Question Is M$ Trying To Kill Windows Off?

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I'm still using 7 with no intention to move beyond it.

New Windows 11 preview makes Microsoft accounts mandatory for (almost) all

PC World|9 minutes ago
The latest build of Windows 11 eliminates the option to sign in with a local account on Windows 11 Pro, forcing users to sign in with a Microsoft account instead.


Guess I need to explore something else.

 

[mikeymikec]

I know nuthink!!! about Win 10 or 11 and hope I never have to, but .... isn't the comment in the original article that they are planning to close holes and force account use?

I didn't notice anything about closing the loopholes, just that they're making 11 Pro work like 11 Home. At the end of the day, forcing MS account use at the setup stage will always have a flaw in because MS has to leave a fallback option in for any network device that Win11 doesn't by default have a driver for.

I suppose they could stick in a prompt into the setup routine similar to the storage drivers prompt, but for network drivers. Though that would rely on network device manufacturers producing a driver that can be installed in that way, whereas some manufacturers produce a driver that's compressed into the install program. I suppose if they added the 'add network driver' functionality they'd then have to follow it up with full network configuration functionality and VPN connectivity though in order to cater for pretty much every networking scenario. As I said in a previous post though, I think this is about MS making peoples' lives sufficiently awkward so people just 'go with the flow', likely at minimal expense for MS.

I'm not sure what's with @Zoozuu 's NSA fixation. I'm personally a lot more concerned with corporations spying as selling personal data for profit has been a thing for some time now. Sure, the UK government probably does spy on me a bit, but without a profit angle there's got to be a practical limit on the sheer amount of data theoretically gathered by a government.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

man its boring posting here..everyone already said theres a workaround and even a boob knows theres a difference from logging into your computer compared to logging into a website. im bored..done..

Well, that's not the entire picture. I discovered that if I create a domain account on my server and try to make it consistent with or assure that it works with the MS account, it seems as though the MS account treats my domain membership as a "device". When I wanted to delete the computer from the domain and the computer's domain account, the client Windows 10 told me that a "device was missing", then on reboot, my boot drive was locked.

All of these things are time-wasters. I have to keep a database file of account-IDs and Passwords. Sometimes, I'm so busy in matters that require an on-the-fly account setup and password creation, I forget to add it to the databases. All the little "Forgot your password?" links don't help. It's more work, more inconvenience. Oh, you might say "that's really nothing", but it's time and distraction.

 

[OlyAR15]

I have no issue with having a MS account. In fact, I do. My issue is that when using an MS account to set up Windows, it uses the first 5 letters of your email address as the username, instead of using your full name. I find this quite annoying. That is why I always set up a local account, so I can have my username be my full name, then once everything is set up, I will change the local account to a MS account.

Other than that, I have no problem using an MS account to login to Windows.

 

[Zoozuu]

are you sure you didn't run into a bug? my username has never taken the first 5 of my email. maybe you chose to restore settings? I think it just autogens something but you should be able to put something else in.

 

[OlyAR15]

are you sure you didn't run into a bug? my username has never taken the first 5 of my email. maybe you chose to restore settings? I think it just autogens something but you should be able to put something else in.

Nope, not a bug. Setting up Windows with a MS account causes the user name to consist of the first 5 characters of the email used with the account. Using a local account first, then converting to an MS account allows you to create whatever username you want.

 

[Zoozuu]

hmm..none of my 5 computers have been made with a local account at all and they aren't showing that way. *shrug* also that sounds slightly overly convoluted to me but thats usually how windows is sometimes. I hate menus settings and overlays..lol I sometimes go through things so quick I might aswell have my eyes closed.

EDIT: nevermind one is lol also my gaming pc is now messing up. lol it gave me a bios recovery error fun lol

Editedit: also now that you told me about that weird thing it annoys me..lol what the heck its like descending a ssid kind of. i guess were to dumb to make a decision about something that is somewhat useless? lol

 

[OlyAR15]

hmm..none of my 5 computers have been made with a local account at all and they aren't showing that way. *shrug* also that sounds slightly overly convoluted to me but thats usually how windows is sometimes. I hate menus settings and overlays..lol

EDIT: nevermind one is lol also my gaming pc is now messing up. lol it gave me a bios recovery error fun lol

To be clear, I’m talking about the folder name in C:/Users. Not the account name you use to log into the computer. So when I set up a local account and the pc asks what the user’s name is, it will create a folder with that name, eg. C:/users/Charles Lee. But if I set it up as an MS account and type in my email and password, it will set up a folder called C:/users/Olyar. My username is still the same, and nothing really changes, but it is annoying, and it also kind screws up OneDrive a bit.

 

[Zoozuu]

yeah lol I noticed afterwards. how does it mess with onedrive? also it seems like I may need to look for a new motherboard..sigh I recovered the stupid bios but its still messed up somehow lol it works like bedazzled poop..(*non rgb bedazzled)

 

[OlyAR15]

OneDrive gets confused if you have multiple computers with different User folder names. It’s not an issue if they were all set up with MS account folders, or all local account folders, because then they would all have the same folder names. The issue comes when you have a mixture, especially now that MS is forcing users to set up PCs with an MS account.

This wouldn’t be an issue if MS had the foresight to set up User folders the same way, but that seems to be too much to ask from this company.

