I guess this is a really dumb question, but why care if microsoft wants you to use their mickey mouse "account" ? What do we gain by jumping through hoops to avoid it?
I didn't know any better, so my computer is set up with their "account". I never use the account for anything; I never log into it, and I don't buy their "store" stuff. What do they get out of it, and how is it harming me?
If I wipe (or replace) my drive and re-install to avoid the account BS, will the system work better for me?
I went from windows XP to windows 10, so I guess I missed a lot of microsoft's shenanigans
Forgot to mention ... They've never sent any spam or other crap to my email, so I'm thinking it must be a benign thing, but they must get something from it.
Once upon a time, Windows did not track a lot. Even with Windows 8.x, most of the tracking stuff is off by default. On Windows 10, it's pretty much all enabled by default. I'm not going to assume that by switching all the options I can find off is going to stop all the tracking, but I'm certainly going to try and make it as difficult as possible for them.
With a Microsoft account, it helps MS tie it all to an identifiable user.
I'm also not a fan of the idea that I can be locked out of my own computer by a Microsoft account getting compromised. Also, might it be possible that a compromised account could result in the diversion of tracking data to the attacker (aside from access to OneDrive contents of course, enabled by default to save all your docs/pics to the cloud)?
If usage data wasn't so valuable, these companies wouldn't go out of their way to track, store and process all that data.
There's literally no advantage for me to sign into my computer with a Microsoft account either.
A side note is that a lot of my customers neither want or need a password to sign into their computer with. With a Microsoft account, some kind of sign-in is necessary. In terms of your computer's security, the only really good reason to have a password set is to discourage casual physical access to your computer (such as family members). I have a local account password set on mine because I handle customer data and I ought to take some precautions.
I don't think your computer will work better for not having a Microsoft account set up, at least not in an easily quantifiable performance metric, but stopping as much tracking stuff as possible means less resources used for purposes other than yours.
One thing I found to be curious on a Win10 machine I encountered with an MS account in use was that the Start menu shows how many fake MS Internet points your account has. What a thrilling waste of time for almost all involved!
The MS store - I often find that I can install apps without a Microsoft account. Some require it, some don't. I haven't figured out the rhyme or reason behind it.
Like Office 365 (versus MSO 2019), there are some niche scenarios that make an MS account worthwhile, but it shouldn't be the default option.
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