A user account is a name or email address that you use to sign in to Windows 8. By default,
your computer has one user account. But if you have several people using the computer,
you may want to create a separate account for each person.
To create new accounts, you'll need to be signed in as an administrator. If you only
have one account, then it will be an administrator account, so you may not need to worry about
this.
Open the Charms bar by hovering the mouse in the lower-right corner, and select Settings,
and then Change PC Settings. Then, click Accounts, select Other Accounts, then Add an Account.
At this point, you have two options: If you have a Microsoft account, then you can type
your email address here, or you can just create a Local account by clicking Sign in without
a Microsoft account. But it is best to use a Microsoft account, because it lets you use
the Windows Store to buy apps, and it also makes it easier to access your contacts, bookmarks,
files, and more when you're on a different computer.
To go to the next page, click Next.
If you're creating this account for a child, then you can check this box to turn on Parental
Controls. But you can always turn those on later if you prefer.
And then click Finish to create the account.
To switch to the new account, click the account name in the upper-right corner, and then select
the new account. Then type the password and press Enter. *When you're signing into a new
account for the first time, or signing into an existing account on a different computer,
you may be prompted to answer a few questions first. Just follow the directions on the screen,
and then Windows will set up your account - which may take it a few minutes.
Now if you have a Microsoft account, and you go to visit a friend or relative who has Windows
8, you can add your account to their computer using the same procedure that we just used,
and then you can log in and access your files and bookmarks.
Once you've created your accounts, you can manage them from the Control Panel. And there's
a shortcut for getting there from the Start screen: Just type Control Panel and press
Enter. Then, click User Accounts and Family Safety, User Accounts, and then Manage Another
Account. This will show you a list of all of the accounts on your computer.
Every computer is going to have at least one Administrator account, but by default, the
other accounts that you create are Standard accounts. If you want, you can promote a Standard
account to an Administrator, so that person can make changes to any of the settings on
the computer. But you may not want to use an Administrator account all the time, as
it makes it easier to accidentally change important settings. A better solution is to
give everybody a Standard account, and only log in to the Administrator account when you
need to change something.
But if you are sure that you want to promote the account, click on it, and then select
Change the account type. Then choose Administrator and click Change Account Type.
I'm going to click Manage Another Account to bring us back to the list of accounts.
If you'd like to turn on Parental Controls, you can click Set up Family Safety, and then
select the account that you want to change. It should be noted though, that In order to
edit Parental Controls, at least one account will need to be set to Child.
If Activity reporting is turned on, you'll be able to see which apps and webpages your
child is using by clicking View activity reports. And below, you have several options for controlling
which types of content your child can access. You can turn on Web filtering to control what
types of websites they can visit. Time Limits lets you control how much computer time they
have. Windows Store and game restrictions let you select which ratings you want to allow
for apps and games. And App Restrictions lets you choose the specific apps that your child
is allowed to use.
You can change these settings however you want, and you can always come back to the
Control Panel whenever you want to change any of the settings for your accounts and
Parental Controls.