How to fix
“The account is not authorized to log in from this station”
on Windows

I have recently installed Windows 10 from scratch due to some fatal errors on the system. Everything worked fine up until I tried to connect to other computers on my home network. Now I receive a pop-up error message, which says "the account is not authorized to login from this station". Please help!

“The account is not authorized to log in from this station” is an error message that has been disrupting Windows 10 users for a long time. This problem is not Windows 10 specific. In fact, it prevailed on Windows 7 and 8 versions, although it keeps reappearing on some random computers running Windows 10.

“The account is not authorized to log in from this station” error prevents people from connecting to HomeGroup.[ref en-3] HomeGroup allows people to share files and printers on a home network, which is why people no longer need to copy files to USB flash[ref en-1] or other external drives and paste them to another PC or device. However, sometimes HomeGroup throws an error “The account is not authorized to log in from this station” due to some mismatched signing policies.

This may be a quite big problem if you are an administrator of the network at the workplace, meaning that all your colleagues cannot share files, use printers, and other conveniences that the HomeGroup provides. Luckily, this situation can be resolved simply by editing the Group Policy[ref en-4] and/or registries.

How to Fix “The account is not authorized to log in from this station” on Windows 10?

To start with, we would like to remind you of the importance of a proper system’s maintenance. All major problems start from minor deviations on Windows Registries,[ref en-2] system files, applications or updates. Therefore, to keep your PC stable, it’s advisable to run a professional PC optimization tool, such as [d1].

Fix 1. Modify Group Policy’s settings

If your Sharing and security model for the local account is set to Classic by default, you should change it to the Guest as this particular option may be the culprit of “The account is not authorized to log in from this station” bug.

• Click Win key + R, type gpedit.msc, and press Enter.
• Find Computer Configuration on the left pane and open Windows Settings.
• Select Security Settings and open Local Policies window.

  

• Click Security Options and locate Network access: Sharing and security model for local accounts.
• Double-click this option and set it to Guest.
• Click OK to save the changes and close everything.

Fix 2. Modify the registries

If the previous method did not help, then you should try to modify the registry. NOTE: before any intervention to the registries, it’s advisable to create registry backups.

• Click Win key + R, type regedit, and press Enter.

  

• Using the left pane, navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\LanmanWorkstation\\Parameters directory.
• Find an empty space on the Registry Editor and right-click on it.
• Select New and the DWORD.
• Type AllowInsecureGuestAuth as the name of DWORD and double-click on it.
• Set its value to 1.
• After that, click OK and close everything.
• Reboot the system.

Hopefully, your HomeGroup or Group Policy for network access works and the error “The account is not authorized to log in from this station” has been fixed permanently.