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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

#341

Post by hellojesus »

recursive-call wrote: post #309
smallnix wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> popping out the disk and reading it from another system The vast majority of people don't know that this is an option or how to do it.

plus, my first windows machine went through a botched windows update and got stuck in an encryption key doom loop. now matter how many times i entered the key, it won’t let me into the computer. had to take it to the shop (tbf it had a lot of other issues too). when i got a new one the first thing i did was turn off encryption

I'd argue the proper solution here is backup, as a hdd could die at anytime and leave you with approximately the same outcome. While encryption adds some overhead and increases the surface area for failure, it ultimately requires the same backup solution as anything else.

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

#342

Post by freediddy »

BuyMyBitcoins wrote: post #137
freediddy wrote: post #88

I was forced to switch to Windows 11 despite promising myself that I would never do this. WHY THE FUCK CAN'T I INCREASE THE WIDTH OF THE TASKBAR? I have a 30" monitor, I can afford to have 3 or 4 rows of windows in my task bar. But I can't, not because it's technically feasible but because a human at Microsoft that believes they are more important than their customers made a decision to remove that option because the…

Check out Start11. I’m forced to use Windows 11 for work but I’ve managed to get the Windows 10 taskbar and start menu back. It only cost $8. I literally hate the Windows 11 taskbar.

THANK YOU. I bought it off Steam and it's exactly what I needed!

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

#343

Post by nicoburns »

seethishat wrote: post #307
daemin wrote: post #296

One thing I disagree with the article about is that drives should not be encrypted by default. For the vast majority of people an encrypted drive is just data loss lying in wait. I prefer to use non-encrypted drives so I have the option of popping out the disk and reading it from another system with ease, which also means that I can recover files from drives of otherwise dead systems just as easily. This is a trade o…

It's really about personal privacy. Your computer is likely to be stolen and sold. If you don't want others reading your email, viewing your pictures, seeing your tax returns, etc. then you should encrypt the drive. I call this "The Pawn Shop Threat Model" ;) And, IME it is likely to happen.

> It's really about personal privacy. Your computer is likely to be stolen and sold. If you don't want others reading your email, viewing your pictures, seeing your tax returns, etc. then you should encrypt the drive.

There is a very real security vs. availability trade-off though. Is the average person more concerned with others reading their emails, viewing their pictures, seeing their tax returns, or are they more concerned with losing access to those things themselves?

Losing access to an encrypted drive is a very real possibility (people often forget their passwords, and are used to that being recoverable), and is the data loss is probably more impactful than privacy loss for many people.

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

#344

Post by docmars »

seethishat wrote: post #307
daemin wrote: post #296

One thing I disagree with the article about is that drives should not be encrypted by default. For the vast majority of people an encrypted drive is just data loss lying in wait. I prefer to use non-encrypted drives so I have the option of popping out the disk and reading it from another system with ease, which also means that I can recover files from drives of otherwise dead systems just as easily. This is a trade o…

It's really about personal privacy. Your computer is likely to be stolen and sold. If you don't want others reading your email, viewing your pictures, seeing your tax returns, etc. then you should encrypt the drive. I call this "The Pawn Shop Threat Model" ;) And, IME it is likely to happen.

Surely not likely at all for a gaming desktop that's going nowhere in my home.

For business users with notebooks who fly around a lot or spend time in coffee shops, it's possible.

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

#345

Post by memcg »

seethishat wrote: post #307
daemin wrote: post #296

One thing I disagree with the article about is that drives should not be encrypted by default. For the vast majority of people an encrypted drive is just data loss lying in wait. I prefer to use non-encrypted drives so I have the option of popping out the disk and reading it from another system with ease, which also means that I can recover files from drives of otherwise dead systems just as easily. This is a trade o…

It's really about personal privacy. Your computer is likely to be stolen and sold. If you don't want others reading your email, viewing your pictures, seeing your tax returns, etc. then you should encrypt the drive. I call this "The Pawn Shop Threat Model" ;) And, IME it is likely to happen.

