Switch to Microsoft Account in Windows 10  

Microsoft was really helpful with the exception of the language barrier. I had to repeat quite a few times and ask for repeats many times cause I could barely understand who I was talking to. Amazon was amazing. Was on the phone with them for quite some time going through all the things that could go wrong being I bought cpu, motherboard, ram, and a video card all at the same time. For a minute I was wondering what the outcome was going to be. When he started questioning my power supply and had me plug into a different outlet, I was thinking this wasn't going to end well. I don't know who was more confused, me or the dude I was talking to, lol. They could have quite easily given me the run around on all this. I think the guy just gave up and decided to express ship a new motherboard. When I was installing the new mb, I was half expecting the problem to still be there but the new mb did the trick.

Hi there, having an issue: When I build a computer and install Windows 10 I start with a local account. Later I'll change to my Microsoft account. On my current rig I tried this, got to the step where it asks for my Microsoft account credentials and then my local account password.

At this point I get this message: "xxxxxxx@gmail.com is here already - Another user on this device uses this Microsoft account, so you can't add it here."

Any thoughts?

I'm thinking in future I'll just set up a Microsoft account login at Windows 10 install and not mess with a local account, that's a vestige from the past, I seem to eventually switch my login to a Microsoft account anyway.

Brink, I did have my MSA in Emails, but deleting it didn't resolve the issue. However I found this link and the first solution here resolved my problem, I had additional accounts listed under 'Users...' in Computer Management, deleting those allowed me to sucessfully switch from my local account to my MSA..

https://social.technet.microsoft.com...10itprogeneral

I got a question while looking at step 2.

Is there a difference between using the "Use this account everywhere on your device" option and actually signing in using a Microsoft account? Because it seems like you're still able to use find my device and sync settings, etc. while still retaining local account sign in.

Secondly, is there a way to get to the results of using "Use this account everywhere on your device" (with the stop signing in automatically option) without removing and re-adding an account? Because it doesn't seem possible otherwise.

Edit: also, is there an official name for the results of "Use this account everywhere on your device"? It's not really a local account and it's not fully a "login using Microsoft account" either. Feels like something inbetween.

Brink said:

Hello,

The "Use this account everywhere on your device" option is basically for adding the Microsoft account to "Accounts used by other apps" below. This allows the Microsoft account to be available sign in to apps without switching from a local account.

Add and Remove Accounts used by other apps in Windows 10

True... But it does seem to be different. If you don't click the "Stop signing in to all Microsoft apps automatically" link, that account under Email and Accounts seems to not have a dropdown... And it seems to activate settings sync and stuff unlike with Add and Remove accounts...