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Windows 11 Pro will soon require a Microsoft Account during initial setup

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Re: Windows 11 Pro will soon require a Microsoft Account during initial setup

#251
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main problem with a MS account is if you have alot of documents and you log onto a new machine, you better have good internet speed otherwise you will be waiting hours for the documents to come down. Its not so noticeable with windows server (at least since server 2000) and workstations because office network speeds are good but if you also had exchange, then local copies of exchange mailboxes also tied up office…

Logging in with a MS account automatically uploads your documents to their cloud? Cool…

No, it doesn't. I have no idea what the parent is talking about. It sounds like roaming profiles with an AD domain, nothing to do with an MS account.

Re: Windows 11 Pro will soon require a Microsoft Account during initial setup

#253

Ah we never saw that one coming. What really bugs me is why people keep defending these companies: this is straight up abusive, and we - all of us - should not accept these tricks. Getting you an MS account is one small step away from charging you monthly for the privilege of using the computer that you've already paid for.

If we could get everyone to reject X, for any X that's clearly no good, we'd be in a much better world today. But people accept every such X.

Re: Windows 11 Pro will soon require a Microsoft Account during initial setup

#254
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt it, considering that Microsoft only gives you 5GB of storage for free. Anyone with non-trivial amounts of documents will quickly blow through this. What the parent poster is talking about is probably the onedrive folder, which probably gets automatically set up when you sign in with your microsoft account.

And everything defaults to saving files in that folder. Saving locally is made intentionally difficult, and the setting is regularly reset to one drive after updates. So yeah, Microsoft basically saves all your documents to the cloud, even after trying very hard to disable that possibility. Windows 11 is the proverbial straw for my camel. It's hostile and aggressive, and I don't need to fight with my computer.

[deleted]

Re: Windows 11 Pro will soon require a Microsoft Account during initial setup

#255
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main problem with a MS account is if you have alot of documents and you log onto a new machine, you better have good internet speed otherwise you will be waiting hours for the documents to come down. Its not so noticeable with windows server (at least since server 2000) and workstations because office network speeds are good but if you also had exchange, then local copies of exchange mailboxes also tied up office…

Logging in with a MS account automatically uploads your documents to their cloud? Cool…

I don't believe this is the case. On my corporate account stuff only uploads if you drop it in OneDrive. If you use “Documents” on OneDrive then yeah they get uploaded. Use it in the local folder, and it's local. Otherwise, I'm a Linux man.

Re: Windows 11 Pro will soon require a Microsoft Account during initial setup

#256

For the last few years I've been trying to change the billing address of my Microsoft and Office 365 account and it's still wrong. Microsoft account management is so feckin' stupid that I feel sorry for all Windows 11 users who will be forced to use it. BTW before people come and try to tell me how to change my billing address, I know how to do it. I did it everywhere. It shows correctly everywhere on the websites, b…

>For the last few years I've been trying to change the billing address of my Microsoft and Office 365 account and it's still wrong. Microsoft account management is so feckin' stupid that I feel sorry for all Windows 11 users who will be forced to use it.

My minor example of Microsoft address stupidity is that when I make a purchase at the Microsoft store, and provide a shipping address that I only want to use for that purchase, that address becomes the new default for subsequent purchases even if I specifically turn off the checkbox asking if I want to make the address the default. (I've had dozens of opportunities to test this.)

Re: Windows 11 Pro will soon require a Microsoft Account during initial setup

#257

Never again windows with Microsoft accounts. I have two windows 10 licenses, one home and one pro. I made the mistake of associating the licenses to my Microsoft account and now there is no way to move the pro license from the old PC to the new one. The Microsoft support site is a complete joke of unpaid chatterers that send you on wild goose chase, the web is full of SEO bullshit site that keyword-dance around the i…

This is not true at all, you can transfer the license. Unless it was an OEM license and is tied to the hardware. It has nothing to do with your MS account. I've done this many times when upgrading hardware for myself and my family using different combinations of Home/Pro licenses.

Re: Windows 11 Pro will soon require a Microsoft Account during initial setup

#258
post #77
post #62

Using Windows with a Microsoft account introduces all sorts of issues that only power users tend to come across, and power users are who Windows Pro is targeted for. For example, RDP'ing to a Windows Pro computer with a Microsoft account becomes a lot more difficult. Another example is that Windows still needs a local username and password, even if you've logged in with a Microsoft account, and this can get out of sy…

This is how I wound up becoming so annoyed that I finally switched to Linux. It’s been great. I haven’t even missed out on gaming.

I might get downvoted, but I like windows as an OS. I used it for years and it was pretty stable and easy to modify. Now that they are going the way of Google they really have nothing to keep me. Linux has been my main OS for years anyway. Windows I used for office, adobe products, and games. I guess I'll just keep a network gapped VM around for those on my linux and buy some extra memory to handle the VM.

Re: Windows 11 Pro will soon require a Microsoft Account during initial setup

#260
Microsoft defaults the local username to the first five letters of your first name, I believe.

From a purely practical point of view, I just hate that using a MA auto generates your local username (typically into something painful) this way.

So if your name is "Jonathan Smith" and you like to use "jsmith", bad luck, here's your "jonat"!

If you could specify that at least, it wouldn't be so much of an issue to myself.

A local account that I later link up has given me this control. Now I'll need a throw away, new local account, then link to my real one. What a PITA.

(If anyone from MS is reading this, would love if you could fix this. Just add a username field to the online account please).

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