Choose where you want to search below Search Search the Community. Search the community and support articles Windows Windows 10 Search Community member. Purchase of the pro edition is not possible. I need a solution. This thread is locked. You can follow the question or vote as helpful, but you cannot reply to this thread.

I have the same question Report abuse. Details required :. Cancel Submit. Andre Da Costa Article Author. This is Microsoft's free online account for personal use, required for signing in to the company's consumer services, including OneDrive, Xbox Live, Skype, and Microsoft formerly Office Family and Personal subscriptions, among others.

If you have an email account at Outlook. You can also sign up for a new account anytime, choosing a new address at Outlook. Signing in to your Windows 10 or Windows 11 PC with a Microsoft account offers several distinct benefits:. Note that Windows telemetry data is tied to your device and isn't associated with a Microsoft account.

And, of course, you can create a Microsoft account and use it exclusively for signing in to Windows while keeping your email, cloud storage, and other services elsewhere. But if you do use a Microsoft account for services such as Office and OneDrive, it makes sense to sign in to Windows using the same account. A local account is about as old school as Windows gets.

You don't need a network connection or an email address; instead, you create a username up to 20 characters and a password, both of which are stored on the PC where you create them and grant access only to that device.

There's no particular security or privacy advantage to signing in with a local account indeed the lack of device encryption is a negative, in my book ; but if that's your preference, you can do so when you first set up Windows 10 any edition or Windows 11 Pro on a new PC. Windows 11 Home requires you to sign in with a Microsoft account during initial setup. With a Microsoft account, you have multiple options to recover if you forget your password.

With local accounts, you've historically had no such option if you forget your password. On Windows 10, setting up a local account on Windows 10 requires that you fill in answers to three security questions, to help you recover in the event you forget your password. You can't bypass those questions, nor can you choose alternatives other than the six predefined questions.

If you're worried that a thief with a search engine can guess those answers, do as I do and For example, you can answer the three security questions with a three-word passphrase of your own, entered one word at a time. Or, if you'd prefer to bypass the whole feature, just mash the keyboard to create random "answers" that no one including you could possibly guess.

If you choose either option, don't blame me if you forget your password. Even if you prefer a local account, consider signing in first with a Microsoft account. After you confirm that your system is properly activated and the activation status is recorded with that Microsoft account, switch back to a local account and go on about your business. Likewise, if you're fussy about the name of your default user profile folder, consider signing in with a local account first, and then attach your Microsoft account.

How to join a domain? Open Settings from your start menu. Select System. Select About from the left pane and click Join a domain.

Enter the Username and Password you were provided and then click Ok. Otherwise, you may ask your server administrator to change your password when you need to.

How to login back to your local computer account? Select Other user from the bottom-left corner. Enter your machine name followed by a backslash then your local user. Enter your local machine password if you had one and press Enter. Sign-in with your local account using the previous steps.

Select Continue. Can an unactivated version of Windows join a domain? Open up cmd. Run netdom join providing the following parameters. Now restart the computer and the computer will be joined to the domain.

How do I join an offline domain? Prudhvi on August 27, at pm. Hi, I was using an administrator account in my system. Please help me with this. Thanks Reply. Rob on August 29, at pm. Joe on September 6, at pm.

Windows 10 home cannot join domain free. Subscribe to RSS