Ciprian Adrian Rusen - Windows 11 All-in-One For Dummies

If you have a Microsoft account, don’t imagine that you can log in on any Windows 11 computer from anywhere. Before you can do that, a user who is an administrator needs to add your Microsoft account first, using the steps I just listed.

Don’t get me wrong. There are good reasons for using a Microsoft account — such an account makes it much easier and faster to retrieve your mail and calendar entries, for example, or use the Microsoft Store or Microsoft Edge, bypassing individual account logins. It’ll automatically connect you to your OneDrive too. Only you can decide if the added convenience is worth the decreased privacy. Book 2, Chapter 5covers the details.

However, adding a local account is a good idea when you don’t want Microsoft to know as much about what you do on your Windows 11 PC, or when you want to log in without a password. Here’s how to add a local account in Windows 11:

1 Click or tap the start icon and then Settings.

2 In the Settings window, click or tap Accounts, followed by Family & Other Users.The Family & Other Users screen appears (refer to Figure 4-4).

3 On the right, in the Other Users section, click or tap Add Account.

4 In the How Will This Person Sign In? dialog box, click or tap the link at the bottom that says I Don’t Have This Person’s Sign-in Information.Windows 11 gives you yet another opportunity to set up a Microsoft account, as shown in Figure 4-6. FIGURE 4-6:Here’s the second time Microsoft asks whether you want to set up a Microsoft account.

5 Click or tap Add a User without a Microsoft Account.Windows 11 (finally!) asks you to enter the local account name and password. See Figure 4-7.

6 In the Who’s Going to Use This PC? field, type a name for the new account.You can give a new account just about any name you like: first name, last name, nickname, titles, abbreviations … no sweat, as long as you don’t use the characters / \ [ ] " ; : | < > + = , ? or *. FIGURE 4-7:Now you get to the “adding a new account” part.

7 (Optional) Type a password twice and answer three security questions.If you leave the password fields blank, the user can log in directly by simply clicking or tapping the account name on the sign-in screen.

8 Click or tap Next.You have a new standard local account, and its name now appears in the list of Other Users.

If you want to turn the new account into an administrator account, follow the steps in the section, “ Changing Other Users’ Settings,” later in this chapter. To add an account picture for the sign-in screen and the Start menu, flip to Book 3, Chapter 2.

If you created a local account without a password, you can add a password later from Settings ⇒ Accounts⇒ Sign-In Options⇒ Password.

You aren’t allowed to create a new account that's named Administrator. There’s a good reason why Windows 11 prevents you from making a new account with that name: You already have one. Even though Windows 11 goes to great lengths to hide the account named Administrator, it’s there, and you may encounter it by accident. For now, don’t worry about the ambiguous name and the ghostly apparition. Just refrain from trying to create a new account named Administrator. You can create any account with any other name, with or without administrator permissions.

A child account is a standard Microsoft account that can be managed by parents. To manage a child account, you must have a Microsoft account on your Windows 11 PC that is set as administrator. From it, you can then add your child’s Microsoft account, and set it as a member of your family, using Microsoft’s Family Safety. For more details, visit: www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/family-safety .

If you have created a Microsoft account for your child, and are logged in with your own Microsoft account, here’s how to add your child’s account to Windows 11:

1 Click or tap the start icon and then Settings.

2 In the Settings window, click or tap Accounts, followed by Family & Other Users.The Family & Other Users screen appears (refer to Figure 4-4).

3 On the right, click or tap the Add Account button next to Add a Family Member.

4 Type the email address of your child’s Microsoft account, and then click or tap Next.You're asked about the role of this account, as shown in Figure 4-8.

5 Choose Member and click or tap Invite.Your child receives an email with an invitation to join your family. If your child accepts, you can set up Family Safety rules.

With Microsoft Family Safety, you can set screen time, app, and game limits; get access to reports about your child’s activities; and have Microsoft Edge and Bing automatically filter inappropriate content online.

FIGURE 4-8:Choose the role for your child’s account.

If you have an administrator account, you can reach in and change almost every detail of every single account on the computer. In this section, I cover the most important things you can do.

To change another account from a standard account to an administrator account, do the following:

1 Click or tap the start icon and then Settings.

2 In the Settings window, click or tap Accounts. On the right, choose Family & Other Users.A list of all the accounts on the computer appears.

3 Click or tap on the account you want to change.For example, in Figure 4-9, I chose to change my local account called Digital Citizen. FIGURE 4-9:Choose the account you want to change from standard to administrator, or vice versa.

4 Click or tap the Change Account Type button below the selected account.Windows 11 responds with the option to change from a standard user account to an administrator account and back.

5 Select the new account type and click or tap OK.The account’s type changes immediately.

For other kinds of account changes, you need to venture into the old-fashioned Control Panel. Here’s how to get to the options in the Control Panel:

1 Click or tap the search icon on the taskbar and type Control Panel.

2 In the list of search results, choose Control Panel.The Control Panel appears.

3 Choose User Accounts, and then choose User Accounts again. Click or tap Manage Another Account.A list of all accounts on the computer appears.

4 Click or tap the account you want to change.Windows 11 presents you with several options, as shown in Figure 4-10.

FIGURE 4-10:Maintain another user’s account.

Here’s what the available options entail:

Change the Account Name: This option appears only for local accounts. (It’d be problematic if Windows 11 let you change someone else’s Microsoft account.) Selecting this option modifies the name displayed on the sign-in screen and the Start menu while leaving all other settings intact. Use this option if you want to change only the name on the account — for example, if Little Bill wants to be called Sir William.