Microsoft account
Ranked 3 of 4 online accounts by recommenders
Recommended for syncing settings across Windows devices and for single sign-in. Most common caveat: Microsoft pushes it for setup, and lockouts and broken login flows can cut people off.
Recommended for syncing settings across Windows devices and for single sign-in. Most common caveat: Microsoft pushes it for setup, and lockouts and broken login flows can cut people off.
123 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 115
- approval share
- 7%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Forced use over local accounts
“Instead they force people to use a Microsoft Account to set up their windows and store the key without explicit consent”
Comment from 24 Jan 2026 in “MS confirms it will give the FBI your Windows PC data encryption key if asked” “requiring an account for basic stuff might make sense internally but from user side it just adds unnecessary steps”
Comment from 27 Mar 2026 in “People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account” “Microsoft changes the rules and requires all of these features, but doesn't tell any normal users of the changes”
Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Windows 11 users are tired of MS account requirements creeping into everything” - Comment from 27 Feb 2026 in “New California law requires age verification for all OS accounts”
- Comment from 8 Jun 2026 in “Apple WWDC 2026 Livestream”
Lockouts can cost account access
“Microsoft also has this cool thing where if someone fails to get into your account too many times, your account can get locked”
Comment from 24 May 2026 in “Scammers are abusing an internal Microsoft account to send spam links” “which will trigger anti-whatevers on your microsoft account, which means you can potentially lose your microsoft account”
Comment from 5 Aug 2026 in “Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc” “If you only put the keys on the Microsoft account, and Microsoft closes your account for whatever reason, you are done.”
Comment from 23 Jan 2026 in “Microsoft gave FBI set of BitLocker encryption keys to unlock suspects' laptops” - Comment from 4 Aug 2026 in “Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc”
Broken login and redirect loops
“their signup flow is fine but the login flow is badly broken”
Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “Building the largest known Kubernetes cluster” “It is also the only SSO flow I have ever seen that fundamentally cannot work if you have more than one account remembered on your device.”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Federal Cyber Experts Called Microsoft's Cloud "A Pile of Shit", yet Approved It” “It would cycle through something like 12 different pages, loading then redirecting before eventually ending at "You have been signed out"”
Comment from 19 Oct 2026 in “Putting Linux on my RTX Spark laptop because I don't have a Microsoft account” - Comment from 19 Oct 2026 in “Putting Linux on my RTX Spark laptop because I don't have a Microsoft account”
Account recovery and setup problems
“My Microsoft account is still stuck in German because that's the language the bot used when creating the account”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Veracrypt Project Update” “If I set up a new Windows 11 computer using this account, Windows picks the first 4 letters of my email address”
Comment from 3 May 2026 in “Windows quality update: Progress we've made since March” “I wish there was more explanation for that because trying to help people recover Microsoft accounts”
Comment from 23 May 2026 in “Microsoft to stop sending SMS codes for personal accounts”
Other online accounts people recommend
The three most recommended other online accounts, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google account | 18 | 206 | 8% | 9 | 20 yrs16 owners | — |
| Apple Account | 10 | 52 | 16% | 4 | 20 yrs4 owners | — |
| Microsoft accountThis page | 8 | 115 | 7% | 5 | — | — |
| Apple ID | 7 | 86 | 8% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 134 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the email address of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) was suspended”
“It would cycle through something like 12 different pages, loading then redirecting before eventually ending at "You have been signed out"”
“Multiple broken redirects, broken links, buttons that loop, and more just to hit a CAPTCHA AI can solve anyway.”
“If you want to login to a corporate Microslop account with a passkey, you have to use Microslop software.”
“bonus points for "No, this app only" being hit after the session timeout of the login session”
“which will trigger anti-whatevers on your microsoft account, which means you can potentially lose your microsoft account”
“It works for one day, then some fraud process runs overnight and if I try to use it the next day I need a phone number.”
“I'm very tech savvy and I still struggled just to set up a Microsoft/XBox account for my daughter”
“Microsoft kindly let me know about some unauthorized access, and then promptly deleted the account”
“I have multiple due to their Xbox profile messiness”
“some moron on the other end would probably find it incomprehensible why you don’t already have an MS account”
“instead of Microsoft's ironically less secure (see SMS as 2FA)”
“Microsoft changes the rules and requires all of these features, but doesn't tell any normal users of the changes”
“I get absolutely nothing in return for logging into my own machine with a Microsoft account”
“disable "AI" and "onedrive" and "microsoft accounts" in windows?”
“the best defense against this is to delete the Microsoft account and enjoy a better life”
“Those login attempts which trigger 2fa app does not generate a log entry if unsuccessful.”
“Support has never been good (for legitimate users) and is basically non-existent with AI now.”
“Microsoft also has this cool thing where if someone fails to get into your account too many times, your account can get locked”
“I wish there was more explanation for that because trying to help people recover Microsoft accounts”
“it asks me to log in with a Microsoft account and thereby give all my personal data to Microsoft”
“If I set up a new Windows 11 computer using this account, Windows picks the first 4 letters of my email address”
“MS is ratcheting up the 'mandatory Microsoft account' on Windows, probably for this reason.”
“My Microsoft account is still stuck in German because that's the language the bot used when creating the account”
“I was greated by an infinity repeating error dialog about some internal service that had failed.”
“It's preferrable to have a universal/ online credential you assume to be authenticated”
“requiring an account for basic stuff might make sense internally but from user side it just adds unnecessary steps”
“If you own more than one computer, the microsoft account syncs your desktop contents and other parts of the environment.. desktop background is one I've noticed. That can be nice”
“The hoops I have to jump through to setup new devices without a Microsoft account are ridiculous.”
“If you combine mandatory online user accounts with telemetry and Windows Recall, you have a system for building out advertising profiles linked to known individuals.”
“people probably have more of a problem with MS accounts because they don't really have an ecosystem that provides clear value”
“The only benefit I've seen to having a Microsoft account is that I don't have to remember a cd key anymore”
“it automatically logs you in with the wrong account to a system that account doesn't have access to”
“It is also the only SSO flow I have ever seen that fundamentally cannot work if you have more than one account remembered on your device.”
“Microsoft has been pushing aggressively to deprecate the local and funnel everyone to Microsoft online accounts”
“Instead they force people to use a Microsoft Account to set up their windows and store the key without explicit consent”
“If you only put the keys on the Microsoft account, and Microsoft closes your account for whatever reason, you are done.”
“create a local user account that has a sane profile name and never touch the online account again”
“It's tied to my MS account, and only a matter of time before that is tied to github and linkedin.”
“their signup flow is fine but the login flow is badly broken”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.