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Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account

theverge.com

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Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account

#151

Post by jasoneckert »

Even though the article says that Microsoft removed the “bypassnro” workaround earlier this year, I just used it earlier this evening to set up a new Win11 PC for a neighbour successfully (she didn't have a Microsoft account on her previous Win10 laptop, and wanted it the same way).

At the part of the initial setup where it asks to connect to a network, press Shift + F10 to open the Command Prompt. Then, type oobe\bypassnro and press Enter. The system will reboot and start the initial setup again in a non-network mode that allows you to create a local user account.

Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account

#152

Post by pjerem »

lynndotpy wrote: post #50
RestartKernel wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And mac side is obviously competitive on various fronts too. After a lifetime of Windows use, I'd even say MacOS is almost on par with Linux for development, while Windows' best feature on this front is WSL so you don't have to use Windows.

I agree with you here, as someone who uses all three (mostly Linux). IMO the two biggest pains with MacOS is (1) brew is not as good as any other package manager in my experience (mostly in bugs that need manual fixing) and (2) Docker naturally is much worse (not just for performance, but for requiring 'Docker desktop'.) All the other pains are just the myriad niceities I miss from a lifetime of mostly Linux that Mac…

Also macOS UI is stuck in the past but not in a good way : they never fixed their windows management which is still stuck on the old paradigm that the user is using an application and not only a window of an application.

The Dock is the biggest illustration of this : good luck if you have opened more than two windows of the same app.

Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account

#153

Post by wslh »

fortran77 wrote: post #132
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not sure Microsoft realizes the damage they're doing to the Windows brand. Microsoft realized after Windows 8 and Windows 10 that literally nobody, outside of niche tech circles, has positive associations with the Windows brand, or views "Windows" as a selling point beyond "runs my old software." As such, it doesn't matter to them anymore. It's like being the PR department at your local electricity provider or oil…

Not true. I like Windows 11, and I think it's the best desktop OS out there.

Sincerely curious about why do you think it's the best desktop OS and/or where it excels.

I understand that the Windows kernel is pretty advanced but I find difficult to find that it ends up in a good desktop OS (e.g. UX)

Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account

#154

Post by GiorgioG »

windows2020 wrote: post #94

Not sure Microsoft realizes the damage they're doing to the Windows brand. My first experience with Windows 11 was figuring out some dumb workaround to use a local account. When I think back to Windows 7, the good feeling isn't nostalgia. It was the last user-focused Windows. Maybe someone will develop a new user-focused OS that's somehow compatible with Windows programs. Or better yet, maybe Microsoft will realize v…

As a .NET developer for 20+ years I’m down to my last Windows box - a gaming rig I pretend I have time to play on. Everything else is a Mac.

Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account

#155

Post by sugarpimpdorsey »

ainar-g wrote: post #144
windows2020 wrote: post #94

Not sure Microsoft realizes the damage they're doing to the Windows brand. My first experience with Windows 11 was figuring out some dumb workaround to use a local account. When I think back to Windows 7, the good feeling isn't nostalgia. It was the last user-focused Windows. Maybe someone will develop a new user-focused OS that's somehow compatible with Windows programs. Or better yet, maybe Microsoft will realize v…

There's always ReactOS[1], a project for a bug-for-bug compatible Windows clone. It used to mostly aim at Windows 9x compatibility the last time I'd checked, though, but that could probably change. And if anyone wants to create a Win7 clone, at least some of the groundwork has already been made. [1]: https://reactos.org/

Sorry, but ReactOS is not seriously usable. Not to insult the work done on it but it is an experimental OS.

Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account

#156

Post by mh- »

dehrmann wrote: post #142
windows2020 wrote: post #94

Not sure Microsoft realizes the damage they're doing to the Windows brand. My first experience with Windows 11 was figuring out some dumb workaround to use a local account. When I think back to Windows 7, the good feeling isn't nostalgia. It was the last user-focused Windows. Maybe someone will develop a new user-focused OS that's somehow compatible with Windows programs. Or better yet, maybe Microsoft will realize v…

I'm not sure if Microsoft knows it, but it doesn't care about or need Windows anymore. Office has native apps and is on the web, Xbox is doing its own things, dotnet has been freed from Windows, and Azure doesn't need Windows. Computing is generally moving away from the personal computing model, so Windows is just less relevant.

I was with you until you listed Xbox - their consoles are dying in the market.

They've adopted a strategy of calling everything "gaming" Xbox, and seem to be going all-in on Gamepass subscription revenue along with making their first-party games available on other platforms. I'll be surprised if there is another flagship console following the Series X.

We'll see how that works out for them.

Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account

#157

Post by wmf »

Fischgericht wrote: post #99

I do remember to have read a couple of years ago that the Windows Ui team got replaced and now only consists of Mac users, never having used Windows themselves. If that is true, it's now wonder that they do not understand all the value that Windows NT has brought, why having a standard on menu structure, a standard for all UI controls etc made sense. And to understand that while Apple's mission is to provide a walled…

I think this change (and everything in Windows 11) is being driven by the MS Account PM watching telemetry and making number go up.

Re: Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account

#158

Post by AJ007 »

browningstreet wrote: post #64

Two weeks ago, after Microsoft reset my default apps twice in a week, I bought an external drive, backed up all my stuff and wiped Windows. I’ve got Linux all over the place, in many cloud envs, and on older hardware. But I finally committed to it on my big, meaty, main desktop. The one I use for coding and banking and accounting. I’m running a Linux distro full-time. I had to hack a few minor hardware things. Nothin…

I had a similar issue, after cleaning up a Windows machine for someone else, making sure Firefox with uBlock was running. I took a look at it a few weeks later and there was some bullshit Microsoft Bing search bar or AI thing on the toolbar. Wiped, installed Linux.

Microsoft is setting fire to the bridges and those will be users which they will never be able to get back again.

Linux works great for gaming except some anti-cheat stuff which probably won't be legal anymore anyways in Europe under the PLD.

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