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Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

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Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#201

Post by jplayer01 »

EugeneOZ wrote: post #114
saghm wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's been that way for a while? Maybe six months ago I wanted to add Windows to a Linux box I had, and I ran into this

No, last time I was installing Win10 was 23/09/2019 and there was an option to use offline account. Although, some system settings already require ms account.

I noticed this change months ago. Probably with the release of 1903 (with a 1903 ISO). It seems to be dependent on whether you have an active connection or not. If not, it shows the offline option. If you do, it makes it really hard to find.

Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#202

Post by Osiris »

At least it can sleep and resume reliably. I have a Linux laptop and desktop and work and both of them crash on either suspend or resume.

Actually, I installed the latest mainline kernel and managed to get my desktop to resume once, but the second resume locks up the whole system.

So now I just do a full power off every day when I leave.

The laptop is System 76 and comes with PopOS pre-installed and I still have issues whenever I have external monitors attached.

Linux as a daily driver is a frustrating experience, though I do really appreciate the customization (I love i3).

Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#203

Post by cwojno »

I've switched to Linux + Mint in part because I don't want to be using Windows any more. Many of my games work with Steam on Linux now, actually. With Google's docs/drive, everything works cross platform. I really have no productivity loss by not using Windows any more.

Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#204

Post by tanr54ok »

viraptor wrote: post #179
mastazi wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason why I feel like I’m stuck is based on my personal use case. Basically I need two things: A. Being able to use some proprietary software not available on Linux B. Being able to self build so I can select the HW that works for me With Linux I lose A and with Mac I would lose B. I’m thinking that a combo Mac Mini + Tower PC with Linux could work, but using two OSes at the same time, even with shared NAS, KVM…

What about C: use Linux for the main desktop, use Wine for things that require Windows, use a VM with windows exclusively to launch that one annoying app which won't work under wine?

There isn’t just one app, there are plenty. Excel and adobe cs are the obvious ones. If you’re not in programming (exclusively) you’re stuck on Windows or Mac.

Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#205

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

thrower123 wrote: post #146
GlenTheMachine wrote: post #100

...and from what I can tell, their online account security is craptastic. Here’s a true story that happened to my family. My son is the only person in the house who uses Windows. For his game machine. He set up a Microsoft online account. It got hacked - someone set up a fake family and managed to get my son’s account listed under it as a child. As a consequence, he couldn’t install any new software. I’m not sure wha…

I'm almost certain that you were not talking to a real Microsoft employee. Most Fortune 500s have their helpdesks and customer service outsourced to the Tatas and Wipros, Cognizants and HCLs of the world, who may or may not further subcontract the actual bodies filling the roles. Quite frankly, first-level support is useless and ignorant; at best they have scripts for common issues, but to do anything you need to def…

If you contact a company through their official channels and they connect to a third party, they get to keep the blame.

Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#206

Post by pnako »

stOneskull wrote: post #192
sandworm101 wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who told you that? Look at all the games on steam proton. All the best indi games run fine on linux. I was playing eve online last night and subnautica a few days ago. Ksp, factorio, minecraft ... there are tons of great games on linux.

Including Thimbleweed Park, the best game ever

Never heard of it. It looks like Monkey Island, which is IMHO one of the best games ever.

Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#208

Post by wayneftw »

lone_haxx0r wrote: post #154

Meanwhile, the Linux world is wasting its biggest opportunity to take over the desktop space. IMO, Unintuitive interfaces (e.g. Gnome shell), forced package management (as opposed to decentralized distribution of apps) and lack of care for graphic design are the biggest things keeping the masses away from the Linux desktop, because in other areas (speed, robustness, privacy, control) it just blows Windows out of the…

As a long time Windows user, I switched from Windows to XFCE (Manjaro) and it was pretty seamless. Most of the keyboard shortcuts are the same (or, easily configurable to be the same). I had to hunt down one xdotools script and bind a shortcut for moving windows from one display to another for it to work the same.

There are many things that XFCE does even better or just as good. Window snapping works great. The start menu is back-to-basics simple and fast. Searching in it doesn't search the internet or my whole hard drive by default and it just works and finds things faster. The taskbar is also better IMO because it has way more useful options (such as middle-clicking) and less anti-features. On Windows, I have to use some unsupported 3rd-party thing called 7+ taskbar tweaker to add the same features and remove some anti-features. I am a minimalist and I loved the classic taskbar. I hated some new Windows behaviors like "preview window-content on hover over taskbar item", jump lists and grouped taskbar items - some of which you just couldn't turn off in Windows without that 3rd-party tool. So, after years of fighting against that I figured if I have to hack my DE, I might as well run the one that's free and gives me all the power. (I also have to modify macOS to make it even bearable to use...way more than Windows even, with third party hacks. And Apple certainly gives you less control than Microsoft, so I'm definitely not using that!)

Some things I'm missing on any Linux DE though: GPU acceleration in Chrome. Games.

However, I'm now even doing Microsoft-specific work with dotnet core, VS Code, SQL Server and Azure Data Studio on my Manjaro workstation. For work, I don't really need Windows anymore unless someone gives me some Windows-specific thing to work on, for which I have one machine on standby to do.

Overall, I like how much control I have in Linux. However, Windows is still more stable than any Linux desktop in my experience. For instance, I've lost desktop settings/icons a crash after an update. Wifi stopped working after an update once. But things are/were easy to remedy so I'm staying.

Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#209

Post by sarcasmOrTears »

tzs wrote: post #151
GlenTheMachine wrote: post #100

...and from what I can tell, their online account security is craptastic. Here’s a true story that happened to my family. My son is the only person in the house who uses Windows. For his game machine. He set up a Microsoft online account. It got hacked - someone set up a fake family and managed to get my son’s account listed under it as a child. As a consequence, he couldn’t install any new software. I’m not sure wha…

> ...and from what I can tell, their online account security is craptastic. I'm not convinced that their offline security is good, either. I sometimes will pick up my Surface Pro 4 and disconnect it from the charger. Disconnecting from the charger usually (but not always...not sure what determines it) wakes it. It then turns on their equivalent of Apple's Face ID, and tries to log in. Sometimes I don't actually want…

That's why I gave it back after a week. That and updates.

Re: Microsoft has removed the “use offline account” option when installing Windows

#210

Post by logimame »

ViViDboarder wrote: post #129
mastazi wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason why I feel like I’m stuck is based on my personal use case. Basically I need two things: A. Being able to use some proprietary software not available on Linux B. Being able to self build so I can select the HW that works for me With Linux I lose A and with Mac I would lose B. I’m thinking that a combo Mac Mini + Tower PC with Linux could work, but using two OSes at the same time, even with shared NAS, KVM…

You could go the hackintosh route. Though I haven’t tried it in a decade or more, I’ve seen some people with pretty cool setups. Certainly more work to maintain than just Linux or an official Mac.

Recently hackintoshed a XPS 15 9550, and holy shit it became the best laptop I’ve used so far. Everything (including bluetooth and wifi) works, no butterfly keyboard shenanigans, still decent performance, lots of ports (including hdmi and usb 3), the touchpad works perfectly (with all multitouch gestures).
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