Work and School Accounts

Most people sign into Windows 11 with a personal Microsoft account (MSA), and so we focus almost exclusively on that obvious use case in this book. But there are some people who also have what Microsoft calls a work or school account, which is a special kind of Microsoft account based on a technology called Azure Active Directory (Azure AD or AAD). And you can use this account type with Windows 11 as well.
Some may think of this account as a "Microsoft 365 account," because it is often tied to Microsoft 365 commercial products and services like OneDrive (for Business) and the Microsoft Office suite of applications. But here we will use the term "work or school account" because that's how it's identified in Windows.
There are different ways to use a Microsoft work or school account with Windows 11. Some key scenarios include:

Connect it to a Microsoft account sign in. In this scenario, you sign into Windows 11 with a Microsoft account as usual but then later connect a work or school account so that you can access OneDrive (for Business) cloud storage and its contained files, your work or school email and calendar, Microsoft Office applications, and other assets that are associated with that account. In effect, you use both accounts side-by-side, though your Microsoft account is your primary account, and the account you will use to sign into Windows 11.

Sign into Windows 11 with a work or school account instead of a Microsoft account. Those who are loaned a PC by their work or school are usually required to sign into that PC using their Microsoft work or school account instead of a personal Microsoft account. This allows the organization to remotely administer the PC to varying degrees. But you can also connect your personal Microsoft account so that you can access your personal data and any apps and other content you've purchased from Microsoft.

Sign into Windows 11 using your work or school account as a Microsoft account. Many probably think that their Microsoft account can only be a Hotmail or Outlook.com email address (or similar). But you can use any email address---from Gmail or any other provider---as a Microsoft account too. And that's where we get into a weird area: you can use your Microsoft work or school account as a Microsoft account too. And that means you can sign into Windows 11 using your work or school email address, but as a personal Microsoft account.
You can. But don't ever do this: your Microsoft account is associated with online storage that contains personal files, any app, game, or content purchases you've made, passwords and form fill data from Microsoft Edge, and lots of other personal information. If you graduate from school or leave your job, you may lose access to your work or school account forever, and that means you could lose access to the Microsoft account that you created with that email address. For this reason, we do not cover using your work or school account as a Microsoft account.
With that o...