Microsoft Account to local account conversion guide erased from official Windows 11 guide — instructions redacted earlier this week

laurelraven , 2 days ago

The accounts started out optional with benefits to entice

They’re now mandatory for Home and hard to bypass

How long before they extend this to Pro and Enterprise? To Server? To Active Directory itself?

They’re not done yet, not by a long shot.

macgyver , 2 days ago

It’s mandatory for Pro now too, or was for a short amount of time, it’s just you can bypass on all.

tisktisk , 3 days ago

If I'm a buffoon and didn't know about this bypass, is there any way to convert my newest win11 install to a local account or am I doomed?

dave , 3 days ago

I suspect it’s not dissimilar to the way spam emails are full of typos and grammar errors. You may wonder why they don’t just get those fixed, but they’re specifically to filter out the people who notice them and dismiss the spam, as they (the spammers) are far less likely to successfully scam someone who is offended by the way the spam is written. They are a kind of first level filter.

MS are filtering out the vocal, knowledgable people who will cause problems next time they have some security breach or do something shady around privacy. Convert that relatively small number of people to Linux, and you’re left with a compliant and fully tracked customer base—far more use in the long run.

extratone , 3 days ago

I appreciate all of the privacy and ethics-associated reasons why it is preferable to start a Windows 11 installation with a local account, but if I could just add one more…

When you use a Microsoft account to do so, the operating system still requires a fucking username for the name of your user directory (because a local account must be created regardless, yes,) and all it has to go on is the email address you used to set up your Microsoft account.

A few years ago when I first installed Windows 11 on my home PC, the email address still associated with my primary account was [email protected].

So, what do you think my user account folder was named? You’d probably assume it’d be ihadtopee, right?

No. Through whatever process they set up to decide upon this, Windows 11 came up with ihadt.

Perhaps it makes me a superficial person, but that shit bugs me far more than anything else about the whole thing.

SpaceCowboy , 3 days ago

It can be more than superficial. If you’re restoring files from your old PC to your new one, it could make a mess of things if the user account is in a different path. Probably not a lot of people write scripts for their windows PC, but those could break.

Sure it would be a janky restore or janky script if it was explicitly specifying the path of the home directory instead of the environment variable. But environment variables have been janky in the past on windows, so it’s best to just keep the paths as consistent as possible when migrating to a new system.

Kinda shit they just wouldn’t prompt you for what you want your home director called tho.

Also, LOL at your email address.

CileTheSane , 3 days ago

I installed Linux Mint last week. I was waiting until I had a 2nd drive to install it on so I could still have windows if needed.
It was easier to install than windows ever was, and easier to find help to do the things I want. It makes a world of difference when your OS isn’t actively fighting you all the time. I even had an easier time connecting to my media tower over the network (which is still on Windows) and accessing its files than I ever had trying to connect to it from a Windows machine.

I haven’t touched my windows drive once since I installed Mint and I’m planning on taking it off to free up my SSD.

cRazi_man , 3 days ago

I’m 6 months into fulltime OpenSUSE Tumbleweed and love it. KDE is amazing. The Steam Deck converted me. Linux users rise.

Linux users rise

PoopMonster , 3 days ago

Just made the switch to pop os myself, all my games running fine even ff xiv which I was most worried about. Not sure why I didn’t do this sooner. Come tax season I’ll just spin up a windows vm for hrblock or whatever I decide to use.

555_1 , 3 days ago

Convert your Microsoft account to a Linux account

AGuyAcrossTheInternet , 3 days ago (edited 3 days ago)

Now I can't not think about this.

sunglocto , 3 days ago

The only reason I even have a microsoft account is to play Minecraft. Other than that, most of their services have perfectly good alternatives that are a lot better IMO

JackGreenEarth , 3 days ago

Minecraft also has an alternative - VoxelLibre

Hadriscus , 3 days ago

thanks didn’t know that

scottmeme , 3 days ago

There’s also minetest which you can basically build your own game out of

Hadriscus , 3 days ago

in fact, I’ve only been able to find footage of Minetest.

scottmeme , 3 days ago

www.minetest.net

Hadriscus , 3 days ago

Thanks, yes, I can find info on Minetest but not on “voxellibre”

UltraGiGaGigantic , 3 days ago

Microsoft stole my copy of minecraft during the migration. A company I didn’t purchase the product from stole it from me.

