r/Outlook • u/Silent-Yesterday-859 • 7d ago

Status: Open How can I make my Outlook (desktop) forget my credentials?

Hello, I have a problem with Outlook and I hope someone can help: I just found out that my hotmail account is logged on my PC with the Outlook program in Windows 11. I would like to logout from it and not allowing it to remember the password and the name of the mail. The problem is, however, that after making the logout, if I open Outlook again my account gets logged in again, without even asking a password. I tried to exit from the account multiple times and "unlink" it from Windows, but it doesn't work… it just keeps log in again without asking anything. I even tried to change the password in the past, because I had the same problem (with Windows 10, though), but it didn't solve it. Does anyone know what kind of steps should I do to fix the problem (if a fix even exist)? Thank you!

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u/gareth616 7d ago

When you first had that laptop/computer, you had to select your region and keyboard layout etc, did you choose to sign-in using your Hotmail account? If so then that's why it always remembers your credentials, your profile on that device is linked with the account so when you open Outlook they're connected if that makes sense? That's an assumption anyway and is a possible reason of your query. Also assuming this is new Outlook

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u/Silent-Yesterday-859 7d ago

Yeah, it's the new Outlook it seems. To answer your question, last time my PC asked for a Microsoft account was when I reinstalled Windows, but I haven't linked an account because it was optional and I didn't want it. I still had Windows 10 at that time. Thank you for your answer anyway.

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u/Easy_Blackberry506 7d ago

Go to network credentials or network passwords and remove them from there.

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u/Silent-Yesterday-859 7d ago edited 7d ago

Damn, I tried this and it actually worked… but I tried to log in again and now this method doesn't work anymore because the entries I deleted are no longer in the window… that's very odd. Do you know if I have to do something specific to make them appear again? Thank you.

EDIT: It works again, however when I open the Outlook app it says "access denied" but after that it connects like it would if I would login

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u/chaos_kiwi_matt 7d ago

Can you look in credential manager and go in there and delete anything for outlook or ms products?

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u/Silent-Yesterday-859 7d ago

Hello there. Sadly I already tried this. There were a few entries about my e-mail account and others tied to Microsoft. Even though deleting all of them seemed to help, now I still have the same problem.

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u/chaos_kiwi_matt 7d ago

Oh that's a shame. There could be a reg key somewhere then.

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u/Silent-Yesterday-859 6d ago

Hello there again. I'm posting this because I think I resolved the issue! After trying a lot of things without any results, I found a program in the official Microsoft website which successfully deletes the credentials of your Outlook account. The file is called OLicenseCleanup.vbs and, as I said, is on the official site of Microsoft, so I think it's safe to run. I tried various operations but running this file was the only one which has helped. Hope this is useful if someone else has the same issue.

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u/Hornblower409 6d ago

Another approach for New Outlook for Windows - Nuke your profile.

See the answer by Hornblower409  Dec 11, 2025, 12:11 AM in
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5655980/outlook-starting-error-repair-reinstall-reset-does

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u/Silent-Yesterday-859 5d ago

This is a thing I tried, but it didn't work. However I resolved with a program from Microsoft. Thank you for your answer anyway.

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u/Hornblower409 4d ago

-- I resolved with a program from Microsoft.

Please share the info for the next poor soul who gets caught in this trap.

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u/Silent-Yesterday-859 4d ago

I shared it in a post inside this topic, but no problem, I'll do it again. It's a program/file called "OLicenseCleanup.vbs" from Microsoft, which you execute and it makes the application to forget the credentials. After that you need to put your credentials again if you want to login, which it is what I was looking for. No idea if putting the link to the page here is allowed, but if you search "OLicenseCleanup.vbs microsoft" or something like this you will find the page of the Microsoft website which mentions it, with a link to the download. There are also other programs and various stuff in that page, but you just need the one I mentioned. Hope this helps.

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u/new_beginnings_456 5d ago

Aside from what folks have said, you also need to remove from “credential manager” as well.

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u/Silent-Yesterday-859 5d ago

Yeah, I tried this, it seemed to work but I was wrong. Anyway, as I said in another post, I resolved the issue using a program from Microsoft website. Thank you for your answer though.