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Setting up a new Windows 11 PC -- or resetting a gently used Windows 11 PC, so it's as good as new -- is pretty easy. Deceptively easy, in fact. After you click through the dialog boxes and adjust the few available settings as part of the out-of-the-box experience, you end up at the Windows 11 desktop.
But your work is not complete. Microsoft's default settings aren't necessarily tuned for you, and a default setup comes with a handful of annoyances that you can quickly fix.
Also: New laptop? How to wipe your old Windows PC clean before getting rid of it
When I set up a new PC for my personal use, I have a checklist of things I do, starting well before I get to the Windows desktop. I recommend taking a few minutes to do these 9 things before you go any further. I assume that you're the owner and administrator of the PC and that you're responsible for managing it.
1. Sign in with a Microsoft account On a system you own and manage personally, you have two choices for setting up your primary user account: a Microsoft account, or a local account. (If your PC is in a managed corporate environment, you'll have either a domain account or you'll sign in with Entra ID, formerly known as Azure Active Directory. Either way, your administrator is the boss, not you, and this article doesn't apply to you.) Old-timers will probably prefer a local account because it's what they've used for decades. But it's the wrong choice these days, at least if you care about security. Also: How to upgrade your 'incompatible' Windows 10 PC to Windows 11 in 2025 Using a Microsoft account gives you three advantages you can't get with a plain-vanilla local account: You can turn on two-factor authentication and Windows Hello, which allows you to sign in using fingerprint or face-recognition hardware.
You can protect the contents of your system drive with strong encryption, even if you're using Windows 11 Home edition (to make sure encryption is turned on, go to Settings > Privacy & security > Device encryption).
You can use Microsoft's account recovery tools to recover your encrypted data if you forget your password. And, of course, if you have a Microsoft 365 Family or Personal subscription that uses your Microsoft account, you get immediate access to Office apps and a terabyte of cloud storage. You're not required to use the Microsoft-supplied email address for anything but this single purpose. And if you create a new Microsoft account as part of the Windows 11 setup, it's not linked to any existing phone number or email address, which means the address can't be used to track your online activity. Show more
You can create a new Microsoft account during Windows 11 setup. Screenshot by Ed Bott/ZDNET
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