Is there hope for me to have a safe Microsoft e-mail account?

MeAndMyComputer said:

I have looked at tutorials for Microsoft accounts and I'm familiar on managing accounts on one computer but what I'm not getting is this: I plan on having 3 Windows 10 computers, is the typical setup supposed to be where I use the same Microsoft account on each one of them? One of those computers is a desktop I use only for myself and family at home, a 2nd second desktop for visitors and a laptop strictly for me. If that is the case, does that mean they need to be synced with each other since they'll have the same account and password(?). If that is the case, isn't a safety factor? That's the type of tutorial I'm looking for if there is one.

It's totally up to you whether you want the same Microsoft account on all computers or use different ones, or indeed on none of them - you can also still use an old-school Local account to sign in and this can be admin-level if you want.

Personally I tend to use a mix of local and MS accounts. There is a minor advantage in having an admin-level MS account because it can get you out of some activation situations.

The golden rule is what Hippsie said - make sure that at all times you have at least one administrator-level account active on each machine.

MeAndMyComputer said:

I have looked at tutorials for Microsoft accounts and I'm familiar on managing accounts on one computer but what I'm not getting is this: I plan on having 3 Windows 10 computers, is the typical setup supposed to be where I use the same Microsoft account on each one of them? One of those computers is a desktop I use only for myself and family at home, a 2nd second desktop for visitors and a laptop strictly for me. If that is the case, does that mean they need to be synced with each other since they'll have the same account and password(?). If that is the case, isn't a safety factor? That's the type of tutorial I'm looking for if there is one.

As DavidY said above, it's totally up to you what mix of account types you want to use. I use one account for all, for then they will all sync via an MS account by means of OneDrive. OneDrive is free up to a certain amount of data. (can purchase more if need be) All the settings, Modern apps' installs, desktop background, etc. are all backed up stored in a hidden file in OneDrive. If something is changed on one device/machine, it will change on all of them as per account. That's if you set it up to sync that way. You can configure MS accounts not to sync as well so each device/machine is individually personalized.

There is a "Devices" tab within each account's online account page as seen below.

Again, as David stated, you can have multiple MS accounts on one device/machine. You can have various local accounts on a device/machine or a mix of both types. Each machine/device will demand at least one Administration account (either MS or local) that cannot be deleted unless another Administration is created. So, therefore, always one. You can isolate all or some of the machines/devices from an MS account and/or the internet altogether via local accounts.

You may want to also set up family safety for all or some:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...amily-settings

https://account.microsoft.com/family...www.bing.com#/

Please keep in mind that I'm kind of rare around here in that I'm all MS. I scarcely use 3rd party software. That's just me. In all my 20+ years of using computers and since Windows 8 of which I was using MS accounts to sign in, I've never been hacked into. Perhaps lucky, but I keep all my machines/devices up to date with updates, drivers, and the like.

All important numbers have been partially whited out here and not all devices are seen:

Attachment 115606

MeAndMyComputer said:

I have a re-furbished Win10 Pro laptop coming in later this week.
I will use a Microsoft account and EDGE as the default browser and the MSN “home page”
--- On the Microsoft account, what choices can I consider?

The reason I’m asking is because on my Win10 desktop listed for my system specs I created a hotmail.com Microsoft account and it has had a ton of JUNK mail & I mean JUNK mail since day one. I signed up as a Win10 Insider but never got involved in it.
--- I’ve never sent e-mails or created an address book in that account. I did read e-mails from Gabe Aul & the Windows Insider Team so I could try to keep up with Windows 10 progress.

With all of that said, I also have 2 Yahoo email accounts and don’t have any issues with either one and never did.

Even if I stay with hotmail.com on the laptop I’m getting, I just hope I won’t have all of those JUNK e-mail issues.
I went to Microsoft Community for help to no avail.

Is there hope for me to have a safe Microsoft e-mail account?

Do you think Yahoo is safer than Hotmail ? well the last news of Yahoo don't say so !
I have Hotmail about 10 years and I never had a problem with it .

Thanks everyone for your answers: you answered what I wanted to know: I do have a choice and can set up each computer separately which in my case is what I want to do. I'm also fully MS, in fact IE also. I bought my first computer in 1998, a Packard Bell Win 95 OS. Within about 6 weeks it got infected even though I had all the bells & whistles so I had no idea why, I still don't but that's when I decided to at least keep my computers safe and well maintained with a standard monthly maintenance plan and system image backups. Since then I've never had an infection or any issues with IE regardless of which version. It doesn't mean I'm an expert but I just like to run things as naturally as they are supposed to do. On the system image backups, I had to use it only once and that was because of a mistake I made. I do use the original administrator occasionally but each one of my computers has a standard account. On Yahoo, I have 2 Yahoo email accounts since the "beginning of time", never had a problem and still don't: just the same the articles already mention I found very interesting. On Hotmail, I don't have an issue with it and I do know people who use it without any problems, however it's a problem on the one computer I set up with it and my JUNK happened immediately and I suppose it could certainly be related to information that's already been posted. Thanks HippsieGypsie for the family safety recommendation.

some email accounts are easy for spammers to "guess", for instance if you have a common name "mike smith" or whatever, then they will simply send spam email to every variation of "mike.smith@hotmail.com" they can think of.. like "mike_smith1000@hotmail.com" and just send various permutations.. it costs them nothing.

Also, if you have another email account on a different site, and you use the same*name before the @ sign, then spammers who have your other email address will just try the same account name at all services.

Don't blame spam on the service provider, (other than Yahoo, who has legitimately been breached numerous times). There are simply way too many ways for spammers to hit an account, even without you giving it to anyone.

@ Mystere "Don't blame spam on the service provider, (other than Yahoo, who has legitimately been breached numerous times). There are simply way too many ways for spammers to hit an account, even without you giving it to anyone" I know what you mean and I'm glad I started this post because I've seen a lot of good comments and recommendations.

it looks like someone*may be mistyping their email address when they sign up for services, and you end up getting the results

I did a clean install. There's no sense in putting up with umpteen JUNK emails since day 1. Now I'm going to get rid of my 2 Yahoo email accounts as recommended. Their security issues are problematic. Plus it takes me forever to type messages when I compose an email message. Their non-stop side bar ads are ridiculously annoying and interfere with being able to type even one paragraph: and I see the same issue at the senior center where I volunteer, so I don't think it's my computers (I have a desktop and a laptop) that's the problem.
I'll create 3 Google e-mail accounts each one for a specific purpose. I still plan on using EDGE as my browser. Even though I don't have a question in here any advice or comments are welcome.