I’m actually going 180 degrees in the opposite direction. Doing my best to limit how much Microsoft or other companies collect or know about me or my family. I think we’ve gone completely overboard with giving and allowing any of these companies to know and control so much of our lives. Have removed Facebook as well.

Sites like these below are more the path I feel is safer for me and my family. Perhaps you cannot be 100% off the grid, but you can lower the number of intrusions.

https://www.sans.org/newsletters/ouch/privacy/

https://www.privacytools.io/

https://ssd.eff.org/

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/04/am-i-floced-launch

Like anything, it’s a personal choice but giving these sites even more information about you and using their Cloud offerings seems to be the wrong direction.

I second packeterrors emotion.  When you install Windows 10, Microsoft cajoles and almost forces you to use Microsoft Account.  So far I have been able to avoid it.  I use W10 only to run certain programs or engage certain peripherals that I can’t run in or get drivers for Linux – not because it is Microsoft or Windows 10.  And also because earlier versions of Windows have been trashed to aid Microsoft’s competition with itself.

All these subscriptions and cloud solutions bring unwanted ammount of effort to keep ourselves safe from spies and marketers. It also reqiures lot of effort to make those function work properly. Those procedures are often painfully difficult to set. You might end in the loop of entering passwords and clicking activation links in the email. Then also, its very hard to get rid of those functions, we subscribed for. Unfortunatelly, companies like Google, Microsoft and even Apple think, that its good idea. Its good for those companies, its often bad for users.
For me, its definatelly not wanted and I can live without them easily. Maybe my life is easier without them.
Thats my opinion, someone could not agree with my angle of view. Good to have some wizard such as Lance Whitney to guide us through.

Lance Whitney wrote:

You have a Microsoft account that you use to sign in to Windows and possibly to other apps such as Outlook, Office 365, OneDrive, and Skype.

I don’t use a Microsoft account to sign in to Windows.  There has never been a Microsoft account on my PC’s—local accounts only.  I use Microsoft 365, but I have signed in online, not from my PC, and it stays signed in; one and done.

OneDrive syncs everything that I want synced, and it signs itself in whenever I sign on to my PC using my local account.

Thanks for the article on customizing a MS account.

While working through the article I came across a disturbing bit of information regarding my Surface Pro.

It listed it as “Last Found Near – Kheri Barkesh, India”?

I have never been there, and neither has my Surface Pro!

Should I be concerned?

Thanks again for the article, I learn something new every day.

Can you expand on aliases….I didn’t understand at all what the advantages and terrors of using them would be. can you give examples of situations where it would make sense.

there is no privacy anymore and it is getting worse

Thank you for the great overview of the Microsoft Account administration. I manage (and pay for) the Microsoft 365 Family Subscription in my household. I’ve shared 4 of the Office subscriptions with my wife and children. I wish there was a way to know if the subscription is being used. Perhaps just an indicator of “last used” would be useful.
-bradster

I’ve had Windows computers since 1999 and have NEVER signed into a Microsoft account for Windows. What was the point of the article when most who love Woody’s know better than to use a Microsoft account for anything other than getting themes at the Microsoft store? I’ve always used a local account and if the day ever comes when Microsoft forces a Microsoft account to use Windows, and abandons local accounts, then that is the day I would move to Apple. If I were to be forced to be in a walled garden I would trust Apple much more than I would Microsoft! (Or, if I was younger I would have long ago learned Linux and moved to it).