 

[Zoozuu]

I didn't notice anything about closing the loopholes, just that they're making 11 Pro work like 11 Home. At the end of the day, forcing MS account use at the setup stage will always have a flaw in because MS has to leave a fallback option in for any network device that Win11 doesn't by default have a driver for.

I suppose they could stick in a prompt into the setup routine similar to the storage drivers prompt, but for network drivers. Though that would rely on network device manufacturers producing a driver that can be installed in that way, whereas some manufacturers produce a driver that's compressed into the install program. I suppose if they added the 'add network driver' functionality they'd then have to follow it up with full network configuration functionality and VPN connectivity though in order to cater for pretty much every networking scenario. As I said in a previous post though, I think this is about MS making peoples' lives sufficiently awkward so people just 'go with the flow', likely at minimal expense for MS.

I'm not sure what's with @Zoozuu 's NSA fixation. I'm personally a lot more concerned with corporations spying as selling personal data for profit has been a thing for some time now. Sure, the UK government probably does spy on me a bit, but without a profit angle there's got to be a practical limit on the sheer amount of data theoretically gathered by a government.

lol mikey I'm not really fixated on nsa spying. (>o.0)> I was poking fun at your paranoia. <(0.o<) most "spying" you get would in actuality be scammers with malware as most corporations want you to give them your money via their "spying" I mean tracking your website surfing to see what you want to buy..

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I’m like the previous poster. I just don’t get what the issue is with being required to have a MS account or better said why that is so much worse than google knowing more stuff about you than you know about yourself or you bank or credit card tracking what you buy or apps on your phone tracking where you go and so on.
What I am saying is drawing the line at a MS login or account for windows is a strange place to draw the line.
AmI missing something important about the change?

 

[mikeymikec]

I’m like the previous poster. I just don’t get what the issue is with being required to have a MS account or better said why that is so much worse than google knowing more stuff about you than you know about yourself or you bank or credit card tracking what you buy or apps on your phone tracking where you go and so on.
What I am saying is drawing the line at a MS login or account for windows is a strange place to draw the line.
AmI missing something important about the change?

I agree that it would be strange to accept everything else after having given it some consideration and then draw the line at an MS account. If you accept everything else and don't attempt to curb the amount of tracking in any way (at which point I'd definitely have to ask, "really? not at all?") then I honestly don't see why an MS account would bother you.

Me personally though, I don't simply accept everything else. Where I draw the line is based on necessity and my personal priorities. It may be the case that despite the measures I take, the likes of Google still knows way more about me than I'm comfortable with, but I'm sure as hell not going to make it easy for them to take and sell whatever they want.

An MS account on its own is not inherently an earth-shaking change in terms of user privacy. However, anyone who has paid attention to opt-ins and opt-outs in Windows over the last 12-ish years will have noticed that Windows has gone from being an opt-in product to opt-out (and in some cases, no option to opt-out). The only reasonable conclusion is that Microsoft is adopting the same business practices as Google and others. Where Google wants you to sign in to Google Chrome the moment you start it, so does Microsoft with Windows. What the sign-in does is that instead of these companies having to sift through data and create a likely and calculated profile of a person to sell on, the company just asks the person for the most useful information to tie the marketable data to: Your name, DOB and a means of contact. Verified information is worth more than unverified.

As far as I'm concerned there's no good reason for them to have all of this extra information. Information they've gathered could get compromised and/or sold and end up in the hands of people whom I trust far less than the likes of Google. For example, In America you've got a healthcare system that actively harms the people it in theory serves, and if you give them all the information that the consumers seek out on the Internet, they've got a million more reasons to increase premiums / deny healthcare / revoke authorisation etc.

For me personally, as I don't use my smartphone very much at all (and where I can disable data going back to Google and others, I do), Google's practices on my smartphone don't bother me anywhere as much as what goes on on my desktop.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

The line is very simple. I do not have to log in to my bank, CC or store accounts to simply use my PC for things that do not involve the web.

I do not use servers or domain accounts at home. I do not use a Goo account for anything other than getting stuff installed from their 'store' to mobile devices.

 

[Zoozuu]

if you log in then you most certainly do use it for other things or at least the system uses the info and has services at the ready. with how you post it would seem you don't even check the weather using your phone. I don't check the weather every day but I look at news articles. those news articles are also a product of so called spying. not the observing the targets but of observing you/me. for what articles you read for you click on. I get so much cat stuff..right? why is that?

 

[Fanatical Meat]

The line is very simple. I do not have to log in to my bank, CC or store accounts to simply use my PC for things that do not involve the web.

I do not use servers or domain accounts at home. I do not use a Goo account for anything other than getting stuff installed from their 'store' to mobile devices.

You do and certainly have been for decades with your credit/debit card. The card is serialized and that card number is tied to you. Same with the stuff you’re installing from Goo….
It is your line to draw and drawing the line at Microsoft is fine. I simply feel MS is currently one of the better players when it comes to privacy. Mind you this isn’t saying MS is perfect, it’s just saying revenue from advertising or data collection is on the small side for Microsoft.

 

[Zoozuu]

even though you think your just dipping your toe in you actually already took a bath and a shower while ms goog ect was watching. (*had to make it sound funny)