On Windows 10, you can choose to sign in with a local account, but the OS pushes you to sign in with a Microsoft account. This has many benefits, including syncing your settings across computers and easier account recovery if you forget your password.
If you use a Microsoft account to sign into your Windows 10 computer and want to change the email address associated with the account, it's definitely possible. We'll show you how to change the email address associated with your Microsoft account.
How to Change the Email Address for Your Microsoft Account
To start, you'll need to open your Microsoft account page. You can do this by heading to Settings > Accounts > Your info and clicking Manage my Microsoft account in Windows 10. Otherwise, just go account.microsoft.com in your browser and sign in.
Once on the page, choose Your Info along the top bar and select the Manage how you sign in to Microsoft link. You may need to enter your password again to access this menu.
Here, you can review your current primary email address, as well as any alias accounts. An alias account is simply a separate email address or phone number that you can use to sign into your Microsoft account, instead of the primary one. If you don't have any alias addresses to replace your primary with, choose Add email to set a new one.
You'll be prompted to either create a new email address (@outlook.com) or use an email address from another provider, like Yahoo or Google. Make a new account (setting up your other email address as needed), then return to the Manage how you sign in page.
You should see Make primary next to each alias address, which you can click to make that your primary Microsoft account email. The only restriction here is that an alias address cannot already be associated with another Microsoft account.
If you prefer, you can also add additional phone numbers instead of email addresses to your Microsoft account.
Restrict Sign-In for Your Microsoft Account
Once you've added additional aliases for your Microsoft account, you can use the Change sign-in preferences link on the same page to prevent any of them from being used to sign into your account.
You should remove an alias if you never use it at all. But you can prevent something from being used for sign-in while keeping it on your account if you want to use that login as a backup method.
Managing Your Microsoft Account
Now you know how to manage the email addresses and phone numbers on your Microsoft account. It's a good idea to set an email address that you have access to as primary, while also having a few extra methods for account recovery.
Meanwhile, if you use a Microsoft account on Windows 10 but want to convert it to a local account, this is possible.
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