I always assumed I had to do it to make Store work, but it appears that is not the case. I easily download and use Store Apps and so far syncing of settings, for which I do not care, is the only reason to connect Windows 10 to MS Account. Is there something I am missing..? I guess Xbox App won't let me sign in is another down-side of staying MS-Account-Free.
I always sign in with MS account. It just makes everything more seamless IMHO. No downside to signing in, so why not?
Some people are concerned about giving away even more of their privacy, I' m not . Despite that, I saw no point in signing in to a MS account, and up to now I got on fine without it.
Lots of reasons as to why not. Only a few in the why column. 1. Cloud stuff (apps, files) 2. Sync Settings across W10 devices.
You can actually sign into apps without using a live account for the main windows user. If you do use one, your user profile directory path will contain at least 1 space, which may cause problems for older programs. If your name has non-ASCII characters and it gets into the user profile path, prepare for a lot of trouble in old programs. This can be worked around by first making an offline account using a single-word name containing only ASCII characters, and then turning it into a live account. But is it worth the trouble? I see no reason to do that. Cloud stuff means nothing until clients are available for all platforms (android, linux etc.). Competitors do have them. Syncing settings means syncing bugs too. Think twice before enabling it.
I agree, although up until recently I did sign in because I thought I had to do that to use Store and such, but that was not the case all along! Syncing settings IMO is a no-no. I only let Chrome sync browser-related Chrome settings on my phones, but I don't let Google sync my Android OS settings. New versions come out, changes are made, bugs removed, bugs introduced. If you want go clean - format drive + clean install, then do exactly that - go CLEAN. Syncing settings = NOT clean, not to mention you may change your opinion about settings you've used. If you decide that you don't want those 20 Store Apps you used to like on new clean OS install, then it will add extra work during sync process since you will have to click CANCEL DOWNLOAD 20 times. I also hope MS syncs Store-only + Edge settings because syncing actual desktop registry, files you had, and etc. would be too much, yet that is what the next Windows-Cloud OS Service is gong to do for DESKTOPS. Google managed that for Android, but Android began as a mobile OS, one simpler than a desktop OS, so it made sense, but full-blown cloud-based OS for desktop PC's and laptops is just nuts! I think I went off-topic a bit...
By connecting to my Microsoft account I was able to transfer my Windows 10 Pro license from a dead tablet to my son's new PC. IMHO, that's reason enough.
Another disadvantage of a Sync account happens if you have multiple keyboard layouts. I have a Pc with a national language (non-english) keyboard and a tablet which came from china with an english keyboard. The keyboard layout seems to be stored centrally, associated with your account and not with your device. Depending on which device you register last, it's likely you will get the wrong layout on the other device
I really don't get this question from someone butchering and chopping the heck out of his windows because of the paranoia of MSFT "spying" on them (among other reasons). After doing all that and next connecting his windows to MSFT to have the "cloud experience".
One of the reasons I hate the MS signing is very simple. Often various people give me they PC/laptop/tablet to "fix". We have to understand that 90% of computers users have NO CLUE at all. So with local account I can reset password, without NEED to know the original password, check the profile etc With MS login account I can NOT, user either has to give me password, or reset it. Total nightmare. I also would not allow kids to login with MS account for the same reason (unless I keep list of they passwords, as they do forget on weekly/monthly schedule, especially when forced to reset it sebus
It's exactly the same as resetting the local account except you need to delete all items with internet reference and cache. I'm assuming you're booting winpe & using regedit and not some 3rd party tool...
It will marry your login info with your activation so that if you install on a different motherboard it will have option to transfer activation. (I think) I haven't actually tested this, but supposedly in the previous iteration they started doing this. Other than that it's basically like an online version of Windows 10. Some apps come to life and start giving notifications and such. If you're paranoid about giving data to MS, you might consider signing in once and then converting back to local account.
I like the Microsoft cloud experience where I can sync preferences between my PCs. I also like Windows Store apps, and so do my kids. It also gives me better options to restore my activation if I'm going to change the motherboard or a complete system overhaul. I don't see any downside to using a MS account.
The only use I've found for an MS account is to register my device in case of major hardware change like others have mentioned. After I register the device, I switch back to a local account. I've found that some devices won't register, like my 2008 hp 6710b laptop that originally came with Vista Business that I used the Windows 7 genuineticket.xml trick on. It has a legit digital license for Windows 10 Pro now, it just won't show up under devices on my MS account. My desktop gaming machine doesn't show up in my MSA devices either. The only machine I have that does show up in MSA devices is an acer laptop that originally came with Windows 8. I don't use store apps. And all of my machines were upgraded to windows 10 Pro using the Windows 7 genuineticket.xml method. I like using Windows 10 like Windows 7 where it's just a computer I install programs on. I use startisback++ and hide the store apps with that. Out if sight, out of mind.
well my answer for this is simple: when I make fresh install on any(my) pc/laptop with Windows 8.1/Windows 10 the first thing that I make is run\regedit\search for HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\Enable LUA=0 after restart after open gpedit.msc and configure for NO Sync until now I haven't issues