I have purchased 6 multi Tb external drives at estate sales. My son brought home a few from a summer working as a mover. In his experience it was divorcing spouses throwing out each others stuff.

All of these drives had Pii and personal photos. Some of the estate sale drives included pii of children and grandchildren.

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

#346

Post by AnodicElegy »

This stuff drives me nuts. Chrome on desktop is another abhorrent example of this. Every time I log in to a Google account within the browser, it nags me to link the account to the browser itself. One time my partner clicked the popup that asks to link the account by accident (this is very easy to do and probably Google's intention) and it hijacked all of my bookmarks. When I logged out of the account, everything was gone. I looked into Firefox and Edge, but they have the same profile crap. I don't need or want to log in to my browser!

I've hit my limit with Microsoft, too. I'm going to start moving my PCs over to Linux. The last time I installed Linux on a personal device was in high school, almost two decades ago, and it took quite a bit of work to get everything running properly. I've heard that compatibility issues are much less prevalent now. If things to smoothly, I may even convert my main gaming and work PC, although I'll have to look more thoroughly into whether all my Steam games will be playable.

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

#347

Post by JohnFen »

seethishat wrote: post #307
daemin wrote: post #296

One thing I disagree with the article about is that drives should not be encrypted by default. For the vast majority of people an encrypted drive is just data loss lying in wait. I prefer to use non-encrypted drives so I have the option of popping out the disk and reading it from another system with ease, which also means that I can recover files from drives of otherwise dead systems just as easily. This is a trade o…

It's really about personal privacy. Your computer is likely to be stolen and sold. If you don't want others reading your email, viewing your pictures, seeing your tax returns, etc. then you should encrypt the drive. I call this "The Pawn Shop Threat Model" ;) And, IME it is likely to happen.

> Your computer is likely to be stolen and sold.

Likely? How likely is it? I've never had a computer stolen, nor has anybody I personally know. So it doesn't seem to me like it's all that likely.

Personally, I find whole disk encryption to be more risky than it's worth. I much prefer encrypting things on a file-level instead.

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

#348

Post by pkphilip »

BobbyTables2 wrote: post #51
johnea wrote: post #4

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

Try doing a full screen rdp session from Linux at 4K resolution. The lag will be with you. VNC won’t be any better. He’ll, even some YouTube videos are overly taxing from Firefox in Linux. Also Stream seems to think Windows is more equal than Linux…

How often do you do a 4k RDP session on Linux?

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

#349

Post by layer8 »

ycuser2 wrote: post #160
BuyMyBitcoins wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check out Start11. I’m forced to use Windows 11 for work but I’ve managed to get the Windows 10 taskbar and start menu back. It only cost $8. I literally hate the Windows 11 taskbar.

Winhawk is worth a try aswell (free): https://windhawk.net/

And OpenShell: https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu

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

#350

Post by okanat »

antiframe wrote: post #304
daemin wrote: post #296

One thing I disagree with the article about is that drives should not be encrypted by default. For the vast majority of people an encrypted drive is just data loss lying in wait. I prefer to use non-encrypted drives so I have the option of popping out the disk and reading it from another system with ease, which also means that I can recover files from drives of otherwise dead systems just as easily. This is a trade o…

> I prefer to use non-encrypted drives so I have the option of popping out the disk and reading it from another system with ease, which also means that I can recover files from drives of otherwise dead systems just as easily. Everyone has different security needs. But (maybe it's different on Windows), what's hard about popping the disk to another machine and then decrypting it with the key? Does Windows not give you…

Windows does give access to the key. The issue with Microsoft account and especially Windows Home onboarding is that it doesn't tell you that it encrypted the drive and there is a backup key (which it uploads to Microsoft account, often readable by authorities with a court order).

Many normie users not only get locked out of their laptops but they also forget their Microsoft account password causing complete loss of data.

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