 Hello everybody! In this video, I'm going to tell you about a Microsoft account, what data is stored in Microsoft Windows, Edge, OneDrive or Outlook accounts. In our channel and blog, you will find solutions to any problem, from installing an operating system or configuring it to fixing possible bugs and errors or optimizing mobile gadgets. Our specialists will answer any questions you ask in your comments under the videos or articles. When installing a Windows operating system, you'll have to create a user account. In Windows 8 and 10, you can create a local user account or connect to a Microsoft account when installing the operating system. Each of the options has disadvantages and disadvantages. Option depends on your needs when it comes to functions of the operating system and the devices you would like to use. For example, a Microsoft account is convenient when you want to synchronize several Windows devices. It can help you to synchronize logins and passwords, browser and web page settings, web search options, desktop themes and colors and other key user settings. A Microsoft account for an operating system is no different from a local account. In everyday working routine, users are unlikely to feel any difference between the two options. It has the same profile as the local account, it can be configured as a user or administrator. You can create and connect a Microsoft account both while installing an operating system and with an already installed version of Windows. By the way, if you have ever signed up to any of Microsoft's services – Hotmail, Outlook.com, Windows Live, Xbox Live, Office 365, etc. – then you have a Microsoft account already. To connect a Microsoft account to Windows, go to Settings, Accounts, Your Info. Click on the link Sign In with a Microsoft account instead. This account has a web interface and you can manage the account from there only. There are two ways you can get into the Microsoft account web interface. Through the menu Settings, Accounts, Your Info, Manage My Microsoft Account, or by logging in to the Microsoft official website and you can find the link in the description. In the upper right corner of the screen, you will see a button to sign in. After a Microsoft account is connected to Windows, sync settings are enabled automatically for this computer. When synchronization is on, Windows monitors the settings you have chosen and enables them for all Windows 10 devices connected to this Microsoft account. It will sync passwords, color schemes, browser settings and language options. If you enable other Windows settings, the operating system will sync certain settings for devices, for example, for a printer in a mouse, for a explorer settings and notification settings. To enable or disable sync settings for devices connected to your Microsoft account, go to Settings, Accounts, Sync Your Settings. In the web interface of your Microsoft account, you can see all devices connected to such account that are also synced. To do it, choose the Devices menu. By selecting a corresponding menu item under a device, you can see its status, system updates and device updates, hard disk free space, etc. System information and also find the device on the map. It doesn't matter if your device is a smartphone, laptop or desktop PC. The web interface of your Microsoft account saves data on every time you logged in. To see it, go to the menu Security, Review Recent Activity. In this page, you can find information on any activities performed in this Microsoft account within the last 30 days, including the date, the data on user activity every time the account was logged in, and it doesn't matter how the user gets into the account, from the browser, phone, email agent or otherwise. For every item in the Recent Activity page, you can see the date and time of an activity, place where it was performed and a description. To view extra information on a specific activity, highlight it. This is where you can see the IP address of the device which was used to perform an activity, the device type, its operating system, the browser or application which was used for this activity. When you search for something in Bing, Microsoft collects your search queries and other information such as IP address, location, unique identifiers from cookie files, search time and date, and browser settings. All this data is backed up to the web interface of a Microsoft account. To view or manage them, go to Privacy, Activity History. Privacy Dashboard offers a simple way of viewing search queries and search results obtained by Bing. You can also clear the search history there. When it's done, the search history is removed from your Microsoft account. In addition to Microsoft account Recent Activity Log, the default option for the browser Microsoft Edge that comes pre-installed with your Windows is to save user logins and passwords as well as search and browse in history. In Microsoft Edge, go to the settings and in the section Clear Browsing Data Click on Choose what to clear. You can watch one of our videos to learn more about recovery cleared browsing history. Find the link in the description. When you use a Microsoft account, there is a function to sync files from a cloud storage to a OneDrive folder on your computer. You can watch one of our videos about backing up data to OneDrive and you can find the link in the description as before. On a computer, you can find the folder synced with OneDrive here. To sign in to the cloud storage, go to the OneDrive website and this link is in the description as well. Click to sign in, then enter your email address and password to your Microsoft account. Users who have a Microsoft account can also access the Outlook email service. Outlook is a personal email manager available for every Microsoft account and you will find the link below the video. To sign in, just give your Microsoft account details. You can connect any email address to this service. In this case, all your messages will be saved to Outlook mail server. And that is all for now. In this video, I try to explain what a Microsoft account is and how to use it. If you liked this video, click the like button below and subscribe to our channel to see more. Leave comments to ask questions. Thank you for watching. Good luck.