the difference between by -ing form and -ing form

Question

This question involves the difference between -ing form and by -ing form.

The passage below is from a few steps guided on Microsoft's website as to how to renew a one-year subscription of Microsoft Office 365.

Go to Office.com/setup and, if prompted, sign in using the Microsoft account that’s associated with your Office 365 subscription.

I am wondering whether the sentence would be still correct and mean the same thing with using changed into by using as follows.

Go to Office.com/setup and, if prompted, sign in by using the Microsoft account that’s associated with your Office 365 subscription.

Answer 1

Open the door using this key.

Open the door by using this key.

The preposition by casts its object as an instrumentality, a means-by-which; since the verb use already has this meaning, the version with the preposition simply reinforces the meaning of the verb.

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