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Windows 11 is closing a loophole that let you skip making a Microsoft account

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Re: Windows 11 is closing a loophole that let you skip making a Microsoft account

#101

Post by soraminazuki »

jwoglom wrote: post #3

> We’re removing the bypassnro.cmd script from the build to enhance security and user experience of Windows 11. This change ensures that all users exit setup with internet connectivity and a Microsoft Account. "enhancing security and user experience" -- what a ridiculous, bold-faced lie. Bravo Microsoft.

Yeah, not only are they lying about their intentions, but they are also absurdly wrong from a technical standpoint too. How in the world can an online account provide more security than a local one? Online has way, way much more attack surface. It's not even close.

Online is more about convenience than security. Though with Windows, it looks more like convenience for M$ and not for its users.

Re: Windows 11 is closing a loophole that let you skip making a Microsoft account

#103

Post by ziml77 »

They better give me a way to select my local username then. I always create my user account without an MS account first because the times when I created my Windows account from my MS account it named my user directory as my first name with the final letter missing. It's not even a long name!

Re: Windows 11 is closing a loophole that let you skip making a Microsoft account

#105

Post by cmiles74 »

zozbot234 wrote: post #40
bigstrat2003 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not. But not all unacceptable things are illegal. And just as immoral people will do legal-but immoral things, immoral corporations will do the same.

What they're doing might actually be illegal under antitrust law, since it's effectively 'tying' a market-dominant desktop OS to provision of online services. If they are genuinely determined to get rid of the existing workarounds, there might be grounds for a formal complaint on that basis.

It's dumb on every angle. How many people are going to these lengths to avoid an MS account? Even if they suck it up and stick with Windows, will this really convert them into MS Store app buys or whatever? I doubt it.

They make people mad, they lose some customers... Maybe that's the whole point? I just don't get it.

Re: Windows 11 is closing a loophole that let you skip making a Microsoft account

#106

Post by quag »

hippich wrote: post #98
falcor84 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, sales-wise it seems to mostly be driving people towards macbooks, but yes, also linux.

Can you fully use MacBook (install apps, updates) without online account?

Yes. Most MacBooks used in businesses don’t have an iCloud account associated with them. The store doesn’t work, but that doesn’t seem to be an issue.

Downloading and installing applications by dragging them from the installer to the Applications folder works fine.

Re: Windows 11 is closing a loophole that let you skip making a Microsoft account

#107

Post by Aaron2222 »

Hojojo wrote: post #100
fumufumufumu wrote: post #46

Aren't they just following Apple? Technically you can use an iPhone and Mac without an Apple (iCloud) account but it's pretty dang unsupported except for corp devices. If I recall correctly you can't install anything from the app store on an Mac/iPhone without an Apple account. On Mac you can run other stuff without an account. You can't on iPhone. You'd need XCode, XCode you can only get from the App Store or possib…

I've used my MacBook without an Apple ID for years and it works fine. When you install a fresh copy of MacOS, they don't force you into bullshit hoops like having to disconnect your WiFi or running some bat script just to get the option for a local account back. No, it just asks for a login and provides a button to skip it. You knows the exact same thing Windows used to do, but doesn't anymore. I'm not sure what you…

Agree. The only thing you need one for is the Mac App Store, but most software is either not on there to begin with or is also available directly from the developer's website (other than Safari extensions, which are mostly Mac App Store only). But not only does Apple not force you to sign in with an Apple ID, if you do it doesn't take over your account (i.e. Windows makes your email address your username and you sign in to Windows with your Microsoft account password). Allowing password reset with your Apple ID and uploading your FileVault key to iCloud are both optional (and they ask you instead of it being opt-out). And you can also choose to sign into just Apple Media Services (App Store, iTunes, etc), leaving iCloud signed out (or you can use different accounts for each).

Re: Windows 11 is closing a loophole that let you skip making a Microsoft account

#108

Post by saturn8601 »

fumufumufumu wrote: post #46

Aren't they just following Apple? Technically you can use an iPhone and Mac without an Apple (iCloud) account but it's pretty dang unsupported except for corp devices. If I recall correctly you can't install anything from the app store on an Mac/iPhone without an Apple account. On Mac you can run other stuff without an account. You can't on iPhone. You'd need XCode, XCode you can only get from the App Store or possib…

When you set up a new mac or install a fresh copy it asks you to sign in/create an account once, you click no and it never asks you again.

It then asks you if you want to enable siri, you press no and you never see it again.

>If I recall correctly you can't install anything from the app store on an Mac/iPhone without an Apple account.

You can download Xcode using their site instead of the App store, but you still have to login to download the file. I guess there isn't anything preventing you from running the installer downloaded from another user's computer. Still as a developer you can install the command line tools through the terminal and then code in non apple languages without the app store.

I'd argue most users install standard applications (since this is a computer and not an idevice) which provides you a clear path to using the computer without ever having to make an account.

That does not answer your question, but i'd push back and say that Apple accounts dont really intrude on the user like Microsoft accounts do. You dont need to use it to login, you don't ever see it other than the app store or the setting menu, you can disable icloud and not even use that. Most importantly though like I mentioned there is still a path to avoiding it completely.

This is night and day difference from Windows where this entire thread is full of all the tricks Microsoft plays and really, people here are justifying registry hacks as if thats normal. Its not.

Mac is slowly probably following Microsoft, not the other way around. If Mac sinks into the nonsense that is Windows I'll have to go back to Linux (and eternally hate my life forever maybe after ~30 years of my life revolving around computing, I will rather give up computing than go back to Linux).

Re: Windows 11 is closing a loophole that let you skip making a Microsoft account

#109

Post by transcriptase »

MattPalmer1086 wrote: post #97
transcriptase wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best marketing campaign for Windows is finally deciding on a distro only to be presented with a bunch of bullshit options (gnome, cinnamon, xfe, kde, mate, etc) the average person is expected to somehow understand the difference between or care about if they did. And no, someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing is not going to feel comfortable picking at random. Then the 95% odds that trying to dual boot witho…

I'm amazed at your experience, not sure what distros you've been using. I've been using Linux for over 20 years. Can't remember when I had to do anything other than choose my keyboard layout, region and enter the WiFi password. 20 mins later, all installed and working. Dual boot I agree can be awful, because for me, Windows has hosed the other operating system more than once on some update. Can't put them on the same…

It’s not so much my experience, but an understanding of why people unlike us face hurdles to even trying out Linux to make the switch.

If you go on distowatch, look at the download pages for the top ten distros. Some are better than others, but most present a dizzying array of options and terminology that assume the person reading is already familiar with Linux and those options.

It would be trivial to add in some “If you don’t know what you’re doing pick this one” to a given flavour to at least give somewhere to begin. Ubuntu at least got that part right at one point in time, but the community largely still has the soft-gatekeeping stance of “if you don’t know what you’re doing this isn’t for you”.

Re: Windows 11 is closing a loophole that let you skip making a Microsoft account

#110

Post by gorjusborg »

Numerlor wrote: post #79
WD-42 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm with you. The very few games I play work great on Linux. As a professional dev, there's absolutely no reason to choose Windows (or any OS, for that matter) over Desktop Linux at this point. I'm convinced Windows is mainly for people that buy computers at Best Buy and corporate IT that are unfortunately funneled into the ecosystem (hats off salute to all you).

I'm a dev using Windows, tried Linux multiple times for a couple of months and it always felt like it was getting in my way in daily usage. Dev experience is usually at worst the same as Linux when you use wsl as you don't really need more than the terminal

I honestly have the opposite experience. I am guessing upu either develop on the .net platform or games.

Unix-likes are far more productive environments for what I do.

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