Page 882 - Windows 10 May 2019 Update The Missing Manual: The Book That Should Have Been in the Box

Behind the scenes, Windows stores all these files and settings in a single

folder—your personal folder, the one that bears your name. (Technically,
your personal folder is in the This PC Local Disk (C:) Users folder.)

Note
Even if you don’t share your PC with anyone and don’t create any other accounts, you might still
appreciate this feature because it effectively password-protects the entire computer. Your PC is
safe from unauthorized casual fiddling when you’re away from your desk (or if your laptop is
stolen)—especially if you tell Windows to require your sign-in password anytime the screen saver
has kicked in (Figure 4-7).

If you’re content simply to use Windows, that’s really all you need to know
about accounts. If, on the other hand, you’ve shouldered some of the
responsibility for administering Windows machines—if it’s your job to add

and remove accounts, for example—read on.

Local Accounts vs. Microsoft Accounts

For most of Windows’ history, any account you created on your PC was a
local account, meaning stored on the computer itself. All your stuff—your

files, email, settings, passwords—sat on the PC itself.

Seems obvious, right? Where else would you store all those details?

Today, there’s an answer to that: online.

In Windows 10, you have the option to have Microsoft store your account
details online (“in the cloud,” as the marketing people might say). You
don’t sign in with a name like “Fizzywinks”; instead, you sign in with an
email address that you’ve registered with Microsoft. If your name and

password match, you’ve just succeeded in signing in with your Microsoft
account instead of with a local one.

And why is that a good thing? Because it means you can sign into any

Windows 8 or 10 computer anywhere—your other laptop, a friend’s PC,
another company’s—and find yourself instantly at home. You won’t have