[Windows RT General] GoodDayToDie:
I mean "boot into an interactive Windows session". If you can't get past the login screen, *you* aren't really into Windows (the machine might be running it, when I said "you" I meant you, personally). That's as true for RT as for any other OS.

Out of curiosity, what would you do if the client came to you with a BitLocked laptop and said they forgot the password for that? Well, obviously you'd tell them to use the recovery key. But it turns out they ignored the advice of the BitLocker installer and never saved the recovery key anywhere. Not good, right? OK, now what if it was a smartphone, and they forgot the PIN? There's a policy in place from their employer that ten failed PIN attempts in a row will will wipe the device. Now what?

They're screwed. Just like your client is here.

Look, the default configuration of Safe Mode on x86 versions of Windows is a security liability. It's a trivilally exploitable direct-to-admin elevation of privileges... assuming you have physical access to the device. On desktops, and to a lesser extent on laptops, that's not really a concern; the assumption is that if the attacker has physical access, it's already game over. On tablets, that's much less true. Tablets are sealed devices; there's no easy way to get the hard drive (or rather, the flash memory chip) out of one. They're designed to be highly mobile, and to a certain extent are designed to be shared - certainly many of them are used at kiosks and the like. They're also both easy and attractive targets for theft. The threat model is very different.

On x86 versions of Windows, if you're concerned about a local-access attacker, you use BitLocker and you set a strong password on it. You also change the admin password, so even if somebody gets through BitLocker (or they got to your machine while it's running already), they can't trivially gain full control over it. That's because protecting against local attackers is not the expected level of protection needed, so it's not the default configuration.

On tablets, if you're *not* concerned about a local attacker, you might do things like enable Safe Mode (which, from a security perspective, is actually Unsafe Mode), or disable BitLocker key protectors (possible even if an Exchange policy forces you to turn BL on). Similarly, if you weren't worried about forgetting your password, you might use a local account and not bother to create a password reset disk (yeah, that's still possible. Nobody ever does it, but it's possible). That's because the most likely attack, by far, will be somebody who has stolen the whole device and therefore the default configuration is to provide whatever security which can be offered in the face of such a situation.

Apparently, if you are worried about local attackers but *aren't* worried about losing your password, and then you lose your password anyhow, the thing you do is go complain to an IT shop. The IT guy then comes and asks an online forum how to do his job. The forum gives him the help they can. The IT guy then rants about Microsoft when the help offered is "insufficient".

Here, pop quiz for you: Which of the following people is it the fault of that the customer can't access their account?

1) Microsoft, who provide at least five different ways to reset the password (online account, password reset disk, enabling the Admin account for normal login, creating a second Admin account, or enabling a Safe Mode boot option) plus allow you to have the tablet remember the password for you (auto-login) or use no password at all.

2) Myself and the other members of this forum, who are offering what help we can, unpaid, of our own free will, because we care enough about this OS that we'll help people adapt to it and hope for nothing more than a "thanks"?

3) You and any co-workers you might have, who despite doing this for a living, are unfamiliar with the security model of a new OS... but are willing to pile abuse on that OS and its developers when they close a security hole that you expected to find open?

4) Your customer, who ignored Microsoft's advice about using an online account (justifiable, but a nonetheless questionable decision given the intended use of RT) and also ignored or avoided good password management techniques (like using a hard-to-remember password without creating a way to change or reset it, and without writing it down anywhere)?

I'll give you a hint: it's not 1 or 2.

Oh, and you can totally run diagnostic tools. Hell, the tablet comes with a bunch of them built in, but you can also boot off USB. Yeah, they need to be compiled for ARM, but - as I just pointed out - Microsoft ships a suite of them with the tablet. They even include a tool that can solve an unrecoverably lost password: wipe the system and start again. On previous Windows versions, you'd probably to do a full re-install at that point! Think of the time saved. However, "login as admin without any password" (what the default configuration of Safe Mode allows) is *not* a diagnostic tool. It's a gaping security hole.

Also, Safe Mode is totally still available. However, much like logging in *all the time* using the built-in Administrator account (possible by default on XP and before, disabled by default on Vista and later), allowing anybody who wanted to to boot into a full-permission no-password (by default) account was deemed too dangerous on RT. I was suprised when I discovered Safe Mode missing from the RT boot menu as well... for about 5 minutes. Then the obvious reason for it clicked. I went and enabled Safe Mode on my tablet anyhow, because it *is* a potentially useful diagnostic tool... (although, since neither theTouch Cover nor touchscreen work in Safe Mode, it's actually really hard to use) but I also changed the Admin password, so for your use case it wouldn't do any good anyhow. That's OK; I have the ability to reset my own password if needed. Admittedly, MS could have taken care of this themselves by removing the ability to log into disabled accounts when using Safe Mode, instead of disablign the mode by default... but that wouldn't have done you any good either.