Windows 10 Settings menu: The Accounts tab

Some of the tabs in Windows 10’s new Settings menu are just ports from the Windows 8 PC Settings menu. The Accounts tab is practically identical to Windows 8’s Accounts tab, just with a couple of extra options.

In Windows 8, you can reach the Accounts tab by opening the Charms bar, clicking the Settings charm, clicking Change PC settings and opening Accounts. Here, you’ll find three main sections: Your account, Sign-in options and Other accounts. In Windows 10‘s new Settings menu, the Accounts tab has five options: Your account, Sign-in options, Your workplace, Sync settings and Other user accounts.

The three identically-named sections (Your account, Sign-in options and Other accounts/Other user accounts) are basically identical in functionality, minus a few logistical differences (toggles instead of drop-down menus, etc.).

Your account is where you will manage your primary sign-in account, which is linked to Microsoft’s cloud network. Here, you can change your account picture and manage app and website accounts, but for more advanced settings you’ll need to follow the More account settings online link to manage personal info, payment options for the Microsoft store, and so forth.

Sign-in options lets you choose how you want to sign in to your computer — with a PIN, a password, or a “picture password” (in which you draw gestures over a picture of your choosing, which is best for touchscreen users). You can also choose your sign-in policy — whether to require a password when your PC wakes from sleep mode.

Other user accounts is where you can add additional accounts. These can be Microsoft network accounts or local accounts that don’t require an email address. You can also add a “child’s account” here; children’s accounts let you use Microsoft’s Family Safety feature to set limits on websites and computer time. To edit an account into an Admin account or a Child account, simply click on the account, click Edit and choose the appropriate Account type from the dropdown menu.

In this section, you can also set up an account for “assigned access,” where the account will only be able to access one Windows Store app. This is something you might want to do if you want to use your PC as an Internet kiosk (the account will only be able to access Internet Explorer, for example). To do this, click Set up an account for assigned access and then click Choose an account. Pick the account you want to have assigned access, and then click Choose an app. Now pick the app you want the account to be able to access and restart your computer to confirm the changes.

The two new options in the Windows 10 Accounts tab are Your workplace and Sync settings. Your workplace lets you connect to your company’s Microsoft network so you can access company resources such as apps and email.

In Sync settings, you can manage your PC’s sync settings. This is useful because not everybody wants to have every setting on their home PC sync with their work PC (and vice versa). At the top of the section, you can choose to turn syncing on or off; if you turn it off, your account will be more like a local account rather than a Microsoft network account. Your PC won’t sync your theme (including desktop background and colors), apps, browser settings, or passwords with any other PC you sign into using your Microsoft account. If you turn syncing on, you’ll have the option to modify individual sync settings — you can toggle theme, apps, browser settings, passwords, language preferences and ease of access syncing on and off.