Microsoft Authenticator on your PC

Before you start

• Keep Microsoft Authenticator on your phone until every site is done. It’s your safety net, and it can stay your phone copy afterwards.
• Work or school accounts: some organisations require Microsoft Authenticator itself, with its sign-in notifications. If yours does, keep using it for that account, or ask your IT team.
• Your personal Microsoft account can use codes from any authenticator app. In your Microsoft account’s security settings, add a new sign-in method and choose an authenticator app.

The re-add checklist

1. Add Twincode to Chrome and choose Microsoft Authenticator or Authy when it asks where your codes are. Twincode opens a checklist for you.
2. Add every site to the list. Open Microsoft Authenticator on your phone and add each site you see there. Twincode keeps the list on your computer, names only, even if you close the tab.
3. Work through the list, one site at a time, using the four steps below.

For each site

1. 1

   Step 1: Open the site’s security settings

   Look for “Two-step verification”, “2FA” or “Authenticator app”, then choose to set it up again or change the app.

2. 2

   Step 2: Scan the QR code with Twincode

   Click Twincode in your toolbar and choose “Scan QR on this page”, or right-click the page and choose “Scan 2FA QR code on this page”.

3. 3

   Step 3: Scan the same QR code with your phone

   Many sites cancel the old code when you set up a new one, so add the new QR to Microsoft Authenticator on your phone as well.

4. 4

   Step 4: Type the code and tick the site off

   Enter the code the site asks for, then tick the site off in Twincode’s checklist.

Tips

• Start with your email account. It can reset most of the others.
• Save any new backup codes a site gives you. Twincode has a place for each account’s backup codes.
• Some sites make you turn 2FA off and on again to change the app. Do it in one go, so the account isn’t left without 2FA.
• Adding new sites from now on: scan the setup QR code with Twincode and with your phone at the same time, and both stay in step.

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Microsoft Authenticator is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Twincode is not affiliated with Microsoft.