Mixed bag of questions

Hey guys, I just installed Windows 8 yesterday, and so far I'm liking it!
I have a few questions, (and I'm sure this list of questions will grow), so here goes.

1. Is there any difference between me using a local account to log in, or using my Outlook.com account? (Apart from, perhaps, my accounts' portability if I use the Outlook account.) I'm just trying to get a good pros/cons perspective of the two options.

2. I noticed something weird about some programs running in Windows 8. For example, there's a shortcut to Chrome on my desktop, and an icon in the start menu. So I opened Chrome for the first time using the icon on the desktop, and I set it up as usual, downloading a few extensions I use regularly and such. Today, when I opened it from the Start menu, I noticed that the instance of Chrome that opened up was literally as if it was a fresh install of the browser. However, going back to the desktop will open up Chrome as I had set it up initially.Does anyone know why this happens/how I can rectify it? Thanks!

ad 2) those 2 shortcuts do indeed point to different locations. Here is the example of my SAS program:

C:\Program Files\SUPERAntiSpyware\SUPERAntiSpyware.exe
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\SUPERAntiSpyware

The first one is from the Start menu. The second from the desktop.

codemastercool said:

2. I noticed something weird about some programs running in Windows 8. For example, there's a shortcut to Chrome on my desktop, and an icon in the start menu. So I opened Chrome for the first time using the icon on the desktop, and I set it up as usual, downloading a few extensions I use regularly and such. Today, when I opened it from the Start menu, I noticed that the instance of Chrome that opened up was literally as if it was a fresh install of the browser. However, going back to the desktop will open up Chrome as I had set it up initially.Does anyone know why this happens/how I can rectify it?

Click to expand...

This changed in the Chrome Dev Channel sometime around version 23.something, I believe (I'm running version 24.0.1305.3 dev-m as of this post). The desktop and "Metro" versions now use the same profile. The Stable Chrome channel is still at version 21.something, so hasn't been updated with this change yet.

Chrome Releases

That's for chrome os. The current stable is 22.0.1229.94 m for windows.

Hello and welcome!

I don't use chrome so I have no opinion. But as for your accounts question, I do have an opinion.

If you use your Outlook account, it's preferable to use that if you have or use two devices to access the same account. For example, if you're at a computer at work or school or even on your phone (Windows Phone!), and you sign in at Outlook.com, you can add calendar events and mail and notifications and add contacts or edit them and such and access SkyDrive and upload. Then, when you sign into Windows 8 with that account, the Mail, SkyDrive, People, and Calendar apps will already be updated with those new changes. Also, if you're on two different PCs running 8, it's even more awesome as your personalization settings from Start to Desktop carry over like wallpaper and colors as well as mouse settings and language settings. If you have IE bookmarks pinned to Start, those carry over as well. Every app that requires signing in is already signed into, and if you need certain apps on that remote PC, you can go to the Windows Store and download them, and I believe settings in those apps will transfer as well. It also makes reinstalling Windows more of a breeze, as if you need to do so with 8 or even later with Windows 9, you have less you need to do.

A local account will act as any user account has done with previous Windows versions. A plus to that I guess if you don't need to use those apps or if work is done primarily on one PC, or if you're paranoid of the cloud.