your account to support agents

This solution articles provides information to customers on updating their account information before granting access to login to their account to support agents.

There would be instances where the support agent working on your issue might request permission to login to your account to reproduce the problem.

NOTE: This request will only come from support agents who have the "MSFT" or "Windows Live" in their display names and an avatar under their username.  Only support resources and fulltime Microsoft employees will have an avatar associated to their profile.

How this affects you?

If you use a domain that is provided by Microsoft, such as @hotmail and @msn, please be aware of the following information:

While we are trying to fix the problem, you cannot use any services that require your e-mail address to sign in. Before we sign in to your account, make sure that you have your secret question and answer ready so that you can reset your password and access your account again. You should also have an alternative e-mail address available so that we can contact you if we experience any problems when we try to access your account.

To give us your permission to access your Windows Live ID, reply to the request from the support agent and include the following text in your message:

"I grant you my permission to access my Windows Live ID. "

Do not give us your current password.

Note: You can reset your password at any time by clicking Forgot your password? on the Windows Live ID sign-in page.

To verify the secret question and to answer it or to verify your alternative e-mail address that you must have to reset your password, follow these steps:

1. Visit the following Web site: http://account.live.com   

2.  Sign in by using your Windows Live ID.

If you see "MSN Account Services" in the upper-left corner, follow these steps:

a. Click Credentials. 

b. Click Change your question and secret answer. 

c. Type your password, select a question, and then fill in the answer. 

d. Click Continue, and then click ‘Done'. 

e. Click Add or change your alternate e-mail address. 

f. Type your password, enter your "alternate" address, and then enter it again. 

g. Click Continue, and then click ‘Done'. 

If you see "Windows Live Account" in the upper-left corner, follow these steps:

a. Click Account Summary. 

b. Click Registered Information. 

c. Type your address information to complete the "Home location" section. 

d. Click Save. 

e. Under Password reset information and next to Question, click the Change link to change your secret question and answer. After you set your secret question and answer, click Save. 

f. Next to Alternate E-mail Address, click Change or click Add to set an alternate e-mail address. 

3.  Make sure that your Postal/Zip code is correct and up to date.

a. Click Change Registered information. 

b. Make sure that you have an up to date Postal/Zip code available. 

After we diagnose the problem, we will use your alternative e-mail address to notify you of our findings and to send you a password reset message.  

Follow the steps that appear in the e-mail that you received to your alternate e-mail address to reset your password.

Thank you.