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I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

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Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#251

Post by opencl »

nightski wrote: post #126
itronitron wrote: post #65

I wiped a brand new Windows laptop just last week and installed Linux because Windows 'S' Mode wouldn't let me install Firefox without a Windows account. Very happy with the change to linux and I don't have to worry about accidentally saving personal documents to the OneDrive cloud. Product companies should take note, I'd probably own a few more electronics if they didn't require that consumers 'create an account' or…

That makes no sense. Why would you use 'S' mode if you didn't want to be connected? It's specifically a version that does not store data/apps locally, so of course it's going to require an account...

S mode does store data/apps locally, it just prevents you from running any software that isn't from the Microsoft Store.

They were using S mode because it's impossible to disable without logging into a Microsoft account first.

Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#252

Post by mschild »

nightski wrote: post #126
itronitron wrote: post #65

I wiped a brand new Windows laptop just last week and installed Linux because Windows 'S' Mode wouldn't let me install Firefox without a Windows account. Very happy with the change to linux and I don't have to worry about accidentally saving personal documents to the OneDrive cloud. Product companies should take note, I'd probably own a few more electronics if they didn't require that consumers 'create an account' or…

That makes no sense. Why would you use 'S' mode if you didn't want to be connected? It's specifically a version that does not store data/apps locally, so of course it's going to require an account...

Some devices, like the Surface Go, come with Windows S mode by default. To disable S mode you need a Microsoft account as you need to access the store to do so. I think there are some workarounds for this, but the default way is the store.

Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#253

Post by vimacs2 »

chokma wrote: post #220
exceptione wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a long time Windows user that tried Linux in the past with no avail, I finally found my love in Manjaro KDE. Because it is based on Arch, it is closer to cutting edge which is a good thing wrt hardware support. I especially love that you can just switch kernels from the GUI. The good thing is that it Arch with safety belts, with a wide array of curated packages. If you feel more adventurous, you can also reach out…

I tried Manjaro recently - just in time to run into the Nvidia update disaster (black screen on boot, broken X-server due to system update). And no amount of fiddling with the config files and nouveau / proprietary drivers brought the system back into a usable state. So back to Ubuntu it was...

I'm not arguing that this will necessarily fix your woes as I have no experience with any Nvidia hardware but one of the greatest but in hindsight obvious discoveries I made with regards to management of my Arch based system was discovering how to downgrade packages. Once you know how to do this, it's a lot less painful having to deal with broken updates - which are pretty rare anyway.

I personally cannot stand using Ubuntu and it seems I'm not alone in that regard. I hear nonstop issues with it from my friends who tried it and I attribute a lot of failed Linux converstions of people thanks to it.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Downgrading_packages

Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#255

Post by microtonal »

sp332 wrote: post #239
Osiris wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just installed Windows 10 on a laptop for my mom. On the account setup screen there's a little skip button to create a local account without a Microsoft account.

Your computer was connected to the internet and you're using relatively recent install media? I'm asking because I haven't seen that behavior in years.

I had a Windows 10 Pro laptop for the last 7 months or so (but ditched a few days ago it because Windows has become so terrible) and the two times I installed it, I definitely had an option to create a local account. At some point it was in the lower-left while onboarding (carefully disguised as some clickable text rather than a very visible button).

Both times the machine was connected to the internet. One time with the standard Lenovo media, one time from a fresh Windows 10 Pro ISO.

Could there be a regional difference? (I am in the EU)

Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#256

Post by gexla »

This must be a poorly documented / communicated item that you must use an MS account to log into your system. You may have to jump through some hoops, but surely you could run something like a Powershell command to get past the GUI and do exactly what you want to do. Just like many people here would do with a Linux system. Maybe more of a PITA, but it would be worth the effort for me. And I bet there's some easy tricks.

There's a difference between "supported" and "possible." Add a layer of marketing and UI magic and you get a lot of confusion.

Edited to add: Just because it's a new OS, doesn't mean the guts of the thing went through huge changes. The ways you create an account is probably the same from 10 to 11. It's just the GUI which is changing.

Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#258

Post by phendrenad2 »

Want better OS choices? Don't just sit down and take it. Go try Linux distros, file bugs, code fixes, and don't accept excuses. If an open-source maintainer is blocking progress, hard fork and keep rolling. I feel that the Linux dev community has become stagnant and insular and we need more people from the outside to get involved. Could be you.

Re: I Will Never Use a Microsoft Account to Log Into My Own PC

#259

Post by CA0DA »

Causality1 wrote: post #188

Is it just the mists of time that make me feel like it didn't use to be this way? Growing up, new versions of Windows got me so excited. 95, 98, 2000, XP, Vista, 7 all made me feel like my computer was better than it was before. Sure there were bugs, but my overall satisfaction went up every time. Now instead of reading to see what feature I'm going to gain, I read to see what feature I'm going to lose. I miss being…

Same here - I remember being excited about Vista and 7. Now I just dread update announcements.
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