Since they mentioned the workarounds but didn’t explain them, I’m copying my comment from another post a couple of weeks ago.
Lemmy probably isn’t the target audience for this, here’s the steps to bypass the MS account requirement when setting up W11:
Configure your keyboard, but before you select your wifi network press Shift+(Fn)+F10 to open Command Prompt.
Type in the following command and press enter. Your computer will reboot: oobe\bypassnro
After the reboot, configure your keyboard and location settings, and click the option at the bottom of the page to say that you don’t want to connect to the internet
Click the link on the next page to “Continue with limited setup”, then follow the prompts to enter a username and password.
Thr FN part is notable if you have a recent computer. A lot of laptops and keyboards ship out with media keys as the default on the top row now, and you must hold the FN key to use F10. Lot of people don’t realize this and think Shift+F10 isn’t working.
Possibly an easier option: you can let it connect to the internet, and then when it tells you to set up a Microsoft account, click on “Other sign in options” (or whatever it says beneath the text box). Then select “Domain Join instead”. It’ll let you use a local account, expecting you to join it to a domain later, then you just…don’t join it to a domain.
Always be sure to use something like O&O ShutUp10 or Winaero Tweaker after you reach the desktop, so you can shut off all the bullshit, otherwise it will keep harassing you to make an account. I think you need to uninstall OneDrive too, to stop it hijacking the address bar in file explorer with constant nagging to set it up
Good info, but everyone should know that Windows 11 Home can not join domains, and the option will not be there. Only Pro, Enterprise, and Education versions can do that.
Yes, that’s true. But I’m kind of going off the assumption anybody that actually wants to use a local account is somebody who knows better than to use the Home edition. Without group policy and a couple of the other configurable points, I’m not sure how viable it even is to use Home anymore if you want Microsoft off your back.
Usually notebooks ship with a fn lock function.
On our hp notebooks its fn + shift.
Now the keys work like regular Fx keys and for the function you need to press the fn key first.
In that case, it makes sense. I’m a developer and am stepping through code in a debugger pretty frequently, which makes heavy use of the F keys. I use the F keys far more often than the media keys.
We used to use that method for the company I was working for. We would setup laptops in advance and they were in the early process of setting up intune. Since we didn’t have a user account, we’d use your method to continue setup to get to the desktop.
I think we’d then run commands in pwershell to have the machine appear on intune.
It was a good few years ago and it was a very annoying, arduous time. They worked out the kinks eventually and that was no longer required.
I successfully did it on a brand new Inspiron laptop yesterday morning. I do regular device configs for my organization, and the moment this stops working, I’ll be here to rage about it!
Are you talking about the Support article, or this WindowsCentral article?
Because I would say that’s true of both.
This article is heavily inflated/extended with pablum that could come straight from Copilot, and frankly, it seems more concerned with listing the benefits of a Microsoft account than reporting on the support article.
The summary is slightly misleading, you can log in offline on a computer with a MS account. In fairness, the language on the article around this is pretty confusing, but you're not locked out of your PC if your Internet is down, which is what the bullet point summary implies.
Well, yeah, but that's the clarification I'm making. By default you DO need a connection to create or sign in to an account to complete the install process as it's currently presented, but once an account is set up you can log in to that machine whether it's connected to the Internet or not. The summary makes it sound like you need to be online for every login, which is not the case.
By default you DO need a connection to create or sign in to an account to complete the install process as it’s currently presented
You don’t “need” it, they lie to you and imply it’s a requirement, but it isn’t needed. It’ll download updates, and finish the install just fine with local account.
Sure, and you can go back to a local account from a MS account after the fact, I believe. But I'm going with the supported, default flows that MS surfaces to users without any workarounds here. I'm not even trying to nitpick.
You also need an internet connection during setup to download drivers for your PC, or install Office.
What would you even do with a PC that never has internet access? (apart from controlling some machinery maybe).
I remember it used to be quite common to install an OS and not have internet access. The OS simply lacked the correct LAN or WAN driver; alternatively one might be setting up an OS during an outage.
What would you even do with a PC that never has internet access? (apart from controlling some machinery maybe).
This is actually a massive use-case. Basically every piece of heavy machinery is using the OS it shipped with. Those systems naturally are forbidden from connecting to the internet but happily plug away at their job.
Legacy software in general is a great reason; retro gaming on period-appropriate hardware and OS, for example.
Retro gaming on period-appropriate hardware and OS in 20 years will. (And there likely won’t be security updates for the OS, you would be dumb to connect it to the internet)
Heavy machinery shipping with windows today does.
Your OS not having the correct lan/wan driver happens even today (just less often).
Having an internet outage happens today as well.
Yeah but none of these use cases call for Windows 11.
All the use cases I mentioned are relevant with Windows 11. There is a reason people have been yelling Linux around every corner, and it is because of continued bad decisions by Microsoft like requiring and internet connection for stuff that simply shouldn’t.
