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

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

#741

Post by simmons »

Night_Thastus wrote: post #598

My biggest annoyance is that I specifically bought a Windows 11 license, from the MS store, using my MS account. I did this because I assumed that if something went wrong, I would always be able to recover it. I could never 'lose' the key if it was tied to my account. Well unfortunately, MS screwed me. When I upgraded my PC I was apparently supposed to transfer the license before deleting the old PC from my account.…

I was in this same situation earlier this year with one machine that was using a license attached to my Microsoft account. From what I read online, I thought I was freeing up the license by running "slmgr /upk" and "slmgr /cpky" on the old machine, but I guess not. I was eventually able to get the license transferred to the new machine, but only after a very painful morning of working with an MS support person.

I learned that there are two ways of buying a Windows 11 license. One way results in getting a traditional license key that can be reliably transferred, and the other way (tying the license to your Microsoft account) risks losing your license. :( I'm very careful to only buy licenses the former way, now.

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

#742

Post by mixmastamyk »

labrador wrote: post #709

I guess I'll be the contrarian in the thread: My main machine is Windows 11. I recently bought a refurbished laptop to make it a Linux torrenting machine with ProtonVPN. I first installed Fedora, which I hated. Where's the mininmize window button? Why are scrollbars practically invisible? What's with the hideous cartoonish desktop? I switched to Ubuntu, which I'm more familiar with. Installing ProtonVPN was an absolu…

Fedora is not tied to a desktop. Though I recommend Mint/cinnamon for sanity. You may have to reach into the control panel to augment the scroll bars, that is sadly a sickness endemic to the whole industry.

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

#743

Post by BizarroLand »

ZeroConcerns wrote: post #700
fph wrote: post #592

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comparable to what? To Windows 11?

Yeah, sure. I'm getting heavily downvoted here, and that's fine, but truth of the matter is that nothing gets even close to Windows 11 when it comes to Enterprise-ish deployments, and failure to acknowledge that is why possibly-better alternatives are losing. Source: I'm sort-of the IT manager for several around-50-employees businesses. All of these offer a choice of Windows, Mac or Linux laptops, because that's what…

We are not talking about enterprise.

We're talking about individual users, people who buy a computer for their kids or for themselves.

Fancy hosted domain and entra setups and enterprise activations are not relevant to this discussion.

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

#744

Post by Fischgericht »

pazimzadeh wrote: post #474
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…

That was impressively delusional. > having a standard on menu structure, a standard for all UI controls etc You mean all the stuff apple brought to personal computers? By the way, you can use a Mac (and iPhone) without an Apple ID and there's no sign that this is changing.

Facts:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Common_User_Access

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

#745

Post by [deleted] »

lagniappe wrote: post #685
observationist wrote: post #665

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Companies that cannot run their businesses responsibly at scale should not be allowed to run their business at that scale. If Microsoft can't do it, if Apple, Google, Facebook, X , OpenAI can't do it, then maybe we shouldn't allow companies to operate at scales which inevitably lead to widespread consumer harm. They should be required to provide human customer service, with some sort of legal liability to ensure thei…

>Companies that cannot run their businesses responsibly at scale should not be allowed to run their business at that scale. The reality of the situation is: If it were enough of a problem that the bad outweighed the good, people wouldn't use it, but yet they still do, so it's not enough of a problem.

[deleted]

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

#747

Post by Permik »

I just always try to create a MS account with example@example.com or example@example.org, then you just get kicked over the MS account creation and it prompts you for local account creation.

This has worked always after they started pushing creation of online accounts.

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

#748

Post by mholm »

mr_machine wrote: post #697
jasode wrote: post #677

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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. [...] I suspect, though, people will realistically just migrate to Chromebooks, Most people will stay on Windows... even with all the increasing annoyances from Microsoft... because there's too much important software that runs only on Windo…

Ink/Stitch ( https://inkstitch.org/ ) is a F/OSS option for a lot of embroidery machines... maybe not hers, but worth a look.

I've been using Ink/Stitch for awhile, and it has an extraordinarily steep learning curve compared to manufacturer specific software. Most of the information you need to run it safely without getting tangles or breaking needles is not published by sewing machine vendors, and you have to trial+error it with ink/stitch. You can get there eventually, but it'll take a lot of frustration.

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

#749

Post by evo_9 »

How can I prevent Windows 10 from upgrading to 11? I have a gaming pc that's basically just for VR, and is ~5 years old. I play non-VR on my SteamDeck, so really I just want to keep my old pc gaming box running on 10 for (occasional) VR gaming at this point... also, pretty heavily invested in Steam (VR and non-VR) so I really prefer not to switch to something like Meta Quest, etc.

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

#750

Post by timtom123 »

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…

Might happen. I told my entire family I would not support their windows installs past 10 and 11 is full of spyware. Half bought a mac and half opted to install Linux. IF all you want to do is a browser. Linux is honestly very easy to use.
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