Hello everybody!
In this video, I’m going to tell you about a Microsoft account, what data is stored in
Microsoft Windows, Edge, OneDrive or Outlook accounts.
When installing a Windows operating system you’ll have to create a user account.
In Windows 8 and 10, you can create a local user account or connect to a Microsoft account
when installing the operating system.
Each of the options has its advantages and disadvantages.
Everything depends on your needs when it comes to functions of the operating system and the
devices you would like to use.
For example, a Microsoft account is convenient when you want to synchronize several Windows
devices.
It can help you to synchronize logins and passwords, browser and webpage settings, web
search options, desktop themes and colors, and other key user settings.
Account A Microsoft account for an operating system
is no different from a local account.
In everyday working routine, users are unlikely to feel any difference between the two options.
It has the same profile as the local account, it can be configured as a user or administrator.
You can create and connect a Microsoft account both while installing an operating system,
and with an already installed version of Windows.
By the way: if you have ever signed up to any of Microsoft services (Hotmail, Outlook.com,
Windows Live, Xbox Live, Office 365, etc), then you have a Microsoft account already.
To connect a Microsoft account to Windows, go to Settings / Accounts / Your info.
Click on the link “Sign in with a Microsoft account instead.”
This account has a web interface, and you can manage the account from there only.
There are two ways you can get into the Microsoft account web interface: from the menu Settings
/ Accounts / Your info / Manage my Microsoft account, or by logging in to the Microsoft
official website (find the link in the description).
In the upper right corner of the screen, you will see a button to sign in.
Synchronization After a Microsoft account is connected to
Windows, sync settings are enabled automatically for the computer.
When synchronisation is on, Windows monitors the settings you have chosen, and enables
them for all Windows 10 devices connected to this Microsoft account.
It will sync passwords, color schemes, browser settings and language options.
If you enable “Other Windows settings”, the operating system will sync certain settings
for devices (for example, for a printer and a mouse), File Explorer settings and notification
settings.
To enable or disable sync settings for devices connected to your Microsoft account, go to
Settings / Accounts / Sync your settings.
In the web interface of your Microsoft account, you can see all devices connected to such
account that are also synced.
To do it, choose the Devices menu.
By selecting a corresponding menu item under a device, you can see its status (system updates,
antivirus updates, hard disk free space etc), system information, and also find the device
on the map (it doesn’t matter if your device is a smartphone, laptop or desktop PC).
View recent activity The web interface of your Microsoft account
saves data on every time you logged in.
To see it, go to the menu Security / Review recent activity .
In this page, you can find information on any activities performed in this Microsoft
account within the last 30 days, including the data on user activity every time the account
was logged in, and it doesn’t matter how the user gets into the account - from the
browser, phone, a mail agent or otherwise.
For every item in the recent activity page, you can see the date and time of an activity,
place where it was performed, and a description.
To view extra information on a specific activity, highlight it.
This is where you can see the IP address of the device which was used to perform an activity,
the device type, its operating system, the browser or application which was used for
this activity.
Web search history When you search for something in Bing, Microsoft
collects your search queries and other information such as IP address, location, unique identifiers
from cookie files, search time and date, and browser settings.
All this data is backed up to the web interface of a Microsoft account.
To view or manage them, go to Privacy / Activity history.
Privacy dashboard offers a simple way of viewing search queries and search results obtained
from Bing.
You can also clear the search history there.
When it is done, the search history is removed from your Microsoft account.
Microsoft Edge
In addition to Microsoft account recent activity log, the default option for the browser Microsoft
Edge that comes pre-installed with your Windows is to save user logins and passwords, as well
as search and browsing history.
In Microsoft Edge, go to Settings, and in the section “Clear browsing data” click
on “Choose what to clear.”
You can watch one of our videos to learn more about recovering cleared browsing history.
Find the link in the description.
OneDrive When you use a Microsoft account, there is
a function to sync files from a cloud storage to OneDrive folder on your computer.
You can watch one of our videos about backing up data to OneDrive.
Find the link in the description.
On a computer, you can find the folder synced with OneDrive here:
C:\Users\UserName\OneDrive.
To sign in to the cloud storage, go to OneDrive website, and this link is in the decsription
as well: Click to sign in, then enter your email address
and the password to your Microsoft account.
Outlook Users who have a Microsoft account can also
access the Outlook email service.
Outlook is a personal email manager available for every Microsoft account.
You will find the link in the description To sign in, just give your Microsoft acccount
details.
You can connect any email address to this service.
In this case, all your messages will be saved to Outlook mail server.
That is all for now.
In this video, I tried to explain what a Microsoft account is and how to use it.
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Leave comments to ask questions.
Thank you for watching.
Good luck.