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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

#331

Post by concinds »

I don't understand Microsoft's product strategy. The push for WSL, PowerToys, a new powerful Terminal, was obviously a ploy to attract developers after Apple's hardware (2016-2019) and software (2011-) decline.

Now what? More telemetry, more cloud-as-default, required Microsoft accounts, Edge sabotaging Firefox and constantly making itself the default browser. I actually like Windows, I understand its flaws and how to configure it to get out of my way. But this is plain creepy. Why bother with all the "Microsoft ♥ Open Source" stuff? With VSCode? Their strategy makes no sense. I know they don't care about making money from Windows anymore, but surely they want to keep/attract power users and devs?

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

#332

Post by aplummer »

concinds wrote: post #331

I don't understand Microsoft's product strategy. The push for WSL, PowerToys, a new powerful Terminal, was obviously a ploy to attract developers after Apple's hardware (2016-2019) and software (2011-) decline. Now what? More telemetry, more cloud-as-default, required Microsoft accounts, Edge sabotaging Firefox and constantly making itself the default browser. I actually like Windows, I understand its flaws and how t…

Misaligned incentives at the product management layer I guess:

PM1: grow developer tools usage to get yearly bonus

PM2: grow bing cash back usage to get yearly bonus

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

#333

Post by BenjiWiebe »

alwaysanon wrote: post #281

I don't love this move (I think people should still get the choice) bit do get it a bit more after doing IT support for the in-laws. My sister in law, who is not super tech savvy, has forgotten her password and also been prompted for the Bitlocker Recovery Key and called me on both occasions all upset. Given she had signed in with a Microsoft account, we were able to get the password reset there as well as retrieve t…

Actually local accounts are far easier to reset the password on. Well, easier if you are the neighborhood computer repair guy.

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

#335

Post by bepzi »

13415 wrote: post #37
stuckinhell wrote: post #10

Yikes, I don't like that at all. These days I only use windows for games, otherwise I'm mostly mac or linux. I guess I should learn how to develop unity games on linux sooner rather than later.

Gaming is not so bad on Linux but I wish I'd never bought any pro audio plugins for my home recordings. It's going to be a colossal waste of money and unfinished recording projects when I decide to get rid of Windows for good.

If your plugins are VST2/VST3, then I can wholeheartedly recommend yabridge as a tool for using Windows plugins on Linux.

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

#336

Post by BenjiWiebe »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #297
KSS42 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I heard that a loophole is to install Windows with a MSFT account, create a local account with admin access and then delete the MSFT account

That doesn't solve the problem.

You can hammer the keyboard to make a Microsoft account and then delete that account. Microsoft won't have learned much about you except that your name is wduwbe73ne7cn47wh.

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

#337

Post by jyrkesh »

dustinmoris wrote: post #182

Apple: You can use Apple ID voluntarily to sync all your settings and data across macOS, iOS on iPhones, iOS on iPads, watchOS and Apple TV. Microsoft: We have no tablets, watches and not even a phone. You just have a PC and we force you to use a Microsoft account so you can sync all your data with our marketing and sales department and the government if need to be.

I'm signed into an Apple ID on my one Mac machine so that I can use the App Store and to use iMessage/FaceTime despite my lack of an iPhone. I unchecked all the iCloud stuff as fast as I could because I wasn't prompted after adding the Apple ID on what I wanted to add, and there's no clear "Turn off iCloud" button.

Updated to Monterey, and suddenly 3 or 4 of the iCloud items were checked. Maybe there was something buried in the Monterey OOBE, but I honestly don't remember even getting a new EULA, and I'm usually VERY careful about looking for the anti-patterns that push cloud stuff.

Just popped System Preferences back open to see what the current state is, and it says I have 4.99 GB of 5GB available in my iCloud (presumably because of the iMessage stuff). Private Relay (Beta) has no checkbox and is spinning a spinner that says "Loading". No idea if that means it's turned on, or how to make it stop loading.

Not defending MSFT, this sucks, and I say that as someone who uses W11 Pro as my daily driver. But between them, Apple, and what Google does on Android, it's very frustrating that my only _reasonable_ option for truly offline local accounts is a Linux machine. I WANT TO PAY MONEY TO HAVE A WELL-SUPPORTED MACHINE

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

#338

Post by amanzi »

Melatonic wrote: post #314
ryan29 wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use multiple non-admin profiles for different activities and I think this will ruin my strategy. I always make the first user a local account and never use it for anything but adding normal user profiles. I log in with my personal Microsoft account on one profile. I use a local account for a work profile that also has a MS365 account added to it (to avoid being joined to the domain). I have a second MS account for…

You can still create local accounts - it sounds like it is just during initial setup they require a Microsoft account and internet access.

That's interesting and seems like an easy work-around. Just create the first account with a Microsoft account, and then create your real account afterwards as a local account. Then delete the first account you created and you have no more links to the Microsoft account. Seems too easy.

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

#339

Post by concinds »

aplummer wrote: post #332
concinds wrote: post #331

I don't understand Microsoft's product strategy. The push for WSL, PowerToys, a new powerful Terminal, was obviously a ploy to attract developers after Apple's hardware (2016-2019) and software (2011-) decline. Now what? More telemetry, more cloud-as-default, required Microsoft accounts, Edge sabotaging Firefox and constantly making itself the default browser. I actually like Windows, I understand its flaws and how t…

Misaligned incentives at the product management layer I guess: PM1: grow developer tools usage to get yearly bonus PM2: grow bing cash back usage to get yearly bonus

Sure, but what about the DRI (does Microsoft have those?) for Windows? Surely he's signing off on all this?

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

#340

Post by ahelwer »

selfhoster11 wrote: post #312
zsims wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it come with ads? Because that's my favourite part of Ubuntu

Come on. That's like still bringing up the Sony CD rootkit incident as a valid reason to boycott them so many years later. Ubuntu reversed course on ads pretty quickly, and if any of the past 4-6 years worth of LTS releases included ads, then they were so unobtrusive I literally didn't notice anything was there. If you want to hurt Linux adoption by discouraging the most Just Works distribution for normal people, be…

Secretly installing malware on millions of customers' computers then releasing an uninstaller that installs additional malware is such a cartoonishly evil/ridiculous thing to do that I have nothing but respect for someone still boycotting Sony 17 years later. It's not like anyone at Sony spent time behind bars because of it.
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