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Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

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Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#151

Post by tzs »

GlenTheMachine wrote: post #100

...and from what I can tell, their online account security is craptastic. Here’s a true story that happened to my family. My son is the only person in the house who uses Windows. For his game machine. He set up a Microsoft online account. It got hacked - someone set up a fake family and managed to get my son’s account listed under it as a child. As a consequence, he couldn’t install any new software. I’m not sure wha…

> ...and from what I can tell, their online account security is craptastic.

I'm not convinced that their offline security is good, either.

I sometimes will pick up my Surface Pro 4 and disconnect it from the charger. Disconnecting from the charger usually (but not always...not sure what determines it) wakes it. It then turns on their equivalent of Apple's Face ID, and tries to log in.

Sometimes I don't actually want that yet, as I just picked it up to take it somewhere else. So I'll hit the power button to put it back to sleep. The screen blanks...and then sometimes it quickly comes back, logged in.

The thing is I've sometimes had it do this when I've been careful to have my face out of view, holding it so I can only barely see the screen around the edge to see if disconnecting power will wake it up and I'll need to hit power to put it back to sleep.

This doesn't happen all the time, but it has happened several times, leading me to wonder if there is some sort of glitch if you interrupt a face-based login attempt at just the right time via the power button causing it to think it logged in.

Anyone else seen this?

Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#152

Post by CamperBob2 »

NotSammyHagar wrote: post #16
aaomidi wrote: post #8

I just want them to let me pick my own god damned name for the home folder. I hate the weird shit they pick for me.

why do people still use windows? It's stupid and naive to ask that, but I keep wondering why devs aren't successful in getting changes made at their companies.

why do people still use windows?

Ask my mortgage company.

Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#154

Post by lone_haxx0r »

Meanwhile, the Linux world is wasting its biggest opportunity to take over the desktop space.

IMO, Unintuitive interfaces (e.g. Gnome shell), forced package management (as opposed to decentralized distribution of apps) and lack of care for graphic design are the biggest things keeping the masses away from the Linux desktop, because in other areas (speed, robustness, privacy, control) it just blows Windows out of the water.

All of these are highly controversial opinions, many Linux advocates think they are not problems, but I think they really are.

Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#155

Post by stordoff »

userbinator wrote: post #120
xeeeeeeeeeeenu wrote: post #41

I don't understand why so many people on HN praise Satya Nadella. I guess good PR is worth much more than actions. Before Nadella, Windows wasn't nearly as user-hostile as it is now. There was no mandatory telemetry, there were no forced updates, end users weren't treated as betatesters and QA wasn't non-existent. And now they are taking away the ability to use Windows without Microsoft Account. Of course there are a…

there were no forced updates I have attempted to disable those "for real", and the lengths that MS has gone to in an attempt to stop people from doing it is extremely disturbing; there's half a dozen different services and scheduled tasks with various names which are involved, and if you don't disable all of it quickly, it all comes back . This Hydra-like persistence is something that hitherto was only seen in malwar…

Is this on Home or Pro? On Pro, I have them disabled via Group Policy, and I _never_ get an unexpected update, just occasional notification saying "Required updates are ready to install".

Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#156

Post by jchw »

I have long banned Windows 10 from my computers; I only use it in VMs now. If you desperately need Windows functionality for something but would rather use Linux, you may be in luck; there's quite a few options for GPU passthrough these days. If you're on a laptop you can even share your Intel GPU through GVT-g.

For me, I am lucky. Wine and Steam Proton run basically anything I'd care to run anymore. I use only Linux for work, as well.

I hope it's really worth it for them, because I've probably passed the last time I will ever consider running Windows until I'm in the ground, at this point. It's annoying, vexacious, constantly regressive, and almost literally never improves on this. From forcing you to have Candy Crush to switching your browser to Edge every update, Windows 10 is a piece of shit.

Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#157

Post by amiga-workbench »

manigandham wrote: post #116
amiga-workbench wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its pretty much the McDonalds of operating systems these days, I do not know how people put up with it.

What else is any average user going to switch to exactly?

Red Star OS might cut down on the spying, marginally.

Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#158

Post by weka »

tapirl wrote: post #153

As a happy Win8 user, that's exactly the reason why I switched from Win10 to Linux. Many offline functions need online to perform. It is sad.

And I refuse to kowtow to a company who thinks its okay to purchase a stand for $1,000 for another piece of hardware you've additionally paid for.

Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#159

Post by ddingus »

GlenTheMachine wrote: post #100

...and from what I can tell, their online account security is craptastic. Here’s a true story that happened to my family. My son is the only person in the house who uses Windows. For his game machine. He set up a Microsoft online account. It got hacked - someone set up a fake family and managed to get my son’s account listed under it as a child. As a consequence, he couldn’t install any new software. I’m not sure wha…

It is a griefers hack. Your son gets denied and basically has to do work, or make a new account.

Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#160

Post by bsder »

mastazi wrote: post #63

This is incredibly bad. In general I have a positive opinion about what MS is doing lately, but Windows is a glaring exception, it’s getting worse and worse at an alarming rate. In the last two months we had two consecutive updates that broke basic functionality for users who disabled web results in Windows Search (which is a very common setting among those who care about privacy) https://www.zdnet.com/article/window…

> In general I have a positive opinion about what MS is doing lately, but Windows is a glaring exception, it’s getting worse and worse at an alarming rate.

Ayup. Win10 finally broke the camel's back and I started the process of figuring out how to transfer as much as we can to Linux.

The hardest part is that our embedded development stuff is all Windows. :( I've been trying to get VSCode, Segger, and embedded boards to play nice together. I haven't been sufficiently successful that I could start pushing it onto the dev team yet.

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