Windows 8 Five Minutes at a Time

Adding a Microsoft Account to Windows

You can add new accounts to Windows 8, either Microsoft accounts or local accounts. Through multiple accounts, you can then share your PC with family members or other people, each within their own unique environments. A Microsoft account gives you the ability to automatically log in to different online services and synchronize certain content and settings across multiple Windows 8 computers. You can either add an existing Microsoft account or create a new one by requesting a new e-mail address. You can also modify those accounts as Standard ones with limited capabilities or Administrator ones with full privileges. This task explains how to add existing and new Microsoft accounts to Windows 8.

1 Log in: Log in to Windows with an Administrator 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 select the Change PC settings option. In the left pane of the PC settings screen, click Users.

3 Add a user: In the Other users section, click the Add a user button. ...