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Tell HN: Windows 10 might have tricked you into using a online account

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Re: Tell HN: Windows 10 might have tricked you into using a online account

#71
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some reason, “I think Apple does this too” always comes up in the discussions about Microsoft forcing online accounts within Windows. MacOS doesn’t do this. Accounts are machine local. iCloud integration is an optional layer on top. Always has been. Nothing has changed. Maybe give the OS a try before assuming Apple is following all the same antipatterns just because they also happen to fall into the category of “…

Apple is worse, they will randomly lock you out of devices you own even though you have the password and demand you verify on a different one. I had relatives who only had one apple device, what a nightmare fixing that was. It's the big tech equivalent of stop and frisk.

This can’t happen if you don’t use iCloud. It’s a security feature supposedly for the user, but is badly implemented and annoying.

Re: Tell HN: Windows 10 might have tricked you into using a online account

#72
I recently set up (for someone else) a NUC that came with Windows 11. During setup, it first prompts to set up networking. I dutifully entered the WiFi credentials and was subsequently FORCED to create a Microsoft account in order to continue.

Lesson learned: Never put a new Windows box onto a network until after it is set up.

Re: Tell HN: Windows 10 might have tricked you into using a online account

#74
post #65

Windows 11 latest installer doesn't even present the option to use a local account. However, the mechanism to bypass this is to enter in a fake Microsoft Login ID and then wait for it to fail, then select something like "Other Options" at the dialog that comes up and then there's an option to use a local account. I think you can also install without internet and you'll get the local account option too, but I have not…

Did they take away the ability to create a local account if you setup without Internet access?

Yes, unless you run OOBE\BypassNRO.cmd from cmd to bypass the network connection step, since there's no "skip" button anymore.

Even this is somewhat broken. If you run this after connecting to the Internet then it doesn't do anything and still forces you to use a Microsoft account (unless you somehow get it to throw you back to that page).

Re: Tell HN: Windows 10 might have tricked you into using a online account

#75

You have to be disconnected from wifi and Ethernet to be offered the option of a local account. This was removed in 11.

I've never performed such a thing and I'm using local account. Maybe that's because I have Win10 Pro? idk.

Maybe you have a Microsoft account

Re: Tell HN: Windows 10 might have tricked you into using a online account

#77

This will happen when you sign in to any Microsoft product, such as Office, Teams or Onedrive. After you input email and password, there is a window dialog with a big button to use that credential to manage the device, i.e., your computer, converting your local into an online account. And there is an option, with small text, to "use only in Microsoft applications", or words to that effect. This is easy to get caught,…

This also used to corrupt an environment variable until reboot (possibly $USERNAME). Was really frustrating to debug that one

Re: Tell HN: Windows 10 might have tricked you into using a online account

#78

This definitely happened to me a while ago. I'm not that upset about it, except that I spent some time changing all my local accounts from "jon" to "jrockway", and signing in with my email address made my local account "jon". Now when I ssh places, I have to supply -l or properly add an entry to ~/.ssh/config because this is the only account I have that's not named "jrockway". All in all, this reduces the enjoyment i…

You can add a wildcard entry (Host *) with the username to your ssh config. That will make it the default (can still be overridden by host-specific settings).

Re: Tell HN: Windows 10 might have tricked you into using a online account

#79

It’s not even possible in windows 11. You can leave Microsoft behind, or accept it and move on. I think apple does this too. You have options, but they don’t include Microsoft or apple. I think chromeos, for now, lets you opt out. I could be wrong about that.

FYI you cannot use ChromeOS without a Google account. You also cannot log out of chrome on ChromeOS.
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