New laptop, local user account, next day Microsoft account signed in???

I have been using a Dell 16 Plus laptop with Windows 11 Pro on it for the past several months. This laptop is set up using a local user account. I do have two outlook.com email accounts logged in through Microsoft Edge. One outlook.com account syncs bookmarks, etc. and the other outlook.com account is an email account that I access through Microsoft Edge. This laptop has been running fine except for the known Windows 11 problems.

I bought an HP OmniBook X laptop and start to set it up. I was able to use the Fn+Shift+F10 bypass to set up a local user account in Windows 11. I installed all the updates through Windows Update, Microsoft Store, and using WINGET. I did not sign in to any Microsoft accounts and Microsoft Edge had no accounts signed in. I never made it that far in my setup process. I did install Google Chrome in Windows 11, signed in to my gmail account, and allowed my Google account to sync my settings.

Both laptops are connected to the same Wifi network. Both Windows 11 on each laptop uses a local user account with a password.

When I was going to continue setting up my HP laptop, I found something puzzling. Microsoft Edge had my Microsoft account signed in already, all bookmarks, etc. sync'd, Microsoft Store had my Microsoft account signed in. I did not sign in to anything.

On my Dell laptop, the Microsoft Store does not have my Microsoft account logged in and Microsoft Edge settings are adjusted to not allow Edge to sign in anything with my Microsoft account.

I am not sure how the new HP laptop automatically signed in to my Microsoft account in Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Store, and within Windows 11, but still uses a local user account with a password to sign in.

If you did a Windows install OOBE, you were forced to set up a Microsoft account.

When you login into the desktop, you can sign out of your Microsoft account and create a local account.

NormanF said:

If you did a Windows install OOBE, you were forced to set up a Microsoft account.

Click to expand...

As I wrote above: "I was able to use the Fn+Shift+F10 bypass to set up a local user account in Windows 11." I found the bypass still exists in Windows 11 at this time.

NormanF said:

When you login into the desktop, you can sign out of your Microsoft account and create a local account.

Click to expand...

I never signed in to any Microsoft account. If I had to sign in to a Microsoft account, I would have wiped out the pre-installed Windows 11 to use my Rufus Windows 11 USB install of 26200.7462 that automatically set up a local user account.

What I am trying to find out how Microsoft Edge on the new laptop used my Microsoft account from another computer. I found some other users asking the same thing, but I found no real answers. Microsoft uses cross-device detection and can share Windows settings across computers on the same network. Just not sure how that works.

Update:

On the new HP laptop I had logged in to a non-MS account (retail store account) that sent a verification code my outlook.com account. I logged in to that outlook.com account using Google Chrome Incognito mode to get the code. I signed out of that outlook.com account in Google Chrome Incognito mode. In Windows 11 Settings > Accounts > Your Accounts, the outlook.com account appears there (not sure why).

Microsoft Edge on the new HP laptop must have detected the Microsoft account in the Windows 11 Settings and used it.

I did not expect using Google Chrome Incognito mode allow the Microsoft account to detect and automatically attached to Windows and Microsoft Edge.

I thought Google Chrome Incognito mode was not supposed to cache anything.

Now on the new HP laptop after restarting Windows 11, the Windows Hello PIN set up is now there. Microsoft must have removed the cancel or go-back option forcing you to set up Windows Hello security. I do not want to use this security method. So I simply turned off the laptop to restart it. I have my local account access again, but with the Microsoft account attached. Bitlocker enabled and now turned off Bitlocker as I do not need an encrypted drive. Now this new computer has been registered in the Microsoft account, which I did not want, and have removed it from the account.

Note: when you create a local user account using the bypass, Bitlocker does not enable.

What a mess and Microsoft provided no indication that Bitlocker had been enabled. I also had to remove OneDrive. Windows Backup got enabled. Not sure if it backed up anything. Windows Backup is now disabled.