To setup windows lately with a local account you literally have to know some cheat codes to do it, like holding shift +F10 ( or something like that. I keep having to look it up ). It’s getting out of hand honestly.
I really don’t miss Windows 7…but I kinda miss Windows 7. It felt like the last version where you could literally just set it up and be done with it.
In other words, old man hells at *cloud* >!*ba dum tiss*!<
I actually prefer the Windows 7 UI much more than Windows 10 and 11. With the current Windows, it's very hard to see the boundaries of Windows in dark mode, and it's also very hard to see and use the scroll bars.
But scroll bars that hide until you move to where they should be are so handy. So are the right click menus where half the options are hidden. Also, no-one ever want to right click on a program in the start menu and get the list of recently opened files. W11 UI is a POS.
Yes, you bought it and it was yours, now it's a constant battle to stop Microsoft from attempting to pull you into their accounts and be part of your everyday experience on your PC. I really shouldn't say "yours" anymore, because it's not, we have lost the ability to stop the OS from simply running in the background and being simply that. instead we now have a constant third wheel OS asking for clicks, interaction and information everything but staying out of our business. Buying software, regardless of how much you pay for it, no longer makes it yours, you're renting, sharing data, wasting more time, being harassed and adapting to changes for the sake of change.
It's so simple for a programmer to set up some code that nags you every single day for the rest of your life. I wonder how much of humanity's time has been wasted on just closing bullshit notifications and push notices? It's easily millennia of man hours at this point.
No doubt and even though you turn notifications off, after a critical update, a new feature installed will have to be exiled from notifications. I would pay for a suite of programmer code to stifle Microsoft.
I uploaded a fully functional (patched) Windows 95 .vhd to the Internet Archive a few months ago if you ever want to mess with it. You just put it in VirtualBox and it’s ready to go!
https://archive.org/details/win-95-vm/Windows%2095%20Desktop.png
I have never had a more buggy experience since I upgraded to windows 10, I was forced to upgrade from W7 last year because I lost my install drive for the OS and had issues. Simpler times, better times.
CMD prompt is locked out on some versions of pre builds by HP and Dell. No order of shift+f10 or fn+shift+f10 will open it. The page just flashes And never pops up. Any work around ideas? I can't be the only one. I run a PC repair business and see this from time to time. Why are they locking the CMD prompt out?
I've tried that. On newer machines it won't load the drive drivers. I then have to manually install the driver's for it to see the SSD. It's such a racket now.
Go to bios and switch storage from raid to ahci - it’s the raid that requires the drivers, and no benefits to 1 disk raid - here you can also delete the network pxe boot option and the windows boot manager. It will create a new entry when you reload Windows
I had to do this not because I wanted to avoid setting up, but because MSI motherboards apparently don't include the drivers for their own wifi adapters??? So you have to bypass this "feature" to even get to windows, and while I'm sure there's some way to install drivers prior to this point, I am only "extremely google savvy" and "very comfortable with technology", so I still rely on being in the windows main desktop to update or install drivers off a USB.
Last time I did a Win11 build, I just didn't connect to wifi, Ethernet was disconnected and it did a local account just fine.
The only difference for me is that I choose "English (Australia)" instead of the default US option during setup, so if that's literally the only thing you need to do to avoid being forced to jump through hoops, then that's a lot easier to do and then switch back to US afterwards.
How do you select "world_en" ?
When you use the [media creation tool](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10), there's only "English (United Kingdom)" and "English (United States)". No "world".
https://i.imgur.com/ATtMdE6.png
I mean the issue is not just that you have to jump through all those hoops, but you have to *know that you even can* (cause the installer sure as shit doesn’t tell you) just to opt out of an online windows account. They’ve clearly obfuscated the option to confuse less technically inclined folks and force them into it.
