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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

#561

Post by kokada »

jfoster wrote: post #435

It's funny how expectations being set differently can lead to such massively different reactions. Chrome OS or Android devices require Google accounts? No problem. Windows requires a Microsoft account? So angry! I think there's also something to be said for the ubiquity and usefulness of these accounts outside of the OS setup. I don't really feel that I need a Microsoft account in my life and I can't say for certain…

> Chrome OS or Android devices require Google accounts? No problem.

Never had a Chromebook, however at least in Android I know that you can skip the Google login on setup and it does not use any dark pattern (just click Skip when asked).

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

#562

Post by gruez »

archi42 wrote: post #475
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…

It seems to me MS customer support is incapable of doing anything meaningful with your account, except making it easier to be hacked via social engineering. My MS account had my desktop's Win 10 Pro N (the one with less crap) license attached to it. When I bought a new laptop with Win 10 Pro (regular, non-N), my desktop would suddenly claim that its license was invalid. Great. Called support, but nothing they could d…

>My MS account had my desktop's Win 10 Pro N (the one with less crap)

Not sure what you mean by "less crap". The only advantage of the N versions is that it doesn't have Windows Media Player. You need enterprise to set telemetry level to lowest, and enterprise LTSC to not have Windows store (and a bunch of other UWP apps) installed by default.

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

#564

Post by panpanna »

zaat wrote: post #483
panpanna wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux is _by far_ the best platform for embedded development. Vscode is available as an official snap (on Windows you need to download and update it manually), Segger tools and openocd are fully supported. GCC cross-compiler and even some flashing tools are part of the distro and just an apt-get away. This also means that everyone get the same tools (same version, same bugs). Which makes collaboration much easier.

Just a small correction: >on Windows you need to download and update it manually you don't need to update it manually, it will show a popup that an update is available and will update itself once approved.

It used to direct you to their website to manually download and install it. Given how often it is updated most people started ignoring those pop-ups.

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

#565

Post by robin_reala »

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…

The family accounts are crazy anyway. I once worked for an agency that had just bought its first Windows Phone for testing. Setting it up I dutifully signed in with the company’s MS account, but found that I couldn’t install any apps and there were loads of restrictions. It took me multiple hours of debugging to realise that because someone at the past had entered the company’s formation date in the birthdate of the MS account Windows Phone thought I was a child and blocked me from doing a load of the things I needed to do.

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

#567

Post by BlueTemplar »

jfoster wrote: post #470
BlueTemplar wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're confusing Android with Google Services?

When you buy most Android phones and want to use them in the way most people do, you're going to be dancing with Google Services.

Most people don't use offline accounts in Windows 10 either...

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

#568

Post by achamayou »

m0zg wrote: post #327
mastazi wrote: post #63

This is incredibly bad. In general I have a positive opinion about what MS is doing lately, but Windows is a glaring exception, it’s getting worse and worse at an alarming rate. In the last two months we had two consecutive updates that broke basic functionality for users who disabled web results in Windows Search (which is a very common setting among those who care about privacy) https://www.zdnet.com/article/window…

>> getting worse and worse at an alarming rate That's because Windows Division does not exist anymore as a separate business unit within MS. It's now a part of Azure. And Azure doesn't really care all that much about making desktop excellent. It'll just keep it good enough for you to buy more Azure, but not more than that.

It's not part of Azure, it's part of Experience + Devices, which is a different top-level group from Cloud + AI.

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

#569

Post by panpanna »

JetSpiegel wrote: post #459
adwn wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You'll see that except for old targets (or highly proprietary ones like fpga) [...] Your overall point is stronger than you think: Xilinx's FPGA toolchain [1] has official Linux support, and their embedded software toolchain (based on yocto and gcc) actually depends on Linux! [1] Xilinx is the market leader for general purpose and high-performance FPGAs. The situation is slightly different for space-grade and very…

Official Suport for Xilinx means "should work some of the time", provided you use this old and bloated daemon to communicate over USB. You will still need a separate hardware killswitch to work remotely, because the driver is flaky as hell.

"should work some of the times" is also what you get on Windows.

Source: buddy worked as sw QA for xilinx.

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

#570

Post by nashashmi »

This post has become far too popular for something that isn't really true. Similar to news about Xbox needing to be connected to the internet.

1. Windows 10 always prioritized account creation with an online account simply because it was more feature rich.

2. Windows 10 always had an option (dark) to create account connected with no online account. It was hidden. And discouraged.

3. Windows 10 still offers offline account creation through user control panel within an existing account.

4. Imagine being able to go to any computer and logging in with your account that is based in some other machine.

5. Imagine going to a computer without your account that also prevents others from logging in because it is password protected. And being able to log in anyway through your online account.

Stop freaking out. This expands options nicely.

Edit: it would be nice to be told why the disagreement.

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