Tech Tip: Understanding Microsoft work and personal accounts • Blisstech Solutions

Welcome to another Blisstech Solutions Tuesday Tech Tip!

Have you set up both a personal and work Microsoft account and are now running into problems when you are trying to work as you can’t work out which account you are logged in with?  You are not alone and we see this A LOT with small businesses.

This video explains how you can tell which account you are logged in with, and how to avoid future issues.

Transcript

Hello everyone and welcome to another Blisstech Solutions 2 min tech tip. Today I’m going to talk to you about the difference between a Microsoft HOME account and a Microsoft WORK account. The two things can get confused and if you use both, you can end up in a bit of a mess if you’ve got the same user name for your home account as it has for your work account.

Now, you wouldn’t think this is possible, but because of the way things are structured within Microsoft, it’s absolutely possible for you to create a personal account or a home account with the same e-mail address as your work account.

So, for example, [email protected] can have a WORK login for Microsoft 365 and a personal one. And if you logged into both of those at the same time, it can cause you no end of problems when it comes to work.

So, we’ll come on to explain in a moment how you can separate the two. But first of all, if you’re struggling and having problems with your work account and maybe you can’t access files in teams or SharePoint, it could be that it’s trying to open those files with your personal account.

Now, how do you tell? There’s no easy way, but if you go to office.com and we’ll see up here I’m logged in as a personal account. I’ve gone to office.com which is the same as if I was using a work account so we can’t tell that way. But one way we can tell is if we go to Outlook, OneDrive or Teams.

So, if I just open Outlook, for example, it will change the address to live.com. Now if you’re in the business part of Microsoft, it wouldn’t be live.com. I think it would be office365.com or office.com, something like that.

The same goes for if you go into OneDrive or Teams they will say live.com and if that’s happening you’re logged on with your to the PERSONAL account for Microsoft and that’s one way of telling.

So, what can you do to avoid the confusion? Well, two things:

  1. Don’t use your personal account on your work laptop. That’s one, but I know that a lot of people do that and the two things get blended together.
  2. So, what I would do in that case is either use a different browser. So, you use Microsoft Edge for work and Chrome for personal. That will stop the two from getting blended. Or you can use different profiles in either Chrome or Edge so we can watch a video and I’ll post a shortcut to that on how to create multiple profiles within Microsoft Edge, which will also help.

It is a difficult concept to get your head around, so I hope you’ve understood it. But basically, you can have the same username for both personal and work, and if you do you can end up in a bit of a mess. And this is just a bit of a video to explain how to get out of that mess.

Alright. Well, I hope that helped. I’ll speak to you soon. Bye.

We hope you found this tip useful.  If you want more tech tips, take a look at our Learning Zone.

More Content

Lost for words? Draft with Copilot can help

Lost for words? Draft with Copilot can help

If you struggle to find the right words in an email or post, you’d probably love a little help. Draft with Copilot is exactly that. Here we tell you how it works.

How to choose the correct hardware for your business

Do you know how to choose the correct hardware for business? Slow isn’t often a word you want to associate with your business. But when your hardware isn’t performing, you’ll hear it a lot. Complaints about PCs, your internet connection, even your network. Not only is...
A laptop and tablet taking a backup

Two simple steps to protect your business data

Data is the lifeblood of most modern businesses.  From important proposals and presentations to a simple one-line email that is proof of something happening that you might need months later.  However, many small businesses are not taking the necessary steps and...
Blisstech - Top M365 Tools - Blog image

Unlock the Hidden Productivity Gems within Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 is a cornerstone for many businesses, but its vast potential often remains untapped. While applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams are widely used, there's a treasure trove of productivity-enhancing tools waiting to be discovered. Embark on...
If Microsoft can pull this off, it’ll change your workflow forever

Windows Agent Arena – If Microsoft can pull this off, it’ll change work forever

Wouldn’t it be great if your Windows 11 computer could handle tasks like a real-life assistant? Soon it might be able to and we’ll tell you all about it here.

A woman looking at her phone while working from home

Homeworking is bad for IT security

A new homeworking security report from CyberArk has surveyed 3000 remote office workers and IT professionals. It finds that increased homeworking, resulting from the 2020 pandemic, could be bad news for a company’s IT security posture. It has uncovered several...
How to disable fast startup - thumbnail image

Tech Tip: How to disable Fast Startup and shutdown your computer properly

It is a fact of life that we occasionally have to turn our Windows computers off and back on again to fix problems.  However, if you are not shutting down your computer fully then your efforts may not have the desired effect because of a feature called Fast Startup....

Tech Tip: Master Your Multitasking – Switching Apps and Desktops Like a Pro

Welcome to a new Tuesday tech tip video where I will show you how to switch between applications and desktops in Windows quickly. Sick of losing track of what you're doing because you have too many windows open? Let's face it: we've all been there. Well, this video is...

Facebook Meta: A New Reality?

Facebook Meta: A New Reality? Facebook has been a part of our lives for the past decade and Facebook Meta is Facebook's next step into the future. Facebook Meta is an augmented reality system that will allow users to play games, purchase items, meet friends, and more...

What does the global chip shortage mean for your business?

For the past couple of years, the tech world has been struggling with a global chip shortage. But it’s not just tech businesses that are feeling the impact. So many of the things we use every day contain a chip. Laptops and desktops, sure. But also household...
Share This
Contact
Love Lane
Cleobury Mortimer
Shropshire DY14 8PE

01299 382 321
[email protected]
Copyright © 2024 Blisstech Solution Ltd
Registered No: 08125391 VAT No : 307 5490 05