Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without MS account • Hacker News Board

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

#611

Post by BirAdam » Tue, Oct 07, 2025, 3:26 PM UTC

hobs wrote: post #601

jonathanstrange wrote: post #590

I don't care about a Microsoft account as long as they don't force me to log in, remember some kind of password,or use some Microsoft email. If they locked me out of my machine or transmitted data to their servers violating the GDPR, then that would be a problem. Windows 11 is a paid product, it's quite expensive, and that alone means Microsoft is fully liable for damages from negligence and failure.

Check the shrink wrap - in most localities you are leasing a license for which they tell you that you accept all liability and failure upon yourself.

There should be some kind of requirement to prominently state that a purchase does not imply ownership of any kind, right on the "box." The entire thing is quite deceptive. I am not singling out Microsoft here. Apple's AppStore and other digital purchasing methods are the same.

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

#612

Post by tombert » Tue, Oct 07, 2025, 3:27 PM UTC

sph wrote: post #599

Night_Thastus wrote: post #594

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm keeping my eyes peeled. Proton has made a LOT of progress, and most of what I do could be done on Linux these days. I think things are moving foward.

Proton and flatpak. The latter still has a lot of issues, but I recently come across a $200+ piece of commercial software (Bitwig Studio) that distributes as a flatpak, and it works great. And so is 99% of the desktop apps I'm using, Steam included. Flathub is the best app store around. Can't wait until they allow selling paid apps (they had a few contractors working on it last I checked) Feels good to be on Linux, m…

I don’t do anything with audio more advanced than what FFmpeg can handle, but I do edit video on occasion and I think Lightworks on Linux is actually pretty solid.

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

#613

Post by gethly » Tue, Oct 07, 2025, 3:28 PM UTC

josefritzishere wrote: post #593

Microsoft is so hostile to their users, it's genuinely surprising they maintain market share.

Microsoft will become the Nokia of operating systems. Nothing lasts for ever.

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

#614

Post by time0ut » Tue, Oct 07, 2025, 3:29 PM UTC

tombert wrote: post #585

I doubt it’s going to happen, but a part of me prays that people will eventually get sick Microsoft’s increasing bullshit and it really can become the Year of the Linux Desktop. Gnome has genuinely gotten pretty great in the last couple years, and I think a lot of former Windows would genuinely like it if they gave it a chance, and virtually any Linux you install will have less tracking bullshit than Windows. I suspe…

I have been a Linux desktop user for 20+ years. It is incredible how far it has come. There is nothing Microsoft can do that will drive the normies away though. Microsoft knows this and that is why we are where we are.

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

#615

Post by catapart » Tue, Oct 07, 2025, 3:30 PM UTC

tombert wrote: post #585

I doubt it’s going to happen, but a part of me prays that people will eventually get sick Microsoft’s increasing bullshit and it really can become the Year of the Linux Desktop. Gnome has genuinely gotten pretty great in the last couple years, and I think a lot of former Windows would genuinely like it if they gave it a chance, and virtually any Linux you install will have less tracking bullshit than Windows. I suspe…

FWIW: I'm moving from my current win10 desktop to linux of some kind. I've been running mint on my laptop, in preparation, and I think I'm pretty comfortable with it (really hoping that the slowness that builds up over time has something to do with old laptop components, rather than the OS).

For me, it's always been the local account and network services. So long as I can run the thing with only a monitor and keyboard, I'm happy. The second I am required to have a net connection, or even a mouse, I will be looking for alternatives. It's 100% that simple.

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

#616

Post by bobajeff » Tue, Oct 07, 2025, 3:30 PM UTC

tombert wrote: post #585

I doubt it’s going to happen, but a part of me prays that people will eventually get sick Microsoft’s increasing bullshit and it really can become the Year of the Linux Desktop. Gnome has genuinely gotten pretty great in the last couple years, and I think a lot of former Windows would genuinely like it if they gave it a chance, and virtually any Linux you install will have less tracking bullshit than Windows. I suspe…

About Gnome (Shell). I disagree it looks very pretty but the UX a huge step backwards from Gnome 2. Users are better off with KDE, XFCE or Mate.

