Microsoft will send an email to this address to verify that it belongs to you. You can, of course, use another email address, whether it’s from Gmail, Yahoo or anywhere else. Also, you are not obliged to use it for email. If you want, you can use an invented name for the new address, and you don’t have to provide any personal details, so your privacy is not affected. Microsoft encourages you to use a Microsoft email address (Hotmail, Live, Outlook, etc) to log on Windows 10, and offers to create a new Microsoft email address for this purpose. Your account should have a strong password. In other words, your password isn’t just protecting your Windows laptop, it’s protecting an array of important online connections. Your Microsoft account also allows you to snoop on your kids, control their screen time, and – if they have Windows smartphones – track their location. Windows 10 apps are supported and updated online via the Windows Store, and these include email, Skype, Groove music and Xbox Live. Your Windows 10 authentication (product key) is stored online, as are the decryption keys if your hard drive is encrypted. Your Microsoft account also connects your PC with companion apps on Apple iOS and Android smartphones and on other Windows devices. It allows you to save files from your PC to OneDrive (eg from WordPad), as well as to create files online. Windows 10 is a mobile operating system designed to work with a Microsoft account, which provides access to OneDrive cloud storage and a growing number of online applications, such as Calendar, People, Tasks, Office, Sway, etc. By extension, they also help to protect your friends and family, and the companies you deal with online. Passwords help to protect you and your work. It’s not sensible to operate computers without passwords, and there is a strong case for making them compulsory.

However, the whole issue of Windows 10 accounts and passwords is so important that it’s worth a longer discussion. Asking Cortana for “change sign-in requirements” or typing req in the search box will get you to the right place. The quick and easy answer is to go to the Settings page of your account, look for the words “Require sign-in” and change the option to “Never”.

Windows 10 disable pin prompt