How to Sign Out of Windows 10

We’ve had several people ask how to sign out of Windows 10. It’s very easy to do, but if you don’t know where to look it can be frustrating.

Before we get to the gist of signing out of Windows 10, we’ll tell you why signing out can actually save you time. Have you ever installed a program that tells you that you’ll need to restart before you can use it? When it comes to installing programs, did you know that signing out of Windows sometimes works the same as restarting Windows. And most of the time signing out of Windows and signing back in is a lot quicker than restarting.

So now on with the show.

Most of the time, to restart Windows, you’ll click the Start button and click “Restart” (or “Update and Restart” , if you have Windows updates pending). But, as you can see, clicking “Start” “Power options” does not give you the option to sign out. See?

The default options are “Sleep”, “Shut down” (or “Update & shut down” if you have updates pending) or “Update” (or “Update and restart if you have updates pending). There is no “Sign out” on that menu.

Here are 2 ways to get to the “Sign out” option:

1. Click on your name at the top of the start menu.

You’ll see the options above. Click on “Sign out”.

2. Or, you can right-click on the start button, click on “Shutdown or sign out”:

And then click “Sign out”.

So the next time you install a program and it tells you that you need to restart before you can use it, try signing out of Windows. It will save you time.