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docs: clarify WAM + MSA connected account behaviour
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When you sign-in with an MSA using WAM you are asked if you wish to use
this account "everywhere on your device", or just "Microsoft apps only".
The former will connect your local user account to an MSA, and the
latter will not.

Clarify the docs around this, including an annotated image of the
specific diaglog.
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mjcheetham committed Aug 1, 2023
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46 changes: 32 additions & 14 deletions docs/windows-broker.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -86,7 +86,9 @@ your machine: requiring certain kinds of sign-in, turning on antivirus and
firewall software, and enabling BitLocker.
Your identity will also be available to other apps on the computer for signing
in, some of which may do so automatically.

![Example of policies pushed to an Intune-enrolled device][aad-bitlocker]

- If you uncheck "allow my organization to manage my device" and click "OK",
your computer will be registered with Azure AD but will not be MDM-enrolled.
Your identity will be available to other apps on the computer for signing in.
Expand All @@ -95,6 +97,7 @@ organization to manage your device. Despite joining Azure AD, your
organization's Conditional Access policies may still prevent you from accessing
Azure DevOps.
If so, you'll be prompted with instructions on how to enroll in MDM.

- If you instead click "No, sign in to this app only", your machine will not be
joined to Azure AD or MDM-enrolled, so no policies can be enforced, and your
identity won't be made available to other apps on the computer.
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -132,25 +135,38 @@ improve over time and a "personal account" option to be presented in the future.

If you've connected your MSA to Windows or signed-in to other Microsoft
applications such as Office, then you may see this account listed in the
authentication prompts when using GCM. For any connected MSA, you can control
whether or not the account is available to other Microsoft applications in
**Settings**, **Accounts**, **Emails & accounts**:
authentication prompts when using GCM.

![Allow all Microsoft apps to access your identity][all-ms-apps]
---

![Microsoft apps must ask to access your identity][apps-must-ask]
⚠️ **Important** ⚠️

When adding a new MSA to Windows, you'll be asked to select whether to use this
account across all of your device (**option 1**), or only permit Microsoft-apps
to access your identity (**option 2**). If you opt to use the account everywhere
then your local Windows user account will be connected to that MSA account.
This means you'll need to use your MSA credentials to sign-in to Windows going
forwards.

Two very important things to note:
Selecting "just this app" or "Microsoft apps only" will still allow you to use
this MSA across apps in Windows, but will not require you to use your MSA
credentials to sign-in to Windows.

- If you haven't connected any Microsoft accounts to Windows before, the first
account you connect will cause the local Windows user account to be converted to
a connected account.
- In addition, you can't change the usage preference for the first Microsoft
account connected to Windows: all Microsoft apps will be able to sign you in
with that account.
![Confirmation to connect your MSA to Windows][msa-confirm]

As far as we can tell, there are no workarounds for either of these behaviors
(other than to not use the WAM broker).
To disconnect an MSA added using option 1, you can go into **Settings**,
**Accounts**, **Your info** and click **Stop signing in to all Microsoft apps
automatically**.

![Remove your Microsoft account from Windows][msa-remove]

For MSAs added for "Microsoft apps only", you can modify whether or not these
accounts are available to other applications, and also remove the accounts from
**Settings**, **Accounts**, **Emails & accounts**:

![Allow all Microsoft apps to access your identity][all-ms-apps]

![Microsoft apps must ask to access your identity][apps-must-ask]

## Running as administrator

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -214,6 +230,8 @@ In order to fix the problem, there are a few options:
[all-ms-apps]: img/all-microsoft.png
[apps-must-ask]: img/apps-must-ask.png
[ms-com]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/com/the-component-object-model
[msa-confirm]: img/msa-confirm.png
[msa-remove]: img/msa-remove.png
[msal-dotnet]: https://aka.ms/msal-net
[devbox]: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/dev-box
[git-for-windows-latest]: https://git-scm.com/download/win

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