OK, look, I don't like the online auth requirement for Windows 11, I think it's dumb and finicky. I'm not trying to defend it here, I was just trying to correct the record on a slightly misleading summary...
...but come on, any user with those needs can work around the login in like five minutes.
Retro gaming in 20 years will either work just fine on the next version of Windows or work on a Win11 install supporting an offline account. Heavy machinery shipping with Windows will presumably ship in a state where it can be authetnticated, so it should have some way to be online or to update to a version of Windows that does have auth servers, if Win11 stops having those for some reason. Bad drivers or simply not having connectivity hardware just requires using a USB device. Your phone will USB tether long enough to log in to Windows on first install just fine, I've done it before.
Don't get me wrong, it shouldn't be needed, and it's a stupid annoyance. The real answer to all those use cases is using the known workarounds to support offline accounts on first boot that MS should continue to surface and offer as a supported option. But let's not be disingenuously obtuse about how the software actually works. I've done way worse to keep a legacy OS running on an old machine.
What would you even do with a PC that never has internet access?
The idea that computers should always be online is less than 20 years old. Even in the early 2000s it wasn’t uncommon for most employees in a company to NOT have Internet access. Companies, and people, bought or wrote software and then ran it to accomplish the task. No internet needed.
I’d argue that many employees in regular non-technical positions STILL don’t require Internet access to do their job unless they have to sign into some kind of cloud portal
I vividly remember the first time I heard someone suggest an always-online computer being a thing. I couldn't imagine the use for that, and the security implications terrified me. Let alone the cost, because of course I assumed I'd be paying for that by the minute.
I barely notice when I don’t have Internet access anymore, because I use my PC as a media server to stream to every other device in my house. Not having the Internet basically just restricts the games I can play slightly
If it’s been more than 30 or 60 days (can’t remember which) you will be unable to sign in if you don’t have an active internet connection. I found that out in 2022 when I had to travel for work (90 days in a fairly remote area) and the only internet connection I had was at the worksite on a company computer.
Was that a work computer? I know on a work laptop I did have some time restrictions set by IT because they had some authentication policies, but my understanding is that on a Windows Home account you control there should be no time limit, although it may complain about your MS apps or treat it as a not-activated install after a while, I'm not sure. I admit that I have never put that to the test on a Win 11 PC. I definitely did on MS-account enabled Win 10, since I've stashed older PCs and then turned them back on offline later, but I don't think I've had an idle Win11 machine more than three months yet.
The online requirements are unnerving to me. I feel like Microsoft wants my personal files. I don’t think it’s to outright steal or scam, but there is something in everyone’s data they want. Maybe AI training. Anyway I’m not giving it up willingly.
Sure, but if you have the option, you shouldn’t choose it. One reason so many businesses use Windows is that everyone knows Windows. If everyone learns Linux, more companies will use Linux.
This is what it comes down to. Nearly every office job pays for the Microsoft enterprise suite and office 365 subscriptions, before tacking on third party tools for monitoring and info. sec. for IT. I would gladly ditch Office 365 for Open Office and Debian, assuming all the higher ups would be willing to take such drastic measures to reduce expenses. I think most employees would balk at learning “an entire new system” regardless of how minor the differences actually are at this point.
I’ll give 'em this: Microsoft’s model creates very sticky revenue with high switching costs.
Yep! With Steam Deck pushing more native game support, I hope we see more users get used to the Linux environment and increase the demand on the PC side for better support across all applications.
I mean…if you get written up for circumventing IT blocks and installing Linux on your work device, but that write up is signed with a barage of bullets…maybe you’re working for the wrong dictatorship?
Again, custom. You are debloating an OS and removing security features and removing other functions of the os that will cause security and instability in your windows environment.
Honestly, if you are so concerned that you need to run this custom made script to protect privacy, you’re probably just better using Linux.
Again, it is not a “Custom OS” you aren’t installing it as an OS from an ISO. You are still required to have your own licensed version of windows and install that prior to using AtlasOS. Using it does not cause security and instability issues as long as you understand what you are doing. Yes it is stripping things from windows. It’s also open source so if you were so inclined you could see exactly what is being done.
If you equate using an automated solution to do things that you could do manually albeit with a bit more work involved, then every single OS is custom the second you change anything on it.
I do use Linux for what it’s worth and have been for around 20 years. I’ve also been working in Tech for the last 15 ish years. I wouldn’t be blindly recommending something that would wreck someone’s security.
There’s a link to their source code. They even state that you have options to what security settings get messed with. So again, as long as you READ and understand what you are doing, you aren’t necessarily breaking your systems security.
