94 MAY2020|COMPUTERSHOPPER|ISSUE387
E
very person thatuses acomputer
should have their own user account.
This holds their own apps, settings, files
and preferences, giving each person aunique
view of their computer.Transferring old user
accounts from your old PC is possible with
software, but it’s often easier to startover and
configureyour new computer from scratch.
First, for your new computer,you should
set up anew user account. We’ll assume that
you’removing to Windows 10 for this one, as
all new computers (bar Apple ones) will run
this operating system. When you first turn on
your computer,you’ll be prompted to use the
wizardtocreateanew Microsoftuser account.
This type of account uses an email address for
login, but has the advantage thatkey settings
(such as region, themes and wallpaper) are
synchronised to the cloud. If you have a
second Windows 10 computer,logging into
thatone with your Microsoftaccount
automatically applies the same settings.
This can save alot of time in the future
customising your computerevery time you
get anew one or youopt for afresh install.
If you don’t want to shareinformation with
Microsoft, you can opt for alocal account
instead, which doesn’t synchronise any
information with the cloud.
Your first user account on anew computer
will be an Administrator account, which
means thatitcan be used to add other
users, manage your computer and install
applications. Youcan add additional
accounts, which can be either Administrators
or Limited accounts; the latter has more
restrictions and can’t install softwareormake
major system changes.
To add anew account, go to Settings in the
Startmenu and click Accounts, then click
Family &other users. Here, you can choose to
create two types of accounts: Family and
Other.The main difference is thatFamily
accounts let you control and manage achild’s
activity on your computer.Unless you’re
sharing your computer with friends, it makes
moresense to create anew Family account, so
click the Add afamily member link. Youcan
then choose to Add achild or Add an adult.
If the person you want to add has an
email address and aMicrosoftaccount,
enter this below and click Next; if the email
address you entered doesn’t have aMicrosoft
account associated with it, you’ll see alink that
says ‘sign up foranew one’ thatyou can
follow.The benefits of having aMicrosoft
account areasabove, wheresettings are
synchronised between computers.
If you don’t want to use aMicrosoftaccount,
click the link at the bottom: Theperson who I
want to add doesn’t have an email address.
This will let you create anew email address for
the person, although you can use aphone
number instead. Follow the wizardthrough to
complete the setup.The new user will have a
Standardaccount, giving them lower access
to system settings, but you can change this by
clicking Change account type and selecting
Administrator from the drop-down menu.
If you really don’t want to create aMicrosoft
account for anew user,you have to add the
person to your computer by clicking Add
someone else to this PC under Other users.
Click the ‘I don’t have thisperson’ssign-in
information link’ and then click ‘Add auser
without aMicrosoftaccount’. Enter a
username and add apassword, fill in the
security questions and then click Next. Again,
this type of account is aStandardone, but you
can click Change account type to change the
account type to an Administrator.
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE
IN ACCOUNT TYPES?
Themain differences between account types
aredown to whatthey can and can’t do.
HOWTOMOVE
USER ACCOUNTS
ABOVE:It’s easy to add new userstoyour computer
