I have some bad news for you... This is literally the reason I signed up with gmail when it came out. Microsoft used to have a log-in-within-30-days-or-we-delete-everything policy for Hotmail. Maybe it was even 90 days.
As for why, it's really a good way for us to stay in touch with you and keep you updated about what's new, help you get started, and make you successful in general. Visual Studio Community on Windows has the same behavior for the same reasons. Hope that helps!
Really nice way of saying "to send you spam" :D
And when I try to contact support, it wont let me contact a person unless I login to my Microsoft account...
[1] https://github.com/Microsoft/visualstudio-docs/blob/master/d... [2] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/ide/synchroniz...
And if you've got a corporate MSDN license then the login will be different anyway.
And yeah, I use a different login between home and work too.
With all your branding changes over the years, what's considered a Microsoft account today? My old Hotmail account, that existed from the days before Microsoft bought Hotmail? I think it's still alive, but I haven't logged in in the better part of a decade to find out. The accounts created over the years for various Xbox machines? I think those are still around, but I doubt I could get into them at this point. The "Live" account I had to create for MSDN many years ago? Once that job and associated need for MSDN ended I've not logged in to see if it's still around.
Which one(s) should I try to find login information for to use?
Furthermore, why must I sign in in the first place for the free version? I can understand signing in to associate the install with a paid version with extra features, but I see no reason to require it for free versions without any paid features.