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How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?

devblogs.microsoft.com

201–210 of 305 posts

Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?

#202

Why did they change the domain after Windows 8? The domain name is more verbose but it doesn't seem like a valid reason for me to invest time in this. Anyone know?

Probably too many support questions from enterprise sysadmins "Why is Windows connecting to this domain? Is this CSI thing exfiltrating my data?"

Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?

#203
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What explanation other than malice is there for Microsoft not giving you that button all the time?

It was becoming common knowledge that you could disconnect your machine from networks during installation to use Windows with a local account (i.e. the normal kind of user account that people have used for decades). Microsoft wants people to register online during installation and to use the online account on all their computers, in order to increase the market share of the Windows app store and other Microsoft onlin…

It is absolutely malicious tho ugh, because Windows works perfectly fine with only a local account, and tbh it would still be malicious, and actually even more malicious, if they managed to change windows to make it not work anymore with just a local account. I suspect they won't and that nrobypass or something equivalent will remain for the forrseable future. Maybe a regulation authority will even force them to provide back the offline option out of the box.

Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?

#204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's been around a long time and likely built up a lot of good will. I strongly suspect that he does these blog posts as a side project and is encouraged by management because they are popular and people like them. It would be foolish of a manager to kill something that people like.

I'd argue Microsoft management has been perfectly fine killing off things people like.

Clippy ?

Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?

#205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is also currently the only way to bypass the need for an MS account when setting up a new PC.

You can also try to join a domain, enter bad credentials, wait for the error to show up, and then select a local account I believe. That may not be available in the home edition of Windows 11, though.

Im not sure you can even do that anymore with the last edition. But bypassnro is still there.

Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?

#206
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And MS accounts make zero sense to anyone who has a private NAS or need to interact with anything non windows with kerberos.

It's worse than that. The account it creates is somehow "special". I have not yet figured out a way to connect to a computer with an MS account via RDP (yes, RDP is on and allowed through the firewall, the user is a local admin (the default)). Ditto for accessing that PC's shares.

FWIW, I just did this two days ago with a Win11 machine that I set up solely for remote access.

Created an MS account (because I want this machine to be as normal-user as possible), set up a PIN. Signed in with a PIN to the desktop, run 'Remote desktop settings' and fip the 'Remote Desktop' toggle to on and affirm the prompt that asks if you really want to do this.

After that no issue RDPing to the machine by IP or hostname from another machine on the same LAN. Username and password is the same as the MS account I first signed in with.

(For reference, Windows 11 22H2 running on an HP Prodesk 600 G5, RDPing from macOS using Microsoft Remote Desktop 10.7.10 installed via App Store.)

Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows experience is worse and worse. On my Windows 10 company provided PC I found games installed remotely. In a professional PC! A friend of mine found Spotify installed [1]. That's insane. [1] https://www.windowslatest.com/2022/09/28/spotify-app-is-auto...

Your company hasn't set it up properly then, there's an option to "disable consumer experiences" ( https://admx.help/?Category=Windows_10_2016&Policy=Microsoft... )

"This setting only applies to Enterprise and Education SKUs."

Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worse than that. The account it creates is somehow "special". I have not yet figured out a way to connect to a computer with an MS account via RDP (yes, RDP is on and allowed through the firewall, the user is a local admin (the default)). Ditto for accessing that PC's shares.

You have to delete the PIN it forced you to create during OOBE. This forces the system to apply your MSA's password to the actual account. Without this step, the account has no password. You can still recreate the PIN afterwards and it won't delete the password.

PIN is only used for local logins because it's part of Windows Hello, meaning it literally is the PIN to unlock the password credentials where they are stored in the TPM.

Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does workstation edition have the same dumb properties as LTSC such as "Visual Studio won't install because reasons" or any other restrictions?

Not that I know of. But it won't install on "normal" PCs, it requires "workstation-level" CPUs. If you install it on a regular PC, it will just revert to regular win 11 pro. I don't know if this changed with the 22h2 upgrade, but it's the behavior I'd noticed before.

Im not completely sure about that given it includes a few additional features like refs.

Re: How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?

#210

Doing this during a Windows 11 install will result in a road block until you fix said connection issues. You literally can't proceed without finding a hidden terminal and disabling the process and restarting. Insane.

Windows experience is worse and worse. On my Windows 10 company provided PC I found games installed remotely. In a professional PC! A friend of mine found Spotify installed [1]. That's insane. [1] https://www.windowslatest.com/2022/09/28/spotify-app-is-auto...

Your company isn't managing the OS properly/normally then. They can stop all of this from being installed, but aren't.

(Source: Windows OS admin/engineer for large company where we /do/ manage all of this.)

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