It is way more. It is a means of manipulation and influence over your decisions, and the decisions others make about you. The issue boils down to a fundamental principal of your right to autonomy. If you play out this philosophically, it is an attack on your citizenship and democracy itself. Autonomy is a fundamental cornerstone of democracy. Attacks on autonomy are attacks on democracy.
Does anybody remember back in 2005 when Google had a plugin for windows xp that would index your entire hard drive and give you quick search for your files?
My buddy’s account got compromised because his kid fell for some kind of Minecraft scam. It was his 365 account that he pays for and Microsoft has told him to pound sand. He’s grateful that he doesn’t use one drive and uses a local login on windows. He’s not even the only person that I know that had this happen to them.
Using a Microsoft account lets you connect your PC to Microsoft cloud services, sync files across devices, and even sync your settings across multiple PCs.
But I believe there are users who would view Microsoft’s reasons against using a local account as positives, not negatives.
I use a Microsoft account and sync just about everything across multiple PCs, but I understand that’s not the preferred setup for everyone.
The support document does not list a way to set up your PC with a local account.
I wonder how many people cannot use a modern PC because they lack an internet connection for the initial setup process.
Microsoft is certainly aware that many people lack easy access to the web.
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It’s not gonna affect their bottom line though. Microsoft are doing it because they know they can get away with it and drag the bar so low that they’d make RealNetworks circa 1999 look like privacy-respecting saints.
Your average Joe cannot afford the second mortgage needed to finance a MacBook purchase, and they’d have an aneurysm if presented with a Linux terminal.
And don’t even get me started on business and professional use. Many businesses rely on proprietary or even bespoke software that doesn’t run well, sometimes not even at all on Linux. Cheap (even FOSS) alternatives are often dogshit. And before you dispute me on that fact, can you name one web designer that would use Affinity Photo, GIMP or PDN over Photoshop? Or could you name one person that prefer AbiWord, OpenOffice or LibreOffice to Microsoft Word?
PC Gaming is one of those use-cases that has evolved by leaps and bounds… until you realize just how many multiplayer games rely on a form of anticheat. Many of these solutions are straight-up incompatible with Linux.
Microsoft lost my trust a long time ago. For the last 10-15 years, my only relationship with them is, “how much sh*t am I willing to put up with before I switch to something else?”
“We won’t turn it on and will never use it to spy on you” says government backed surveillance monopoly know for sneaking spyware into products and making it impossible to remove.
Opt-in but you get an annoying full screen popup every boot, like for the windows11 upgrade. It’s only a matter of time, til they sell AI recall features as Win12 and then beg you to upgrade for free, pretty please!
Outside of the “Microsoft bad” comments, this is a prime example of why big tech companies need to stop promoting AI leads to a position where they are able to have influence over initiatives outside of AI.
The worst thing to happen to basically every product/service in tech right now is AI. It’s made Google unreliable in the eyes of normal people for the first time in decades, it’s destroying trust in Amazon content across reviews and Kindle, it’s adding features to Facebook that no one ever wanted, etc.
And the annoying thing is, this tech can be exceptionally useful when it’s actually been implemented thoughtfully.
Effortlessly cleaning up audio recordings using AI tooling is incredible, for example. There are audio recordings that I’ve been able to make sound great that previously would’ve required me to make some calls and ask for a bunch of re-recordings and added days of delays to a project.
AI in image recognition to vastly speed up medical imaging diagnosis, or analysing lab work? Amazing. Asking unpaid medical students to laboriously pore over thousands of images sounds like a nightmare.
Better offline translation? Sign me the fuck up.
Image description for the visually impaired, like my sister? Genuinely life changing. A lot of content online isn’t properly tagged, or has zero attention placed on accessibility.
The list goes on. Unfortunately, with big tech being as they are, their first thoughts turn to “which implementations of AI will aid us the most in scraping userdata and showing ads?”
The list goes on. Unfortunately, with big tech being as they are, their first thoughts turn to “which implementations of AI will aid us the most in scraping userdata and showing ads?”
Don’t forget making sure the peons can squeeze out more productivity for the 1%.
There have been several instances where people have released ebooks that are fully AI generated, and are basically scams with no real content or information.
Yeah bur for the non tech oriented user it’s still difficult . Most devices bought come with OEM install.
Even for a regular user it’s going to sound like There is a virus that reads and remembers everything on your computer but you can turn it off and trust us it would be off.
Even for PCs that come with Windows preinstalled, there’s still the need to set it up at the first start (account, privacy and such), so I think that the option to enable Recall will be there.
I guess if you want to verify the truth of this statement, look at Unity. They walked back their per-install system, but the indie community still moved away from them because it seemed clear they might try to do that at some point in the future.
It’s what they should have done from the beginning, there must be a horde of MSFT employees holding back the urge of saying “told you so” to their boss right now lol
I really hope the damage is done. They need to be knocked down a peg. This all should have been done first. Whoever thought this was a good idea is horrible.
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