Microsoft has been pushing hard for its users to sign into Windows with a Microsoft Account. The newest Windows 11 installer removed the easy bypass to the requirement that you make an account or login with your existing account. If you didn’t install Windows 11 without a Microsoft Account and now want to stop sending the company your data, you can still switch to a local account after the fact. Microsoft even had instructions on how to do this on its official support website - or at least it used to…
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.
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.
Ah so they are trying to become Apple. The very company that outcompetes them by a massive order of magnitude.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Yes. That’s the spirit of what I meant.
They only way to grow is fucking the customer harder and harder every year
Microsoft is a conglomerate of many small companies that share infrastructure and a few other things like accounting and HR.
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.
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.
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 muchWindows 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.
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.
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.
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 :(
“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.”
Error!
You must wear your User Attention Validation Goggles TM during the device initialization period.
Where’s the “please drink verification can” greentext when you need it
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
ihadtopee@gmail.com.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.
Convert your Microsoft account to a Linux account
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
Microsoft stole my copy of minecraft during the migration. A company I didn’t purchase the product from stole it from me.
“Why won’t our human assets appreciate being exploited? Creating a worldwide, distributed surveillance network is hard work!”
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.
I’m 6 months into fulltime OpenSUSE Tumbleweed and love it. KDE is amazing. The Steam Deck converted me. Linux users rise.
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.
Im really glad that most distros nowadays are somewhat user friendly
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.
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.
It’s mandatory for Pro now too, or was for a short amount of time, it’s just you can bypass on all.
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?
Where’s the fucking anti trust lawsuit US GOV
Bribing the government is cheaper than following any sort of peaky law.
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.
They need data collected by Windows themselves though.
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.
Why don’t you BTW?
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.
I was just kidding about the “I use Arch, BTW” meme ;-)
Totally got that, but I like to talk about not using Arch btw
Oh no we’ve gone full circle
I use squares btw
Nix installs packages independently of what’s been installed, so you’ll get the exact same result if you skip 0 updates or 500.
Nice!
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For privacy reason. local account is the best
For privacy reasons, not using Windows is best.