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

#617

Post by SirMaster » Tue, Oct 07, 2025, 3:30 PM UTC

>There remain a number of ways to avoid the Microsoft account requirement during setup, including setting up an unattended installation, but these are more complicated.

Apparently checking a checkbox in rufus is more complicated.

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

#618

Post by zamadatix » Tue, Oct 07, 2025, 3:30 PM UTC

bilekas wrote: post #412

There was a great expression I read in relation to Microsoft's Xbox division, they recently increased their prices in some cases by 100% but one commentor said "They're too big to care". I think this applies now also with their complete disregard for the windows 10 EOL. Exposing, if I remember correct : ~40% of the windows market [0]. This seems to me as negligence in their duty to ensure a level of security and qual…

> Exposing, if I remember correct : ~40% of the windows market [0]. This seems to me as negligence in their duty to ensure a level of security and quality.

Make no mistake - this is yet another way they just squeeze more out of users and play innocent when they don't cough up cash or switch to 11 to sell them more things/more of their data instead. ESU is available even to consumers for the next year, for a per-pc-fee, and corporate users for at least the next 3.

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

#619

Post by LeifCarrotson » Tue, Oct 07, 2025, 3:30 PM UTC

Rufus and Massgravel still function as a pressure release valve to prevent too much outrage from building up, but Microsoft is working hard to direct more and more of the flow into the channels that get them the most revenue. If HN readers want to set up a machine without any of the bloatware, with all the "developer-mode" switches turned on, without a Microsoft account, there are still ways to get it done.

I actually just set up a new laptop this morning with Windows 11 LTSC 24H2. I'm an engineer, I can edit config files and burn bootable USB drives and install Intel storage drivers in the setup environment and validate sketchy batch files and compare ISO hashes. Now that I'm done, it's got a pair of fully-offline user accounts, it stays out of the way, it boots in seconds, the Windows-only software I have to use for work is no longer nagging me about being out of support, I'm quite happy with it.

But it was not trivial. Had I not known what I was doing, there were a dozen ways it could have gone wrong. I suppose it's nice that I'm not vulnerable to Mossad surreptitiously installing a MITM-patched OS while I sleep, but secure boot makes it scary simple to turn your new laptop into a $1800 brick. And I have a good sense for which links are the tools I actually want to download and run, and which links are scams.

But it's nowhere near smooth enough for me to point a non-technical peer at it and say "Oh yeah, if you don't want your OS to do that, just install LTSC."

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

#620

Post by k3nx » Tue, Oct 07, 2025, 3:32 PM UTC

tombert wrote: post #585

I doubt it’s going to happen, but a part of me prays that people will eventually get sick Microsoft’s increasing bullshit and it really can become the Year of the Linux Desktop. Gnome has genuinely gotten pretty great in the last couple years, and I think a lot of former Windows would genuinely like it if they gave it a chance, and virtually any Linux you install will have less tracking bullshit than Windows. I suspe…

It was enough to get me to try Linux again, and it was pretty eye opening for me. My work laptop is a $3,200 USD Dell 5570 from 2023. I bought a Beelink SER5 on amazon on discount because it was an older model around $300. I installed Ubuntu on the SER5. I've used gentoo and other distros, I wanted to use the computer, not configure it, that's why I went with Ubuntu. That little Beelink box runs circles over the Dell, it's embarrassing. Granted, the Dell has a bunch of corporate stuff that kills the performance, but I'm just happier using the Linux box. Luckily JetBrains tools, VSCode, Obsidian work just fine, which is what I use it for most of the time. I did install a steam game for giggles and it works. Like Dr. Seuss says in Green Eggs and Ham "Try them! Try them! And you may. Try them and you may, I say." I still have a Windows tower though...