Local Accounts vs MSA Installation?


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win11freak

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Quick question here.

I had been using a Windows local account install for many years.

As a security standpoint, is a Microsoft account more secure than a local account?

As far as privacy goes, I don't really care about.

Thanks in advance.
 

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I don't see any way that having a Microsoft account would be more secure than a local account
 

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A Microsoft account links your PC login to an online email address (Outlook, Hotmail), enabling cloud sync, easy password recovery, and Microsoft Store access. A local account stays entirely offline and restricted to a single computer, offering more privacy and independence from cloud services.
 

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I just thought it be more secure since I have MFA on my Microsoft account.

Thanks
 

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MFA would be more secure if it prompted you for MFA at every logon. As I remember it, personal Microsoft accounts don’t allow that.
 

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pseymour said:
MFA would be more secure if it prompted you for MFA at every logon. As I remember it, personal Microsoft accounts don’t allow that.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Upon first install or setup, it does ask for the MFA verifications but once the pc is all setup and ready to use no MFA.

Example>> when you just Lock your PC and sign back in, it just unlocks the PC without any MFA.

So in a sense, it's kind of useless unless you are installing or setting up the PC initially.
 

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Windows 11 Pro 22H2
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To make Windows 11 login require Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), you must use built-in features like Windows Hello for Business or corporate cloud policies, because Windows does not natively pop up an external phone code prompt for standard local passwords.
 

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AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
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Erica6
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Micron Technology DDR4-3200 16GB
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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060
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Realtek ALC671
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Samsung SyncMaster U28E590
Screen Resolution
3840 x 2160
Hard Drives
SAMSUNG MZVLQ1T0HALB-000H1
Security.... You keep your sensitive data encrypted... then it doesn't really matter if you even have a password to login to the OS itself.
as for local VS MS account.. i get the feeling a local is more secure as you don't have to rely on a working internet connection, if you ever want to work offline on really sensitive data.

Sorry to say this, but most of you already know it... you don't talk HIGH security in the same sentence as Windows OS.
This is why it is important to keep sensitive data encrypted on a secondary partition, or even better an external drive.. it should not be stored on the same partition as the OS..
(This goes for Linux too.)
 
Last edited:

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