Comment by bobajeff
3 months ago
You now need to have an online account to setup and login on a Windows desktop. It's obvious what the trend is and it's not allowing consumers control over their stuff.
3 months ago
You now need to have an online account to setup and login on a Windows desktop. It's obvious what the trend is and it's not allowing consumers control over their stuff.
Not related to the OP, but no you don't.
Just look up how to skip the "OOTB (out of the box) experience" and you can still bypass having to set up a cloud account on Windows 11 and can just set up a local account like normal. :)
I have been a computer user, developer and a system administrator for longer than I care to recount. I don't like Windows and I don't use it at work or home. But I do encounter it from time to time, and the experience is worse each time. The last time it happened, I couldn't figure out the way to skip/bypass the cloud account set up. Would it have been possible if I tried harder, starting with a web search? Perhaps. But there is no way an average system user is going to have the patience or often the skill necessary to do it. I'm not challenging their intelligence. But people have other priorities than to jump through a dozen hoops just to preserve privacy. I would do the same if I had to set up a Windows system for urgent work.
These sorts of hurdles exist to push more and more users to their favorite workflow until the dissenting voice is too feeble to notice when they finally pull the plug on the straightforward method. The intent is certainly there, since they are quite evidently boiling the frog. Just wait for the fine day when you wake up in the morning to see an HN story just like this one about Windows login as well.
I was using Linux for 10+ years consistently before starting my current role, which is for a Windows-only business. And my god, the first few months was super annoying. ctrl+alt+t doesn't open a terminal?! click, click, click. No Vim. Wtf.
Setting things up was much more complicated as well. But I stuck it out, still hate Windows, but I've gotten a bit used to it.
> But there is no way an average system user is going to have the patience or often the skill necessary to do it.
It's like two commands. Super easy.
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IIRC the method was to press F10 to open cmd and run a command there. I've heard that something changed in recent builds and it's harder
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>But there is no way an average system user is going to have the patience or often the skill necessary to do it
Doesnt this pretty much describe the entirety of the Linux experience though?
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Last I checked, Microsoft was trying to get rid of it.
https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/microsoft-elim...
It's still possible to set up using only a local account, but who knows for how long.
The day windows become "Online-Only" OS will be the day i move from Windows for good.
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A stepping stone on a path.
Have a login. Pin features to a login. Mandate a login but w/ backdoor. Close the back door. "It's a backdoor, why not use the front door?"
For now. History has shown that workarounds for defaults tend to stop working at some point.
Not quite yet - install Windows 11 IoT LTSC with Rufus and you get a perfect version of Windows with no ads, account requirements, etc.
But I agree about the trend. Microsoft will probably block this workaround eventually.