Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Microsoft Live Account Credentials Leaking from Windows 8 and Above

hackaday.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 144 posts

Re: Microsoft Live Account Credentials Leaking from Windows 8 and Above

#21

Post by danielbarla »

pjc50 wrote: post #19
daemin wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can actually have Windows logged in with a local account (normal old school account) and use the store with a different Live account. But yes, I am quite annoyed by them requiring that I use online credentials to log in to a physical computer. I prefer to separate the two authentication mechanisms.

That would be great - when I most recently tried to use it I was told by the dialog box that entering my Live credentials would convert my local account to the Live account, and I'd need to log in with the Live password not the local one.

I'm not sure who's correct in this particular thread, but sometimes they hide the "unfavoured" approach so well that they convince people to use the new method.

In one case, I unsuccessfully tried to create just a local account in Win 8, because they had hidden it behind 3+ layers of "sign in here with your live account". I was sure that there must be a way to create a local one, but just couldn't find the right path.

Re: Microsoft Live Account Credentials Leaking from Windows 8 and Above

#22

Post by philjohn »

option_greek wrote: post #18

I thought they started fresh with Edge browser by keeping it away from windows/OS specific stuff. Apparently not.

Nope. The started with the IE 11 source code and ripped a whole load of stuff dealing with compatibility, and previous rendering engines, out. Once they had completed this step they started adding new features in, but it's still got the legacy of Internet Explorer code in it.

Re: Microsoft Live Account Credentials Leaking from Windows 8 and Above

#23

Post by tonylemesmer »

daemin wrote: post #17
pjc50 wrote: post #9

And people wonder why some of us haven't upgraded from Windows 7. Win10 tries really hard to make you log into your desktop with your Live Account credentials - you can't use the store without this. Whereas if it were just leaking a local login it would be much less critical.

You can actually have Windows logged in with a local account (normal old school account) and use the store with a different Live account. But yes, I am quite annoyed by them requiring that I use online credentials to log in to a physical computer. I prefer to separate the two authentication mechanisms.

I seem to remember having a problem with a new Win8 computer and trying to use Skype (I hate Skype but lots of customers of mine use it). It insisted I use a Microsoft live account , which I don't have, to install it. Eventually I somehow managed to get an old version of Skype which stopped asking me.

Re: Microsoft Live Account Credentials Leaking from Windows 8 and Above

#24

Post by tclover »

pjc50 wrote: post #9

And people wonder why some of us haven't upgraded from Windows 7. Win10 tries really hard to make you log into your desktop with your Live Account credentials - you can't use the store without this. Whereas if it were just leaking a local login it would be much less critical.

Using windows 10 since it came out, never opened Windows Store, not even once.

Re: Microsoft Live Account Credentials Leaking from Windows 8 and Above

#25

Post by Sylos »

scholia wrote: post #10
pjc50 wrote: post #9

And people wonder why some of us haven't upgraded from Windows 7. Win10 tries really hard to make you log into your desktop with your Live Account credentials - you can't use the store without this. Whereas if it were just leaking a local login it would be much less critical.

But if you upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7, your existing log-on (which has no Live account connection) continues exactly as before.... It's not really a surprise if an app store needs an account. Are there any that don't?

There's plenty which don't, those are just usually the ones which don't try to make you buy apps and are rather just a service for you to download apps.

The Windows Store or also the Play Store and Apple's App Store could function without account for free apps, too, as far as I understand it they just choose to require an account up-front, so that there's less friction in the moment a user considers buying an app.

Re: Microsoft Live Account Credentials Leaking from Windows 8 and Above

#26

Post by vmateixeira »

cocotino wrote: post #15
pjc50 wrote: post #9

And people wonder why some of us haven't upgraded from Windows 7. Win10 tries really hard to make you log into your desktop with your Live Account credentials - you can't use the store without this. Whereas if it were just leaking a local login it would be much less critical.

>you can't use the store without this Being honest, what would I want to use the store for?

Install free apps?

Re: Microsoft Live Account Credentials Leaking from Windows 8 and Above

#28

Post by mtgx »

danielbarla wrote: post #21
pjc50 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be great - when I most recently tried to use it I was told by the dialog box that entering my Live credentials would convert my local account to the Live account, and I'd need to log in with the Live password not the local one.

I'm not sure who's correct in this particular thread, but sometimes they hide the "unfavoured" approach so well that they convince people to use the new method. In one case, I unsuccessfully tried to create just a local account in Win 8, because they had hidden it behind 3+ layers of "sign in here with your live account". I was sure that there must be a way to create a local one, but just couldn't find the right path…

Yeah, it's called dark patterns, and Microsoft makes full use of them in Windows 10. And it seems to only get worse with the recent changes they've made in the Anniversary Update, like how they hide how you could disable Cortana in searches (they turned it into a very technical option, that no "normal" person would figure out), and so on.

I for one am glad that the French Data Protection Authority is going after Microsoft, but it remains to be seen if it can lead to major changes in Windows 10 (for the benefit of the users):

https://www.cnil.fr/en/windows-10-cnil-publicly-serves-forma...

Re: Microsoft Live Account Credentials Leaking from Windows 8 and Above

#29

Post by Sylos »

philjohn wrote: post #22
option_greek wrote: post #18

I thought they started fresh with Edge browser by keeping it away from windows/OS specific stuff. Apparently not.

Nope. The started with the IE 11 source code and ripped a whole load of stuff dealing with compatibility, and previous rendering engines, out. Once they had completed this step they started adding new features in, but it's still got the legacy of Internet Explorer code in it.

I still don't understand how this myth that they wrote Edge from scratch even came to be.

You don't just quickly write a browser from scratch in this day and age. And if you did, it would be so much better than Edge or the other contemporary browsers, because you could start out with a much better architecture...

Post reply on HN