RelativeArea0 , 3 days ago

Im really glad that most distros nowadays are somewhat user friendly

Sam_Bass , 3 days ago

Cant have the proletariat conspiring unfed

kescusay , 3 days ago

Microsoft has become such a bizarre company. On the one hand, it’s trying to be super developer-friendly, with tools like Typescript, VS Code, and DotNet Core being easy to use and multi-platform. On the other hand, they seem hell-bent on making Windows itself - their bread-and-butter offering - as hard to use and annoying as possible.

It just doesn’t make any sense.

DacoTaco , 3 days ago

As somebody who has worked a bit with a few microsoft bound teams : it has to do with the teams and their managers.

Some teams were a treat to work with and are completely open to my comments or questions, and ready to serve the user’s needs.

Other teams are terrible. They dont respond, they do whatever the fuck they want or what their managers tell them and pump out garbage that makes no sense to the users.

Dotnet clr, refit, fluint ui blazor, …
All nice teams.
Fluentui ( webcomponents ), wpf, parts of windows teams, …
Not so much

QuarterSwede , 3 days ago

Capitalism is the reason. They’re already at peak market share. Since they’re a publicly traded company, they have to do something to continue growing. Ads is probably the easiest, most obvious, but ultimately damaging idea. CEO doesn’t care since he probably has a fat golden parachute if ousted. The entire thing is rigged against shareholders and users.

Alkali , 3 days ago

I find it funny that you cite that the company is publicly traded as the reason it is following these dangerous paths, but also call it “rigged against shareholders.” I think you mean that it is the company and CEOs job to generate real sustainable growth rather than burn credibility for temporary add ad revenue. However, it is still funny given that most shareholders don’t understand or care why this is a bad move and would be pushing for the ads if they are not already.

AGuyAcrossTheInternet , 3 days ago

I'd actually argue that most shareholders do know what a bad move it is but are willing to stay around for it because the average consumer has proven to begrudgingly live with adverts everywhere. Amazom gets away with it on Prime, mobile ads are even worse, and Youtube gets away with it despite the outrage… I wonder whether the ads would also lead to an ad-free Windows 365 subscription for consumers analogous to Youtube Premium.

QuarterSwede , 3 days ago

Yes. That’s the spirit of what I meant.

Thann , 3 days ago

They only way to grow is fucking the customer harder and harder every year

7U5K3N , 3 days ago

I work for a small dev company. We have no idea what other silos are working on. Only 1-2 people at the very top have some sort of inkling… Maybe.

In a company that large… I don’t doubt that projects get filed under a very large encompassing epic (or the equivalent for what ever scrum software they are using) and not overly discussed with the business majors / marketing people that are the c-level people now.

vanderbilt , 3 days ago

They are pushing hard on the developer experience because greenfield projects aren’t being built using Windows centric tooling anymore. If it’s server it’s Linux, and if it’s client it’s either electron or a web app. What will kill Windows is when there is no reason to buy Windows. MS recognizes this fact and has been pivoting to service offerings for that reason. They want users to make an MS account so they can herd people into their ecosystem.

BaroqueInMind , 3 days ago

Ah so they are trying to become Apple. The very company that outcompetes them by a massive order of magnitude.

Katana314 , 2 days ago

Ironically, I was already using OneDrive but that very push is likely to be the thing that gets me to stop using Windows in the next few years.

corsicanguppy , 3 days ago

Typescript, VS Code, and DotNet Core

Aren’t these all just its own products?

And wow, do I hate VS Code. Just sayin.

kescusay , 3 days ago

When was the last time you used it? These days, VS Code is on par with any high-quality IDE. And it works well on Linux, which is a bit of a surprise.

Miaou , 3 days ago

I hate that it’s only open source on the surface, but besides clion or a highly customised vim setup, I don’t think anything comes close to it.

Cornelius_Wangenheim , 3 days ago

Microsoft has always been like this. They’re a giant company with a bunch of silos that act independently and often undermine what each other are trying to accomplish.

catloaf , 3 days ago

Windows is not nearly as profitable as platforms like Azure, 365, and business sales like Visual Studio. And most people don’t buy Windows licenses, they get them bundled from the OEM. So Microsoft can monetize the user by collecting and selling their date instead.

kescusay , 2 days ago

It’s incredibly short-sighted of them. Windows is the gateway to easy integration, especially with 365. Drive people away from Windows, it could ultimately start driving people away from Microsoft services.