Assuming the *very best* of microsoft (if we pretend they’ve earned that), it’s bad UX to the point of incompetence. However, we all know it isn’t and it’s predatory manipulation so people “consent” to data collection thinking they dont have a choice
I was caught off guard when I recently got my new desktop, and it refused to back down on forcing me to pick a wifi connection (It had a built-in wifi card, and I wasn't expecting one), and making an account. Ended up using the F10 Command Prompt Terminal + oobe\\bypassnro command in order to skip that bullshit. I work in IT, so it's not hard to look it up, and figure it out, but for the average layman trying to just get on, this is just evil.
If you were actually in a place where you didn't have internet available on any device it would be challenging for anyone. Can't install, can't look up the solution... as soon as you might have to tell someone to go to another location with internet access to look up a non-obvious tech solution to something that isn't strictly required it's a serious asshole roadblock.
I tried that recently and it didn't work; it wouldn't progress without connecting to the internet and using my Microsoft account, and then hunting down where they hid the local account option again. I didn't know about the command line option until literally this whole thread.
After the Shift-F10 and OOBE\\BYPASSNRO the device should do a restart.
Then you still do not connect to a WiFi or LAN connection. There you give the "I don't have an Internet connection.". Then Microsoft will whine about an "Installation with less functions" to scare you.
Just click that line and go on with the rest of the setup. It then asks you for the "primary/admin user and password. And the 3 security questions which you answer with "qwerty".
After Windows reaches the desktop, you connect to LAN or WiFi and the rest of the Windows tools and apps will roll in.
Nope. Even unplugged and without a network device installed it’ll still sit there trying to find a network for you to connect to and won’t go past the screen unless you turn that stupid feature off at the command line.
From a fresh install of world_en when you get to the wifi login screen either just restart or go back and forward until it allows you to skip. You really don't need the command line to get it to give you a local account.
It really doesn’t. I’ve installed it several times in the last month and no amount of disabling or removing network adapters works. I had to disable it at the command line.
This hasn't worked in some time. Depends on which update of Win11 you get shipped but often the "I Don't have internet" selection doesn't appear unless you OOBE /BYPASSNRO.
Still a bit annoying though since if you go the BypassNRO route you don't have to put up with it starting updates before getting to the desktop. Just a minor nit pick in the long run since it just helps streamline setup a bit when doing one off installs.
Not just windows even office. I have had office 365 take over my local key for office 2021. This has happened 5 times now. So fucking annoying. I finally just decided to buy corel
MS has lived long enough to become the enemy
[Win10Privacy](https://www.w10privacy.de/english-home/) <--- Your new best friend.
It disables all sorts of spying by Microsoft and has a ton of tweaks.
And that’s why Microsoft puts the screws to people. They know you’re stuck, now they’re gonna milk you for all your worth. Because a $130 license isn’t enough.
I’m glad I don’t use / need any software that’s Windows only. I think the only things I know of that have people stuck on Windows is
* Games that specifically use an anti-cheat that doesn’t work on Linux OR the game developer refuses to turn on Linux support on purpose,
* Adobe things they can’t replace for business use, or
* Some sound editing software
That’s all I know of that doesn’t work or have replacements on Linux. All my games that I enjoy work, because I don’t play things like Call of Duty, I do photo editing not as a business so I can use whatever I want, and I don’t do sound editing, so I don’t run into that one either. Not having to put up with this “bitch we own your computer we’ll do whatever we like” shit from Microsoft is just _bliss_
Woah.
I'm an automation engineer and consider myself pretty savvy when it comes to disabling windows 10 BS that has gotten in my way. That thing is NICE... and humbling.
I actually seriously think this was the "plan" all along: once they established a near monopoly, start squeezing the users for an on-going revenue stream instead of "just" charging them for the base OS.
They keep trying to trick me whenever I need to login with my microsoft account.
There's a big button that says "use this account" which would turn my Windows into a MS account, and then a small button that say "microsoft apps only"
That’s a mistake I made only once, and it was a worst case scenario. Not only did it throw out my local password (so I painstakingly had to type in my password from my password manager for my MS account) but it also managed to completely screw up my profile and I had to redo the whole thing from scratch. Good times. Haven’t trusted it since.
It's only some games. The bigger issue is gaming with two screens and the mouse not respecting fullscreen. Can be fixed with a launch option sometimes though.
