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Windows 10 offers five basic types of user accounts: the built-in Administrator account, user accounts with administrative privileges, standard accounts, the Guest account, and Microsoft accounts, which can be used to access Microsoft resources and services such as Office 365 and the Family Safety features of Windows 10. They vary in how much privilege they grant to the person using the account.

Family Safety and family accounts are discussed in Chapter 5.

With Windows 10, you also have the choice of setting up the user accounts as local or Microsoft accounts. You can read about these types of accounts in the following sections.

Microsoft accounts

With Microsoft accounts, you have the greatest flexibility for taking advantage of many of the newest Windows 10 features. To set up a Microsoft account, you must use a valid e-mail address. You can use an existing account, such as one you use at your office or a third-party account such as Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, or something similar. If you don't have one, you can set up an e-mail account during the Windows 10 user account setup.

A Microsoft account provides the following features:

● Allows you to log in to a computer on which you haven't previously set up a user account. (Conversely, with local accounts, you must set up a local account on each computer on which you want to log in.)

● Provides access to Microsoft services like Office 365, Windows Phone accounts, and OneDrive.

● Enables you to download apps from the Windows Store.

● Syncs settings across multiple computers. For example, if you work on two or more computers, logging in with the same Microsoft account on each one enables you to keep your favorites, history, sign-in info, and languages synced between the two computers.

● Enables you to access your files and photos from multiple computers.

Creating a new e-mail address for a Microsoft user account

If you don't have an e-mail address, you can set one up as you create a new Microsoft user account. First, click the Accounts panel in Settings. The accounts options panel is displayed as shown in Figure 4.8.

Figure 4.8 The Microsoft account page.

To add a new Microsoft account, click Other users and then click Add a work or school user from the menu options on the right. This page is shown in Figure 4.9.

Figure 4.9 Other user accounts page.

Now click the Add someone else (+) button to this PC link. The option to choose how this person will sign into Microsoft appears as shown in Figure 4.10.

Figure 4.10 Adding more users to the PC.

Windows 10 enables you to set up a new outlook.com, hotmail.com, or live.com e-mail address, or an e-mail address for your own domain. Enter an e-mail address and wait for Windows to validate it as shown in Figure 4.11.

Figure 4.11 Successful validation.

Now that you have validated the e-mail, you can begin to set up the user account. Click the Work access link on the left of the Accounts page and click the Connect button on the right. Enter the e-mail address associated with the account that was just validated and then click Continue. Windows 10 then connects to your server or organization on the Internet or local network and begins to set up the user account on the computer automatically.

Local accounts

Local accounts are useful when you do not need to keep computers synced. When you use local accounts, you set up accounts for each user that will be using a computer as a stand-alone user. If you need to set up one account that can be used on multiple Windows 10 computers, you must set up Microsoft accounts or domain accounts.

Local accounts are also limiting in that you cannot use them to access the Windows Store to download apps, or services like SkyDrive. Remember that to access Windows Store apps, you must set up and use a Microsoft account.

The built-in administrator account

A single user account named Administrator is built into Windows 10. This is not the same as an administrative account you create yourself or see on the login screen. This account is hidden from normal view. It doesn't show up on the usual login screen.

The built-in Administrator account has unlimited computer privileges. So, while you're logged in to that account, you can do anything and everything you want with the computer. Any programs you run while you are in that account can also do anything they want. That makes the account risky from a security standpoint, and very unwise to use unless absolutely necessary.

In high-security settings, a new computer is usually configured by a certified network or security administrator who logs in to the Administrator account to set up the computer for other users. There, the administrator configures accounts on the principle of least privilege, where each account is given only as much privilege as necessary to perform a specific job.

When the administrator is finished, he or she typically renames the built-in Administrator account and password-protects it to keep everyone else out. The account is always hidden from view, except from other administrators who know how to find it. All this is standard operating procedure in secure computing environments, although hardly the norm in home computing.

In Windows 10, you really don't need to find, log in to, and use the built-in Administrator account unless you're an advanced user with a specific need, in which case you can get to it through Safe Mode. As a regular home user, you can do everything you need to do from a regular user account that has administrative privileges.

Experienced users who need access to the built-in Administrator account can get to it through Safe Mode. We talk about that in Chapter 11. But if you aren't a professional, we suggest you stay away from that and use an administrative account, discussed in the next section.

Administrative user accounts

Most of the time when you hear reference to an Administrator account in Windows 10, that reference is to a regular user account that has administrative privileges. This is an account that has virtually all the power and privilege of the built-in Administrator account. But it also has lots of security built in to help thwart security threats that might otherwise abuse that account's privileges and do harm to your computer.

Ideally, you should create one user account with administrative privileges on your computer. If you intend to implement parental controls, you need to password-protect that account to keep children from disabling or changing parental controls.

Standard accounts

A standard user account is the kind of account everyone should use for day-to-day computer use. It has enough privilege to do day-to-day tasks such as run programs, work with documents, use e-mail, and browse the web. It doesn't have enough privilege to make changes to the system that would affect other people's user accounts. It doesn't have enough privilege to allow children to override parental controls. And most important, it doesn't have enough privilege to let malware such as viruses and worms make harmful changes to your system.

If you use a standard account all the time, and use a built-in administrative account only when absolutely necessary, you'll go a long way toward keeping your computer safe from Internet security threats.

Guest account

The optional Guest account exists to allow people who don't regularly use your computer to use it temporarily. Basically, it lets them check their e-mail, browse the web, and maybe play some games. It definitely doesn't let them make changes to your user account or anyone else's. Its limited privileges also help protect your system from any malicious software they might pick up while online.