When setting up a new Windows computer you will nearly always be prompted to sign in to your Microsoft account to continue.
What if you don’t have a microsoft account, and what if you don’t want one.
There is a very simple solution and you can avoid messing around with command prompts and code that’s difficult to understand.
Once you reach the prompt to “sign in with Microsoft” simply enter the email address: a@a.com and click “Next”
When asked for a password just leave it blank and press “sign in”.
This will send you to an error message saying “Oops, something went wrong”, that’s exactly what we want.
Now when you hit “Next” you will see a page saying “Who’s going to use this device?”.
Enter the username you want to use for your account, best to keep it short as long usernames have been known to cause issues from time to time.
Enter a password for your computer if you want one and that’s it, you’re now setting up an account without any Microsoft account.
What happens when I need to use my Office 365 apps?
To use the full version of the Office 365 apps (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.) you will need to either activate them with a code or sign-in to your Microsoft account.
We will only cover signing in to a Microsoft account in this article.
If you already have a Microsoft account that great you can check that you have an Office 365 subscription by logging in to the Microsoft website and clicking on your profile in the top right hand corner of the page. Then click “My Microsoft account”.
This will take you to a new page where you can purchase a subscription or check if you already have one. On the blue navigation bar at the top of the page click on “Services and subscriptions”. If you have an active subscription it will show up here. If not this is the best place to purchase a new subscription.
Now that you have a subscription you will need to install Office this can also be done from the “Services and subscriptions” page in your Microsoft account. The apps may come pre-installed on your computer, you can check this by searching for “Word” using the search found on your taskbar.
Once you have confirmed the Office 365 apps are present on your computer you can proceed to activate them.
To do this first open Word, you can search for Word on the taskbar if you cannot find it.
Now before opening any documents find the “Account” button in the bottom left corner of the window.
Locate the heading “Sign in to Office” and press the button “Sign in”
Now enter the email address and password associated with your Office 365 subscription.
You will now see this page:
To ensure your computer remains a local user and does not become associated with a Microsoft account it is essential that you press the “Microsoft apps only” option at this step. If you simply hit the next button Microsoft will automatically change your local account into a Microsoft account.
Now all of your Microsoft apps are activated and your computer is still operating with a local account rather than a Microsoft account.
A note on BitLocker Encryption
If you choose to use BitLocker encryption on a device that is configured with a local account it is absolutely essential that you record your BitLocker key somewhere. The key should be recorded somewhere safe and not stored on the computer itself.
