Windows 11 Home requires you to sign in with a Microsoft account during initial setup. There's no particular security or privacy advantage to signing in with a local account (indeed the lack of device encryption is a negative, in my book) but if that's your preference, you can do so when you first set up Windows 10 (any edition) or Windows 11 Pro on a new PC. You don't need a network connection or an email address instead, you create a username (up to 20 characters) and a password, both of which are stored on the PC where you create them and grant access only to that device. But if you do use a Microsoft account for services such as Office 365 and OneDrive, it makes sense to sign in to Windows using the same account.Ī local account is about as old school as Windows gets. Note that Windows telemetry data is tied to your device and isn't associated with a Microsoft account.Īnd, of course, you can create a Microsoft account and use it exclusively for signing in to Windows while keeping your email, cloud storage, and other services elsewhere. You can sync data and settings for preinstalled Windows apps (Mail and Calendar, for example) and easily restore apps you download from the Store.You can sign in automatically to any Microsoft consumer service using your saved Microsoft Account credentials.(For a full list, see 'Windows 10 roaming settings reference.') That includes personalization settings like your desktop background, saved passwords (including Wi-Fi profiles), language and regional settings, and more. Windows allows you to sync settings between PCs where you sign in using the same Microsoft account.

Signing in with a Microsoft account stores a record of your successful activation, allowing you to easily restore your activation (no product key required) if you ever have to reinstall Windows.

If you turn on BitLocker encryption (Pro and Enterprise editions only), your recovery key is stored in OneDrive, allowing you to retrieve your data if you find yourself locked out.

On PCs designed for Windows 10 or Windows 11, signing in with a Microsoft account automatically enables full-disk encryption for the system drive, even on systems running Home edition.

Signing in to your Windows 10 or Windows 11 PC with a Microsoft account offers several distinct benefits:

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