Category Archives: accounts

A local account is a Windows 11 sign-in account that exists only on the PC on which it is created. Microsoft sometimes refers to this type of account as an offline account because it can be created even when the PC is offline: When you initially sign i… Continue reading Local Accounts (24H2)→

In addition to letting you sign in to your PC with Microsoft accounts, work or school accounts, and local accounts, Windows 11 also lets you configure other online accounts within a sign-in account that can be used by other apps. These can be apps that… Continue reading Accounts Used by Other Apps (23H2)→

Windows 11 supports multiple sign-in accounts. This can be useful in many situations. But the most obvious is for families, in which one or more parents or caretakers, and one or more children, can each have their own account, each with its own customi… Continue reading Multiple Accounts (23H2)→

There are excellent reasons to sign in to Windows 11 using a Microsoft account–security and convenience key among them–and, of course, Microsoft makes it very difficult to do otherwise. But it’s still possible to use Windows 11 with a local account–… Continue reading Local Accounts (23H2)→

Windows 11 supports different types of accounts that can behave differently depending on how they’re configured and used.
For example, you can sign in to Windows using a Microsoft account, a work or school account, or a local account. But you can also … Continue reading Accounts Basics (23H2)→

Windows 11 supports three types of sign-in accounts: Microsoft accounts, work or school accounts, and local accounts. Though we cover all three in this book, we focus largely on Microsoft accounts because they are the most common method used by individ… Continue reading Microsoft Accounts (23H2)→

Most people sign into Windows 11 with a personal Microsoft account (MSA), and so we focus almost exclusively on that obvious use case in this book. But there are some people who also have what Microsoft calls a work or school account, which is a specia… Continue reading Work and School Accounts (23H2)→