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

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

#71
post #54

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 microso…

You don’t have to login with the online account. Before you install: - Disable the network cards in the BIOS - Install - When prompted to setup the network press Shift+F10 - Type: start ms-cxh:localonly - Setup the local account - After install completes re-enable the network cards in the BIOS Nothing could be easier. Truly the most user-friendly OS.

Microsoft is even trying to get Windows IoT / Embedded to be MS accounts vs local. The same method for disabling ease of local user accounts are being enabled there.

Windows IoT still forces all the useless trash to be installed ... such as XBox game bar. I have to spend every few months going through the means to disable this trash via the registry so it can be automated in air-gaped systems.

Original Window Embedded, pre-IoT branding, allowed full customization. Now it is near equivalent to standard desktop.

You have to pay me to use Windows OS ... even with gaming.

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

#72

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…

Kinda inverse for me but abandoned Windows after having a local account for my kids, and I bought them MS Flight Simulator on my Microsoft Account from the MS Store.

There was no way to use this expensive purchase from the kid's account on the same machine! Stupid bullshit - I gave up on Windows from then on.

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

#73
post #54

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 microso…

You don’t have to login with the online account. Before you install: - Disable the network cards in the BIOS - Install - When prompted to setup the network press Shift+F10 - Type: start ms-cxh:localonly - Setup the local account - After install completes re-enable the network cards in the BIOS Nothing could be easier. Truly the most user-friendly OS.

If you have Pro edition you don't have to do any of that.

Click "Sign in options"->Domain Join Instead

That's it, it''ll have you create a local account.

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

#74
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but they could have gotten a Makita XWT15Z 18V LXT Lithium Ion Brushless Cordless Impact Hammer instead? (This is like my niece buying a $5000 Alienware to play Roblox because she thinks she “needs a gaming PC”)

At least she can play Minecraft with shaders.

I bet that $5000 PC came only with a 3050 and some high end shaders lag on it lol

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

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flash it for her. The result will be a more stable (in terms of not shitting the bed randomly one day or changing the entire UI) and decluttered portal to whatever website she uses it for.

Let me provide you a preview of how this will go: "You moved my Chrome. I liked my Chrome. Put it back. I can't get to the Facebook. I want to talk on the Facebook and I can't because you moved my Chrome."

Fedora is quite capable of doing absolutely nothing but opening Chrome and going to Facebook.

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

#76
post #21
post #4

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

It is too intimidating to change for one. Most users I deal with are terrified and bewildered by settings and can't even take the few steps to install an adblocker (and they want the adblocker!) And from the article: "Technician's know how to get around this, but not everyone using a computer is a technician." To use an alternative, you need to know someone with the knowledge and ability and able to request their tim…

To use an alternative, you need to know someone with the knowledge and ability and able to request their time.

Fortunately, my old pal Claude Code is always there for me. Need something installed/fixed/changed? Just ask... in plain English.

I don't need him for Windows, but man, that dude can make Linux walk and talk.

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

#77
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I mean thats absolutely a take. Sometimes I like to think about how great a network I could build if I didnt have to service any customers.

It would be the most beautiful, elegant, well-designed and thoroughly hardened network I'm certain. I get it, the software I'm complaining about was designed for profit.

The point I'm trying to make is imagine you have to tell a customer that they can't keep using the network design they have, which fits their requirements almost perfectly, because it's too much burden for your network engineers to maintain. Instead, the customer can use this other network design that is suitable for the average customer. So it works, but not as well as before, and the customer will probably need to find some workarounds or shift other processes to accommodate. It's just shit.

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

#78
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?

Very much so. And it's even more scary that MS uses dark patterns to trick older non-technical users into enabling MS online accounts. When the bitlocker activation automatically happens during tricking the user into going from a local account to online account it is without the user's consent or real participation. They don't print out a copy of the key or move it to a usb drive becuase they aren't aware their drive…

it does look sketchy, but microsoft used aka.ms since forever, especially for short links to various SDKs (aka.ms/pwsh7)

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

#79
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?

You can save your recovery key in different formats (printed, on a USB stick, etc). The online recovery is just automatic.

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

#80
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me provide you a preview of how this will go: "You moved my Chrome. I liked my Chrome. Put it back. I can't get to the Facebook. I want to talk on the Facebook and I can't because you moved my Chrome."

Fedora is quite capable of doing absolutely nothing but opening Chrome and going to Facebook.

can you lock fedora down such that a few bad clicks dont disable the desktop manager and boots it into the terminal?

this is the real problem with Linux on the desktop for non-power users

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