Two-step verification is a very useful tool when we want to secure our Microsoft account . Thanks to it we can increase our security layer and every time we have to register we will do it through two parameters, one will be the password and the other we will choose it according to the alternatives offered by the platform.
When we decide to protect our Microsoft profile we are getting important benefits that will help keep our privacy safe, as well as all the tools related to this account.
In this article we will show you everything you need to know about how to protect our Microsoft account and the necessary steps to verify two factors. In addition, we will teach you how to activate this tool from your computer or from your mobile device regardless of the operating system you own.
Index:
Why should I protect my Microsoft profile with two-factor verification?
When we need to protect our Microsoft account from access by different unauthorized persons, we can use in addition to our usual password a second option that will increase our level of security. That is, if someone knows our password, they will also have to know the contact method in order to access our account.
In this way the importance of adding more than one option to verify the security information arises, since if we forget the second requirement factor, we will not be able to access our account for more than 30 days and it can even be permanently blocked .
For this situation it is advisable to have two emails, one that is commonly used and another support so that we add to it the information that will have to arrive in order to reactivate our account for some forgetfulness of us.
When we activate the two-step verification we will need the password and a security code, which will work, for example, when we log in to another computer or another place than usual.
Thus, we can present the advantages of activating the two-step verification function, which we detail below:
- By having this verification activated we prevent other people from accessing our account even if they know the password.
- Every time we enter from a site that is not usual for our access, You will send us a notification for us to enter, this will result in you having total control of access to our accounts.
- If someone has access to our phone yes or yes they will need to enter the second alternative to be able to enter, so if we lose our mobile our accounts will continue to be protected.
- Being an optional measure, Microsoft does not require us to have this tool activated so if we do not tolerate these two steps we can quietly deactivate it.
Steps to activate two-step validation in the Microsoft profile
Next, we will detail the procedure that we have to follow in order to perform two-step validation in Microsoft:
From the computer
To configure from our computer we follow this guide:
- We enter the Microsoft login through this link
- We write the user data and password that we selected at the time.
- When we are in the Microsoft account we choose the option “General information” which is the fifth option of the left panel
- We click on ” Security information ” in the previous menu
- On the right side of the screen we will see “ Two step verification ”, which we will have to choose
- We click on “Configure two-step verification”
- We write the data that we will choose and then select “Next”
This way the configuration ends, but it must be taken into account that it is necessary to remember the data that we have just entered, since if we forget we will not be able to enter only with our password.
In addition, it will take 30 days to try again, if we fail again our Microsoft account will be terminated as mentioned above.
From mobile
If we want to use the Microsoft application that helps us authenticate in two steps, we will use Microsoft Authenticator on our Windows Phone mobile phones. Otherwise, we will use Google Authenticator for Android and iOS devices.
Any of these apps will generate a code every 30 seconds, which will have to be validated from our mobile device. Remember that we have only 10 attempts, otherwise our account will be blocked and we will have to follow the steps to recover it.
These are the steps we will have to follow to install the application on our device:
- Open our Microsoft account
- Select “General information”
- Click on “Security information”
- We choose “Pair an authenticator application with your Microsoft account”
- If we have a Windows Phone device we click on “Get application Microsoft authenticator ”, if we have Android or iOS we will have to download it from the official Google Play Store or App Store stores.
Once we have installed the application, we have to link our account with the device.
In order to perform this action we will follow the following guide:
- We go back to “General information”
- We choose “Security information”
- We open the application on our mobile and we scan the QR code from the screen of our computer
- When the 6-digit code appears we will have to write it in the box that will appear on the device
- We click on “Match” and we will finish the configuration process
What happens if I lose my phone? Can’t I access my Microsoft account?
Microsoft offers us the possibility that if we lose our phone we can recover the account through different methods that will validate our identity.
Each of these methods has to be careful to remember when we have configured them so that we do not have problems at this time.
The methods are as follows:
- Security questions : They can be what the name of the school where you went was, what your first child is called, what is your mother’s maiden name, and so on.
- Alternative mail : It is always advisable to have an alternative email even if it is not from the same provider.
- Phone number : We can add our phone or any other person who has access to it.