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Tip: Whether or Not to Sign Into Windows 10 with a Microsoft Account

Paul Thurrott's tip of the week on Windows Weekly 506 is about how to choose whether or not to sign into Windows 10 with your Microsoft Managed Services Account. One important reason you may want to sign into Windows 10 with your Microsoft account is to sync your settings automatically. Whenever you sign into Windows with a Microsoft account, your desktop wallpaper, language preferences, color schemes, etc will all sync to all of your other computers.

The second big reason to do it is for general convenience. When you sign in with your Microsoft account, that account will be applied to all of the apps that come bundled with Windows 10. When you run any of those apps for the first time, your Windows sign in is passed through to the app. Groove Music, One Drive, Edge and the Movies and TV apps all work like this.

If you choose to sign into Windows locally, you can then sign in separately to all of those apps except for Edge. Microsoft Edge requires signing into Windows with a Microsoft account because its sync depends on the operating system.

Find out more about how to decide whether or not to sign into Windows 10 with a Microsoft account at thurrott.com

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