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Windows 11 users are tired of MS account requirements creeping into everything

windowscentral.com

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Re: Windows 11 users are tired of MS account requirements creeping into everything

#41

Post by blooalien »

usea wrote: post #23
hollow-moe wrote: post #8

That's a long article ridden with ads just to say "a redditor complains about shitty Windows OOBE requiring a Microsoft account (this has been the case for 10 years already)". Alternatives exists and are viable, now people still prefer pouring energy into complaining to a wall instead of actually moving. Getting abused is deserved at this point, it's been more than 10 years now, get a grip.

> Getting abused is deserved at this point Nobody deserves to be abused.

> "Nobody deserves to be abused."

I beg to differ; Most people don't deserve to be abused, but those who dish out abuse on those who never asked for it, or on other such "innocents" absolutely deserve a full measure of abuse, since they clearly don't understand (or care) how it feels to be on the receiving end of it.

Re: Windows 11 users are tired of MS account requirements creeping into everything

#42

Post by listenallyall »

xg15 wrote: post #6

> "To avoid the next problem: 'Microsoft locked my data behind bitlocker, and now I can't get it back.' they need to store that key on the MS account." Doesn't that make the account requirement even more scary? So now if MS decides for some reason to lock my account, this will make even the data I have on my local disks inaccessible as well?

Regardless of account type, there are many things that could require you to need those Bitlocker keys to get your data. Don't just associate them with an account, have Windows save the keys to a text file, and save that text file somewhere external, on a NAS or Dropbox or email itnto yourself or whatever, and print out 2 or 3 hard copies and keep them close by. I'm 1000x more worried about losing my data to a Windows crash/error than to theft or any other external actor.

Re: Windows 11 users are tired of MS account requirements creeping into everything

#43

Post by protocolture »

xg15 wrote: post #6

> "To avoid the next problem: 'Microsoft locked my data behind bitlocker, and now I can't get it back.' they need to store that key on the MS account." Doesn't that make the account requirement even more scary? So now if MS decides for some reason to lock my account, this will make even the data I have on my local disks inaccessible as well?

>Doesn't that make the account requirement even more scary? So now if MS decides for some reason to lock my account, this will make even the data I have on my local disks inaccessible as well?

Depends. The average user would be more afraid if its not backed up online.

Re: Windows 11 users are tired of MS account requirements creeping into everything

#44

Post by esalman »

I have used a Windows OS almost every day of my life since 1999 or so. Last December I had a choice and switched to MacOS for work laptop. Since then I seldom use Windows and I don't really regret.

I still use an Xbox almost every day so there's that. In the last couple of weeks there's been some good news coming through for Xbox so we'll see.

Re: Windows 11 users are tired of MS account requirements creeping into everything

#45

Post by listenallyall »

jmclnx wrote: post #3

If only Windows users fully understood why M/S wants you to create an account, people would leave en-masse. The ID along with their telemetry, M/S can map you to what you do and from where. That pretty much makes their builtin disk encryption useless.

Most people do all their Windows activity from one single specific location. It's Android and iOS that know you just drove down and made a stop at your city's most popular drug marketplace, or that you and your secretary were in the same hotel at 7pm yesterday.

Re: Windows 11 users are tired of MS account requirements creeping into everything

#46

Post by keithnz »

1over137 wrote: post #13
johnea wrote: post #4

It does make me wonder why people keep running this OS...

Some important software only works on Windows alas. Not everyone does everything from a web browser.

a lot of the compatibility stuff on Linux runs windows software, so that's usually not a huge blocker. Having recently switched to Linux as my main (used to run it in a VM) the real issues are all these things that don't quite work out of the box (different distros might get different results). For instance my audio when playing dota2 would randomly cut out and not return when using discord. It took a bunch of fiddling around to get both to work. Then there's weird compatibility things depending on choices you make, for instance, I used RustDesk a lot in windows. But it doesn't really work well in linux with wayland. So while my overall experience is Linux is pretty good... I'm now in a world where I can end up with all kinds of random issues, all likely solvable, but all likely semi unique to my setup.

Re: Windows 11 users are tired of MS account requirements creeping into everything

#47

Post by mulquin »

protocolture wrote: post #43
xg15 wrote: post #6

> "To avoid the next problem: 'Microsoft locked my data behind bitlocker, and now I can't get it back.' they need to store that key on the MS account." Doesn't that make the account requirement even more scary? So now if MS decides for some reason to lock my account, this will make even the data I have on my local disks inaccessible as well?

>Doesn't that make the account requirement even more scary? So now if MS decides for some reason to lock my account, this will make even the data I have on my local disks inaccessible as well? Depends. The average user would be more afraid if its not backed up online.

I'm not sure there's anything I dislike more than "the average user" because so much good software has been destroyed because of it.

Re: Windows 11 users are tired of MS account requirements creeping into everything

#48

Post by ActorNightly »

This may get buried here, but there is one important distinction missing from all these articles.

Win 11 Pro allows you to enable local login, and disable all the intrusive microsoft stuff. Ive been on win 11 for the past 5 years and don't even remember my microsoft password at this point. IIRC you still have to set one up when you first install, but then once you switch to local login, any time you open up a microsoft app it makes you login in the app.

Its not a "good" solution, but given that Win11+WSL2 pretty much lets you run any software out there, its worth while doing.

Re: Windows 11 users are tired of MS account requirements creeping into everything

#49

Post by Jordan-117 »

password4321 wrote: post #34

I was in a hurry trying to log into my kid's Minecraft account, wound up clicking something to associate it with the Windows account... now the PC is in restricted mode and I'm having a hard time restoring the previously associated Microsoft account (among other things, have to ask permission to open the browser and approve the requests logging in on my phone)! Everything online says to use the option to switch to a…

I ran into this trying to set up a new Dell laptop for my mom. It shipped to her in "S mode", meaning that among other things I couldn't install arbitrary software from the web. I assumed there'd be some straightforward way to disable it (even if it might be a little buried to discourage normies). But after several hours of searching through tutorials and mucking about in Windows settings, the command prompt, BIOS, and even the system registry, and I flatly could not do it. Never seen anything like it before. Ended up wiping and replacing Windows with Linux Mint, which she was happy with.

Re: Windows 11 users are tired of MS account requirements creeping into everything

#50

Post by jmclnx »

tredre3 wrote: post #35
jmclnx wrote: post #3

If only Windows users fully understood why M/S wants you to create an account, people would leave en-masse. The ID along with their telemetry, M/S can map you to what you do and from where. That pretty much makes their builtin disk encryption useless.

> That pretty much makes their builtin disk encryption useless. Does the encryption keep the user's data safe if the device is lost or stolen? Yes? Then it fulfills its main purpose.

We need to define "safe".

Safe from coffee shop people or in a dorm, probably yes. If you lock your laptop with a good screensaver and have a decent PW, those people are not getting in anyway.

Plus with smart phones hardly anyone carries their laptop around these days.

But with what M/S is doing with Windows 11 "security" any ad company with $, lawyer with a warrant or alphabet soup agencies, can get a decent idea with what is going on even if they cannot get to see your data in Excel or Word.

But most M/S office data is now in the "cloud", so all bets are off for those files in many cases.

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