Windows 8: Connected Accounts (Oliver Niehus)

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My Top-10: Connected Accounts

Overview

Microsoft® Windows® 8 introduces a new concept called a Connected Account. A Connected Account allows you to sign in to Windows with your Microsoft Account (formerly known as Windows Live ID) and do things like roam your settings between Windows 8 PCs and seamlessly sign in to Windows Live services and apps.

Creating a Connected Account

The default method for creating an account is to create a Connected Account. This is the best experience for the user and enables many of the new features in Windows 8. In this discussion we will talk about four different methods for creating a Connected Account.

  • Creating a new account during Windows Welcome
  • Creating a new account in the Users Control Panel
  • Connecting a local account
  • Connecting a domain account

Creating a new account during Windows Welcome

During the Windows Welcome phase of Windows Setup, you can customize the PC by defining things like a computer name, preferred wireless network, and how they would like to sign in. In previous versions of Windows, home users were just asked for a user name and password and an account was created locally with that information. Now the default option is to create a Connected Account.

After the Settings page (or pages if you chose the Customize option) of Windows Welcome, you are asked to enter an email address to use for signing into Windows. The email address provided here should be a Microsoft Account, although if you don't have a Microsoft Account you can create one from this interface. If you want to continue using the old method for signing into Windows, you can create a local account by clicking the Sign in without a Microsoft Account link.

Read more: https://blogs.msdn.com/b/olivnie/archive/2013/04/05/connected-accounts.aspx