Windows 8 Five Minutes at a Time

Switching to a Local Account

You can log in to Windows 8 with a Microsoft account or a local account specific to your PC. What is the difference between the two? A Microsoft account provides easy access to your online services, such as SkyDrive. It can sync key settings among your different Windows 8 PCs. And you can more quickly download Windows Store apps that you have already installed on other PCs. But if you do not need the quick online access or synchronization, you may prefer to use a local account. If you have already set up and logged in with a Microsoft account, you can easily convert that into a local account. This task explains how to switch to a local account.

1 Log in: Log in to Windows with your current Microsoft account.

2 Access the Users page: Hover your mouse in the lower-right hot corner to display the Charms bar. Click the Settings charm and then click Change PC settings. In the left pane of the PC settings screen, click Users.

3 Choose to switch to local account: Under your current Microsoft account, click Switch to a local account.

4 Enter current password: ...