If Microsoft would just recognize that at this point, operating systems are a commodity and loss-leader, it might inspire them to de-enshittify Windows and focus exactly on the services you mentioned.

tibi , 3 days ago

Microsoft is a conglomerate of many small companies that share infrastructure and a few other things like accounting and HR.

johannesvanderwhales , 3 days ago

This is true of a lot of large companies in general. The fact that they make money in spite of this shows how much the markets favor established players.

cley_faye , 2 days ago

I had the occasion to discuss with people involved with Microsoft a few times, mostly on the research front. Great people, with great ideas, and very knowledgeable about their field. Of course they had nothing to do with the lobbying and the windows OS. Microsoft is very large; the corporate drones are only a small part of it. Unfortunately, it’s the part that decides what gets done and pushed out :(

NutWrench , 3 days ago

“Why won’t our human assets appreciate being exploited? Creating a worldwide, distributed surveillance network is hard work!”

sunzu , 3 days ago

Why wouldn't you purchase expensive hardware and allow some dudes to use it as they please?

Zier , 4 days ago

"Welcome to GoogleWindows. Please lick the screen so we can have your DNA to track you globally. Your 30 minutes of ads will begin shortly while we install our spyware on your device. Thank you from the MicrosoftAlphabet Family."

cheese_greater , 3 days ago (edited 3 days ago)

---

❌▫️➖

🔔Please allow us wait patiently as we fuck your wife pending verification of your identity and biometrics followed by approval of your aggregated digital activities

✅ | ❇️

Noo?! | Yesss

---

—Microsoft

CosmicTurtle0 , 3 days ago

As if they would ask permission.

We’ll be fucking your wife now while we install features on your computer that you didn’t ask for. If you’d like to be notified when we’re done, please go fuck yourself.

cheese_greater , 3 days ago

Windows is such a good name for what they are and do

sunzu , 3 days ago

and this is only the beggining

Zier , 2 days ago

And there would be a clause that says;
"We will also reset all the settings you changed that we want how we want. You no longer get to choose computer settings. Opt-in is now mandatory. Please show up at GoogleWindows headquarters to get your advertising ID Barcode tattooed on your writs."

Aceticon , 3 days ago

Error!

You must wear your User Attention Validation Goggles ^TM^ during the device initialization period.

sorghum , 3 days ago

Where’s the “please drink verification can” greentext when you need it

rovingnothing29 , 2 days ago

1000008847

dvdnet62 , 4 days ago

For privacy reason. local account is the best

RiQuY , 4 days ago

For privacy reasons, not using Windows is best.

scottmeme , 4 days ago

Where’s the fucking anti trust lawsuit US GOV

ObviouslyNotBanana , 4 days ago

Also where the fuck is the EU at on this? Having to jump through hoops to use my windows pc is bothersome.

Yes, I’m also a Linux user, no, I don’t use Arch.

Engywuck , 4 days ago

Why don’t you BTW?

ObviouslyNotBanana , 3 days ago

It just doesn’t work for my use. I can’t keep up with it since my linux machine is used sporadically, and I prefer something more stable. I did like the experience when I tried it though.

Engywuck , 3 days ago

I was just kidding about the “I use Arch, BTW” meme ;-)

ObviouslyNotBanana , 3 days ago

Totally got that, but I like to talk about not using Arch btw

amanda , 3 days ago

Oh no we’ve gone full circle

DAMunzy , 3 days ago

I use squares btw

ObviouslyNotBanana , 3 days ago

Personally prefer oblong

PoolloverNathan , 3 days ago

Nix installs packages independently of what’s been installed, so you’ll get the exact same result if you skip 0 updates or 500.

ObviouslyNotBanana , 3 days ago

Nice!

Sabata11792 , 3 days ago

Bribing the government is cheaper than following any sort of peaky law.

UltraGiGaGigantic , 3 days ago

Reforming capitalism is a waste of time. Reforms only delays end stage capitalism, it cannot prevent it.

And here we are… and here we go.

EngineerGaming , 3 days ago

They need data collected by Windows themselves though.