What does signing into my Microsoft
account really mean in Windows? Hi, everyone.
Leo, Notenboom here for Askleo.com.
Here's the question I got. The impression I get is that by signing into my Microsoft account,
I'm abandoning my local account. Is that correct? Can I sign into my Microsoft account, but then log out and back
into my local machine account easily? Or as easily as with previous
versions of Windows? If this is possible, what's the procedure? I find current versions of Windows really
confusing and just can't see how to do it. Microsoft has absolutely been pushing the use of a Microsoft account to
sign into Windows for some time. It was encouraged in Windows 10, and it
was really encouraged in Windows 11. Fortunately, we can indeed
still create local accounts. But I want to talk a little bit about the differences first and why you might
actually want your Microsoft account. Essentially,
any account that you use to access Microsoft services online
is a Microsoft account. It's very similar to a Google account. Single Google account gets you access
to all of Google's online services. A Microsoft account gets you access to all of Microsoft's online services,
and now signing into your PC. Honestly, signing in with a Microsoft
account is really no different, pragmatically, than signing
in with a local account. Yes, there's a linkage to your account
online, but what actually happens on your machine is very similar to what
happens when you use a local account. There's a folder that's created,
there's subfolders that are created associated with that login
account and so forth. So pragmatically, functionally,
there's actually not a lot of difference. However, there are two sides to this coin. There are those who feel that by signing
in using a Microsoft account, you're exposing more information than you
should or want to to a Microsoft account. Let's face it, they get a record of when you sign in and potentially can't
see other things you're doing. My take, of course,
is that you're using Windows. They could probably already do that, regardless of what account
you use to sign in. Bottom line, though, is that some people
are concerned and don't want to do it. My take is that it is actually
an advantage to use a Microsoft account. When you sign in with a Microsoft account,
the Microsoft services that you use on your machine are typically
already signed in for you. For example, when I sign in with my Microsoft account
to my PC, OneDrive is there, it's running, it's automatically signed
into that same account. Other services may do the same thing. Now, the biggest single reason
to use a Microsoft account is a scenario that I have heard
regularly for two decades. I've lost the password to my
machine and I can't sign in. Well, with local accounts,
that password is only on that machine. In other words, you need to be able to get
on the machine to change the password, but you need the password
to get onto the machine. If you find yourself in that loop,
you might very well be stuck. However, the Microsoft account
authenticates using Microsoft services. So if for some reason you forget the sign in password to your PC, go to another PC,
sign into your Microsoft account, or recover the account if
the password isn't working. But once you've recovered and signed into
that account, you now have a new password. Use that new password
to sign into your PC. Simple as that. As long as your PC is online, it will use
the new password that you changed online. So what if you still want a local account? Well, it's absolutely possible. I recommend that you have a Microsoft account, but then you also
create a local account if you want one. Let me show you how to do that. We're over here in Windows 11. I'm going to go to my settings application, and in accounts,
we scroll down to find other users. You can see I have this user here. That's my sign-in account, add account. Now, what it's asking for here
is a Microsoft account. It's asking for the email address of a
Microsoft account, but I don't have one. I don't want one. I want this to be a local account. So we'll click on I don't have this
person's sign-in information -information. Then it gives you the option
to create a Microsoft account. Again, this is not what we want. However, there's the link. Add a user without a Microsoft account. Guess what? This is the old local user creation. So if I want to say, I'll call it back-up admin,
because I do like to have a local account that could also be an administrator,
but I'll give it a password. And of course, it requires that I set up security questions, which I
find very annoying, but it is what it is. So I'm going to zip through
that and not show you my answers. And now we have an account. We have this backup admin
account that is a local account. What I'm going to do here, since I
can be here, is change account type. By default, it's a standard user. We often refer to that as
a limited user account. All that really means is that if,
while logged into this account, you do something that requires
administrative privileges, you will be prompted
for the credentials for an administrative account so that you can prove essentially
that you have authorization to do so. Without those credentials, you can't. If your administrator account,
which is what I typically like to do, you still end up having to answer
a question when you're about to do something that requires
administrative access. But rather than requiring additional
credentials, it simply asks you if you really want to do it,
and all you need to do is click OK. So there I have it. I have a local account on this machine
that happens to be an administrator. Now, when I come to sign into this
machine, I've got a choice. The choice is down here
in the lower left-hand corner. I can sign in as my Microsoft account,
which, as it turns out, has a pin, or I can sign in using a local account,
which simply has the password. But that's all it boils down to. You now have a local
account on this machine. Bottom line here is that I absolutely
encourage you to use Microsoft accounts for signing into your machine unless you
have a real compelling reason not to. There's just really not
that big a downside. However, if you want a local account,
either instead of or in addition to a Microsoft account,
now you know how to create one. For updates, for comments, for links related to this
topic and more, visit Askleo.com/13365. I'm Leo Notenboom, and this is
Askleo.com. Thanks for watching.
