To install Windows with only a local account, you have to disable Internet access (unplug cable or disable WiFi), then that option magically appears. Once done, reactivate access and continue. For most other cruft like games and such there exists a intimidating command line one-liner which gets rid of it.
Windows 11 Design Mistakes
11–20 of 54 posts
Re: Windows 11 Design Mistakes
#12Last time I installed Windows 11, I found that I could not skip the 'use a Microsoft account as your local account' that Microsoft really encourages. In anger I spammed the back and forward button ~5 times. Suddenly, the option to setup Windows 11 with a local account appeared. Microsoft has lost whatever initial magic helped them make a good OS, it's all corporatism now.
> Microsoft has lost whatever initial magic helped them make a good OS, it's all corporatism now.
I never heard anyone that described Windows as a good OS. It was always a Platform for Microsoft Office or Games. MacOS was always the good OS.
Re: Windows 11 Design Mistakes
#13The rant is fine right up until the conclusion to install a much less user friendlier OS, especially for seniors who are not used to it
"User friendlier" and "used to" are 2 different things. An OS that will always show you your desktop after login is way more user friendlier then an OS that will potentially show you "lets setup few things" dialog after installing an update.
Re: Windows 11 Design Mistakes
#14Last time I installed Windows 11, I found that I could not skip the 'use a Microsoft account as your local account' that Microsoft really encourages. In anger I spammed the back and forward button ~5 times. Suddenly, the option to setup Windows 11 with a local account appeared. Microsoft has lost whatever initial magic helped them make a good OS, it's all corporatism now.
I think you can also just put in a fake Microsoft account (or a valid account but incorrect password), and after checking that the credentials are no good, the setup wizard will give you the option to create a local account.
Re: Windows 11 Design Mistakes
#15Last time I installed Windows 11, I found that I could not skip the 'use a Microsoft account as your local account' that Microsoft really encourages. In anger I spammed the back and forward button ~5 times. Suddenly, the option to setup Windows 11 with a local account appeared. Microsoft has lost whatever initial magic helped them make a good OS, it's all corporatism now.
> Microsoft has lost whatever initial magic helped them make a good OS, it's all corporatism now. I never heard anyone that described Windows as a good OS. It was always a Platform for Microsoft Office or Games. MacOS was always the good OS.
Not true, all the mac operating systems before OSX were flaming bags of dog shit. Win 2000 was significantly better than any of them
Re: Windows 11 Design Mistakes
#16I'm telling you, installing Ubuntu is the way to go for ~70+ yr old parents. Put firefox and chrome on there, throw some bookmarks in the bookmark toolbar (local weather, some news, facebook, amazon, whatever else they like), connect thunderbird to their ISP email address that they've had for 25 years, install zoom, and life is great! I've had roughly zero problems in the past ~5 years with non-techy parents going th…
Seconded (sort of). I setup my 85 year old mom with a desktop and Pop OS, and my support headaches disappeared. I didn't get remote desktop working, but I have it running tailscale, so I can at least ssh in whenever there's a non-network problem.
My parents have been on Fedora for years, through numerous version upgrades, without a single problem.
I taught my mum to just trust the 'install updates' prompts and it's been fine.
Of course I took care in buying a computer with complete driver coverage. It's a Beelink mini PC with Ryzen 7 processor and graphics.
Re: Windows 11 Design Mistakes
#17This article is a bit overblown. I was initially looking forward to a juicy article about the UI inconsistencies...probably should be flagged.
Context: I manage Windows 11 laptops for my family...5 machines.
Windows 11 has its issues but this is not it. Create a Microsoft Account, a dummy one, and use the store to disable S-mode. Remove the MS Account and done. It would of been a lot easier and take less time than writing that blog post.
Your real mistake is not installing Windows 11 Pro. Which you can get for $24 from stacksocial. [1] With PowerShell and Group Policy Editor you can clean up a lot of the stuff quickly. It's all well documented on various websites with a quick google search. Treat configuring Windows just like you would configuring your favorite Linux distro...which you are advocating for:
> This post is a reminder to myself that, next time someone needs to be introduced to the world of digital bureaucracy, I should instead install a Linux distribution.
[1] https://www.stacksocial.com/sales/microsoft-windows-11-pro-6
Re: Windows 11 Design Mistakes
#18I'm telling you, installing Ubuntu is the way to go for ~70+ yr old parents. Put firefox and chrome on there, throw some bookmarks in the bookmark toolbar (local weather, some news, facebook, amazon, whatever else they like), connect thunderbird to their ISP email address that they've had for 25 years, install zoom, and life is great! I've had roughly zero problems in the past ~5 years with non-techy parents going th…
Seconded (sort of). I setup my 85 year old mom with a desktop and Pop OS, and my support headaches disappeared. I didn't get remote desktop working, but I have it running tailscale, so I can at least ssh in whenever there's a non-network problem.
> I didn't get remote desktop working
Ubuntu comes out unbaked for many years. So many bugs on the surface and no one cares. Why? Because no bonus or career advancement for bugfix.
And Thunderbird recent top menu disaster ux (it's under top toolbar now, at least on linux) made me switch from it. Great UX, they said, such a shit in reality. I used it for almost 20 years.
Maybe, Software is eating the world [1]. But now clearly the enterprise mindset is eating the software. And transforming it to shit.
Re: Windows 11 Design Mistakes
#19The rant is fine right up until the conclusion to install a much less user friendlier OS, especially for seniors who are not used to it
What's unfriendly / unfamiliar about Linux? There's icons on your desktop, and you click on them to launch applications - exactly the same as on Windows. The browser works the same, and LibreOffice isn't terribly different from the old Office UI.
All my computers run Windows, but I've never had any issues switching over to use my husband's Linux gaming system on the TV - I click on the big "Steam" icon and then launch the games same as I do on Windows.
I get how a power-user like myself might struggle to switch (if anything goes wrong with the Linux box, it will be dear husband who has to deal with it!), but what's wrong with Linux for a super-casual user who basically just needs a browser?
Re: Windows 11 Design Mistakes
#20Last time I installed Windows 11, I found that I could not skip the 'use a Microsoft account as your local account' that Microsoft really encourages. In anger I spammed the back and forward button ~5 times. Suddenly, the option to setup Windows 11 with a local account appeared. Microsoft has lost whatever initial magic helped them make a good OS, it's all corporatism now.
I think you can also just put in a fake Microsoft account (or a valid account but incorrect password), and after checking that the credentials are no good, the setup wizard will give you the option to create a local account.
Also see u/BuildTheRobots' helpful note to my similar comment the other day: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39089364#39092697