Key Takeaways
- Microsoft removes guide on converting Microsoft accounts to Local, pushing for Microsoft sign-ins.
- Instructions once available, now missing – likely due to company’s preference for Microsoft accounts.
- People may resist switching to Microsoft accounts for privacy reasons, despite company’s stance.
Remember when you could use a Local account on Windows without a problem? Microsoft added a way to sign into your PC with a Microsoft account, which began the company’s crusade to get people off of using Local accounts. Now, the company has doubled down on its stance by removing a guide informing users on how to convert a Microsoft account into a Local one.
Microsoft goes back on instructing users how to make a Local account
As spotted by Tom’s Hardware, Microsoft has made some changes to its knowledge base that covered converting Local accounts to Microsoft ones and vice versa. When the page first appeared, it only featured converting Local to Microsoft accounts. Later on, the company added instructions for going the opposite way. However, as Tom’s Hardware noted, the instructions were rife with warnings telling you it was a bad idea. You can see this for yourself via a Wayback Machine capture on June 12th, where the Microsoft to Local account instructions come with this warning:
Important:
Microsoft recommends using a Microsoft account, not a local account, when signing in to Windows. Using a Microsoft account in Windows allows for seamless integration of Microsoft services, enhanced security, and sync across devices, unlike a local account.
Unfortunately, if you visit the same Microsoft help page today, the instructions for converting a Microsoft account into a Local one have gone missing. This isn’t because Microsoft removed the conversion method, as it is still totally possible to switch your Windows account to a Local one. Instead, the reason is likely that Microsoft does not want you to use Local accounts, and would prefer people just stuck with their Microsoft accounts. However, given how people love using Local accounts for privacy reasons, it’s going to be difficult for the Redmond giant to convince them to give it up for a Microsoft one.