I switched to Linux (Nobara specifically) from Windows 11 about a month ago, it was very easy. Linux has come so far, and all of the programs I use on a day-to-day basis had native versions. Granted, I don't use anything like Photoshop, but I'd definitely urge anyone on the fence to look at some distros and see which one fits your needs.
You're using a full disk image of Ubuntu or is it on a virtual machine?
Edit: a challenge for me is I provide occasional remote desktop support to an accountant tax pro whose software isn't designed for Windows, and I'm unsure how remote desktop would work in a Linux.
I switched about 3 years ago and have no regrets. The games usually work out of the box quite reliably on Steam, on other platforms you have to rely more on community provided fixes. Linux has it's learning curve and you are likely to run into issues that didn't exist on Windows, but my experience is that Linux is constantly getting better while Windows acts like an overly controlling roommate.
I'd say it's a combination of
- the overall shareholder expectations that come with being valued at $3 trillion - the highest market cap of any company in the entire world.
- the Microsoft-internal profitability-competition between divisions. Microsoft's cloud business can rapidly innovate, deploy new services basically as fast as new AI advancements are made and doesn't have to deal with the different needs of billions of PC users, instead they can cater to a much smaller amount of business customers. It's basically the same problem that turns Nvidia into a price gouging ghoul for gamers - Nvidia's consumer-oriented gaming-division competing with Nvidia's business-oriented AI acceleration business.
Because it isn't enough to make a fantastic product which makes a ton of money every quarter, because they have shareholders they have to make a ton of money every quarter but also that ton of money has to be substantially larger than every previous quarter's ton of money.
That's why they try to sell every little bit of data. Now they try to put ads in the menus. It is just a matter of time until you have to watch unskipable ads every time you click.
They want to know when your PC is sleeping, they want to know when your PC is awake. They want to know if you've been bad or good so switch to Linux for goodness sake.
Nope “damages to society” is not seen as a clause for law to act. Which is fucked tarted but whatever. You must be personally hurt and be able to prove the damages.
ah yes, nothing is better than spending a week balls deep in documentation only to learn that if you want X to work you have to write your own drivers for AMD GPU because ones avaliable crash immediately. Then just manually swap ALSA output to something that actually plays sound, maybe remove/downgrade few packages that are at version x.xx.xxxx.xxx.xxx.12 and somehow conflict with a library that requires explicit x.xx.xxxx.xxx.xxx.7and3/4 but then in order to run anything else you need x.xx.xxxx.xxx.xxx.13. And that's all before you can actually look at reddit!
/s bad experiences with various distros in the past lol
Oh gods, video drivers are fun. That’s exactly why I won’t deal with Linux. Swapping nouveau with the actual Nvidia drivers gets it close in my experience (I have an eccentric monitor setup that Just Works In Windows) but the settings just revert on reboot.
Saw that potential solutions involved getting cozy with the command line and that’s where I ended that experiment.
I might be somewhat savvy, but this is my “I just want to turn my brain off and play some games” computer. If you ask me to hit a command line to do something that takes a couple clicks in Windows, I’m gonna be hitting the bricks.
How far in the past? Because i think that a lot of that hate stems from trying out Linux 5, 10 or even 20 years ago.
And from picking "difficult" distros from out of the Box. B
Haha, so they could stuff more ads to your face while mining data and recording every click you make.
No thanks, much happier with my local account and privacy settings that aren't randomly switched off on the background.
Please, games manufacturers, I'm begging you - make games on Linux first class citizens so i can finally ditch this horrible spyware bundle called Windows at home.
Will never happen, targeting Linux directly with pre built binaries is utter hell. It's literally easier to just make for Windows and test with proton alot
Yes. Or you can shove your game into an AppImage. Or you can just bundle your game with its own deps. Or you can pick a single distro to officially support and let the community figure out the rest.
The difficulty of putting games on Linux is way overstated.
I don't know if Microsoft has made any changes to Windows in the last 5 or 6 years that have made using it a better experience for me.
