Why does windows 8 insist on a microsoft a/c & password

I've had a Windows 8 laptop for a whole 4 days and already know I don't like windows 8! (8.1 actually). WHY do computer people always have to make things worse every time they 'improve' things? This new small laptop replaces one that used Windows XP (great) and I also have a desktop (Windows 7 - fine).

Windows 8 doesn't deign to have a few preloaded simple games. This one is full of games I will never want. To download a few free solitaire games I had to have a microsoft account. Fortunately I already have an outlook email address with password but it made me suspicious - why an account of all things? Anyway I did it. But I now have a few games whose format I don't like and which in any event I cannot easily find (because the games icon is full of jazzier things I have no interest in). Worst of all, my computer now requires the microsoft account password every time I switch it on! How do I get rid of all this? I'm the only person who will ever use this computer. I do not need a password and I'm happy to lose all the games, both the preloaded ones and the solitaire I foolishly downloaded.

Many thanks for any advice.

Hello Penny, and welcome to Eight Forums.

If you like, you could use the tutorial below to set Windows to automatically sign in to your Microsoft account at startup.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2894-log-user-account-automatically-windows-8-startup.html

If you really prefer to use a local account (like Windows 7) instead of a Microsoft account, then you could switch your account on the PC to be a local account. Afterwards, step 5 in the tutorial below can help show you how to sign in to the Store while signed in to Windows with a local account.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorial...-different-microsoft-account-windows-8-a.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

It's not really necessary to use an MS account on a Win 8.x machine. The machine I am typing this on does not use an MS account and it works fine. If you bring up the Charms on the right side of the screen then select Settings->Change PC settings then click on Accounts you should see the option to switch to a local account. You will get asked for a PW when you setup the local account, leave it blank and you won't be prompted for a PW when you boot the machine. You won't be able to use OneDrive if your machine doesn't use an MS account. There are ways around that so if you want to use OneDrive, post a question about that.

You do need an MS account to download apps & games from the store, you can enter that info in the store if you use it. If you don't want to have access to the MS Store then you don't really need to have an account. I'm not sure why you can't find the games you installed "(because the games icon is full of jazzier things I have no interest in)". I have no clue what that means.

Not much to add. But welcome to the forum and I did what Brink said a few weeks ago and it works great. After his changes I am starting to like Win8 a little more. Keep digging he and others have more tips & tricks. There are ways to make it look and run a lot more like XP if that is what you are after.

8080

Those games must have been preloaded with computer, Win8 doesn't have any games by itself.