Monday, July 1st 2024
Microsoft Closer to Removing Local Accounts from Windows 11, Removes Help Page on How to Switch to One
Microsoft really wants you to use Windows 11 with an online Microsoft Account. This lets the operating system integrate the single login for Microsoft Store, all the apps on it, Office or 365, Teams, OneDrive, Outlook, and more importantly, put a face to your name (making you and your machine identifiable to it). Some users, particularly power-users, tend to avoid this, by preferring local accounts—an account that's authenticated and maintained locally by the machine. Microsoft is viewed as making it increasingly difficult for users to create local accounts, particularly on the client versions of Windows, such as Windows 11 Home and Windows 11 Pro.
The Windows Setup by default flows you into creating a Microsoft Account, or logging in from one. Over the past several versions of Windows, Microsoft has made it harder, if not impossible, to create a local account during Setup. In what could be a step closer by the company to wean the market off local accounts, Microsoft removed the online Help page that guides users on how to switch from a Microsoft Account to a local one, as Tweaktown found out. The publication dug the page out using the Wayback Machine. Will Microsoft completely remove the ability to create local accounts? We don't know. All versions of Windows 11 and Windows 10 sit on the Windows NT architecture, which requires some form of local accounts. The Microsoft Account itself is layered on top of a local account. So, the ability to create a local account shouldn't go away for those who really want one, but it will be close to impossible for the vast majority of users trained by Google and Apple to have online accounts on their phones.
Source:
Tweaktown
The Windows Setup by default flows you into creating a Microsoft Account, or logging in from one. Over the past several versions of Windows, Microsoft has made it harder, if not impossible, to create a local account during Setup. In what could be a step closer by the company to wean the market off local accounts, Microsoft removed the online Help page that guides users on how to switch from a Microsoft Account to a local one, as Tweaktown found out. The publication dug the page out using the Wayback Machine. Will Microsoft completely remove the ability to create local accounts? We don't know. All versions of Windows 11 and Windows 10 sit on the Windows NT architecture, which requires some form of local accounts. The Microsoft Account itself is layered on top of a local account. So, the ability to create a local account shouldn't go away for those who really want one, but it will be close to impossible for the vast majority of users trained by Google and Apple to have online accounts on their phones.
142 Comments on Microsoft Closer to Removing Local Accounts from Windows 11, Removes Help Page on How to Switch to One
Now that I’m thinking about it I should make a series of complaints against the practice to my representatives and consumer protection agencies as it’s basically locking me in to Microsoft cloud services
But this is basically a dead horse, as for biz/corps, there to be a local/network account that cannot for any reason be an online account for obvious security reasons. So as that option alwasy exists, then there will ALWAYS be a way to work around this inane b$.
Glad I moved to Enterprise IoT LTSC to avoid all the new bloat and get local accounts support directly from the installer.
Who's terminally online now?
HDR for games in linux is STILL non-existent in 2024, it was a major letdown for me.
In games I play/tried I got much lower FPS. ~200FPS in Windows; same settings in Linux I got ~120 with stuttering.
I went back to Win 11 and made it feel&look like Win 7. :)
(
Where we are going it does explain why Microsoft has made it so easy and cheap to have authentic or "authentic" windows in PCs. Keys on line are sold for 2-3 euros, activation scripts on github for everyone to use. Even without activation the OS doesn't shut down as the older versions where doing, after an hour. Someone can use a Windows PC without needing to activate it, ever.
Still On winsows 11 pro the option to "join" a local domain still exists and I don't think that will go away anytime soon, so that should remain an option.
digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/index_en
Let's go Nadella, I have a nice set of middle fingers for you. So far W11 is a fat no and 10 might be the last Windows I'll ever even connect to the interwebs. I'll just wait until the EU forces you back to sanity.Everything more personal... on a XP or 7 machine? Like what? Banking? Have you lost the plot, or? That's like securing your house with a big sign that says 'collect my stuff between these hours, because I'm gone now'.Yeah this feels more sensible by the day too now to me.I think MS will be forced back into making these features non hidden and even part of the flow when you setup the system. Probably in the shape of a tiny button somewhere in those screens :) It'll take a few years of back and forth and then they'll get the reality check again.
But how about sending mails, posting online personal opinions, for example? No need MS to (also) know everything I write and post.Or use Rufus to create a bootable USB with default creation and usage of a local account. I bet even if future versions of Windows hide this option completely, programmers will create programs that build installation media having the option to force a local account. MS will have to completely remove this possibility to make online accounts mandatory.
Recent game like Squad / THE FINAL / Helldiver2 all working flawlesslyWhat GPU did you have ?
KDE now manage HDR so it might be better
I'd just leave retro systems to retro gaming. ;)
Can they be installed and run without any hassle?Yeah, that's my main concern.
I don't want the hassle of having to log in each boot.