Technology

I have never used a Windows machine with a Microsoft account for my own personal use, only if it was somebody else's PC that already had it. I just keep it disconnected from the internet during setup and it eventually gives me the option to not use it with a Microsoft account.

There is a command to disable the account setup too but I have only used that once. The disconnecting from the internet trick works for me.

I mostly use GNU/Linux for my own use but on the rare occasion I setup Windows for someone else or need to use it, I just disconnect it / don't connect it to the internet before setup.

Edit:

The reason bypassing the forced account with up to date Windows 11 was still so easy for me is likely because I used the Pro edition and possibly may have used the setup for work feature when I installed it recently.

To this day, you can still create local accounts at setup

More "Microsoft doing their part to get people used to the idea of having to login with an internet connection so that they can make Windows 12 subscription based."

Thats what this bullshit is. Training the user base for OSaaS.

And they will have enterprise by the balls because they control like 90% of the enterprise market. The consumers, they could give a fuck if they take it or leave it. Windows licensing is such an teeny tiny part of the equation that screaming at them is going to get as much traction as screaming at Nvidia for the fact that a midrange GPU is 1000 bucks now. Nvidia doesnt care if their consumer gpu market disappears tomorrow, they've got the AI fucks locked in.

Microsoft wants to kill on-prem for enterprise. Windows 11 Enterprise is a monthly subscription to your Office 365, sorry Microsoft 365, wait no Copilot 365 account. Exchange Server 2019 is the end with their subscription only version replacing it. They're retiring Dynamics on prem to move you to the cloud.

The cloud services are parted out just right that you get almost everything you're trying to do with one package, only to need the next level up at double the price for one little thing, or an add-on service that just so happens to need the E3 version instead of E1. Oh but you can pay twice as much again for the all-in-one bundle, it comes with everything! Expect that thing you need for regulatory compliance, that's still extra. It's like they studied the predatory pricing of freemium games and went "we can do better than that"

Selling you an OS once is of no interest to them. Monthly charges? Better but still not enough. All of your data flowing through their systems, ripe for harvesting and vendor lock-in? That's the good stuff.

I think enterprise is the least affected.

Win11 installs are done with Autopilot. Users log in with their company MS accounts and if admins need access they log in with the LAPS account.

Enterprise moved away from local accounts even before COVID.

I mean I don't really recommend Linux like a lot of people do. I just mention it when it's appropriate and give a list of its drawbacks and benefits, according to specific use case. For home users I just say that Linux Mint or Zorin OS are fine and even better that Windows for this scenario, but I must be honest and also say that something like ChromeOS might be even better if an user spends their whole time in a web browser.

For professional usage (except coding lol) I never recommend or even mention Linux for variety of reasons.

I literally just recommended CachyOS to my boss while we were complaining about Windows 11 in our one on one meeting today

how the turntables

a few years ago I had a really stupid issue with my laptop. about twice a year, for whatever reason, Windows 11 decided my internal wifi card wasn't worth existing and would just wipe it off the face of the earth. Just completely remove it, delete the drivers, everything. hard resetting the laptop didn't work, physically unplugging and replugging the card back in didn't work, manually installing the drivers didn't work. the ONLY way Windows would accept the card again was on a fresh OS install. So twice a year, like clockwork, i'd have to do that except the last time I couldn't because I needed an MS account. well I couldn't get online. for whatever reason it wouldn't allow me to connect to wifi and I didn't have access to an eithernet connection. So I gave up and finally decided to give this Linux thing a try. Installed Mint within 15min.

The added bonus of installing Linux on the laptop was it suddenly brought my battery back to life. on Windows I MAYBE got 30min out of a full charge. On Linux with a WM like Niri it's now a few hours. Linux also made me fall in love with the PC again. Now I'm on NixOS and i just love configuring my system or doing more dev work with ease thanks to nixshells.

There will be always a workaround, because Windows NT was originally built with local accounts in mind and the whole system's architecture is based on that. Even if they block every possible way to do that using their official installation media, someone will just create a custom disc image, some script or whatever that you will be able to use to have a local account.

Chris Titus's WinUtil. In it is a tool called MicroWin that can create a custom installation media which will allow local accounts and also remove all the telemetry, adverts and all the other crap.

Just an idea:

• Get an HDD
• Use dd to clone your NVME Windows drive.
• Install Linux on your NVME.
• Boot Windows from the HDD as you find you need it (which I suspect would be a lot less than you think).
• If you find you need to go back to Windows, just reclone onto the original drive.

I bet you'll eventually reclaim the HDD, though. I kept mine for about two years, and I nuked it last week, because I hadn't even opened it, much less booted it, in over a year.

Sail the high seas. Also, you absolutely can still skip logging in and setup a local account.