Best Practices For Setting Up Windows 8.1 and Windows 10

By default, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 has enabled settings that track you for advertising. Windows 8.1 and 10 also try desperately to have you log in to your computer with a Microsoft account. Those settings should be disabled and you should never log in with a Microsoft account because several of my customers have had trouble logging in when they used a Microsoft account to do so. Logging with a non-Microsoft account makes it harder for Microsoft to deliver you targeted advertising. Just because it is very difficult does not mean we should willingly surrender our privacy. The steps included below are current as of the Spring 2019 update (1903). Some of what you will see on computer purchased in the store will be different than below, but the majority of the steps are the same. Older versions of Windows may be slightly different too.

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