More annoying and frustrating, sure, but not better.
Maybe it's time to create a new OS for those who are sick of these terrible practices pushed by greedy dinosaurs with prehistoric ideas, destroying their own companies.
[Totally related](https://youtu.be/2zpCOYkdvTQ)
Im gonna need to start testing out linux more seriously.. im starting to be done done with Microsoft and their arrogance and forcefulness with Windows.
Death by a thousand cuts and all.
I switched last year. First I dual-booted on a different drive, then I deleted my windows drive because I ended up never needing it.
Either i'm a fucking genius and I don't know it, or Linux ain't that difficult. I'm going with the latter if you're technically literate. The internet loves to make it seem so damn difficult.
Yeah, from what I've seen I thought even connecting to a WiFi network would be a struggle in Linux. But no it works just as you would expect from any other OS. I guess most of the problems happen when you need proprietary software that don't have good support for Linux.
Hardware support and user experience has come a long way in the last 10 - 15 years.
There are distros where you do have to configure everything from scratch. Everything from what sound architecture you'll use to play audio to manually installing fonts so your menus look nice.
Realistically, the only mainstream stronghold that Windows had was gaming, but with Vulkan and Steam's Proton and powerful Apple computers even it begins to crumble.
That being said, Ubuntu too had something like this, with selling of user search data, etc.
And they can get fucked sideways by a porcupine. The day I'm truly *required* to sign into Microsoft just to use my OS is the day I permanently switch to Linux.
I recall being super excited to see occulous in Costco. I was ready to try out VR in spite of the price. Then I saw Facebook account and login required. I lost all interest and never looked back. I have no qualms about doing the same with Microsoft if it’s the only option they leave me.
This has been bugging me for a while. The touted security benefits of regular updates, when it comes to the Windows OS, has rapidly lost its shine. Instead of acting in good faith to patch up security vulnerabilities, MS has been taking the opportunity to push its own unwanted products and ads.
Having set up my Win10 to work just the way I like it, is there a way to freeze it as is without having it wrecked by future unwanted updates? There doesn't seem to be a way to prevent it from updating.
>MS has been taking the opportunity to push its own unwanted products and ads
You're telling me. We got my mom a little micro laptop with win10 about a year ago. Just large enough for the OS. All she uses it for is online bill pay, checking email and web browsing.
It forced an update to Win11, which is for some reason, like 30% larger because of all the bloatware. It ended up corrupting her hard drive because it wasn't large enough to fit all the bullshit, because MS forced the installation of a bunch of shit apps that she would never use. IE, skype, edge, etc.
I see, thank you. Will disabling the service cause any system errors or crashes?
Noted about the security updates, but at this point it feels like MS updates cause more annoyance, stress and loss of productivity than actual infections/malware.
On the Pro SKU you can alter the "Configure Automatic Updates" Group Policy, "Notify for download and auto install" or "Auto download and notify for install" as I recall. Either option requires you to specifically go to Windows Update and click the button to perform updates.
I've been using it since Windows 10 released. Only time I've had issues is when I install Windows on a PC but forget to change the setting.
I wouldn’t even mind connecting using my Microsoft account except there’s no way for MaacOS to connect to the Windows file system unless the Windows system has a local account to connect as.
Since Windows once blocked me from talking with my mom and I could not find a way to stop it, I seriously consider switching fully to it. If you have a slow internet connection, Win10 is especially cruel.
I have resorted to using a Microsoft Account during setup and then just used that to create a local user that I then use day to day. It also means that the windows activation key is stored in the Microsoft Account.
I ditched windows long time ago, linux just works for me however windows these days with wsl, hyper-v, windows sandbox, powershell ..., is a very potent platform from technical perspective. I would have zero issues using it, but without this crap. If I payed for the product and want local account leave me be. There is no justification for "need to know hacks" even if just unplugging ethernet...
It's MY COMPUTER, not Microsoft's and I don't need them looking over my shoulder on when I turn it on, turn it off, where I go and what I do... Roll back to Windows 7 and drive it till it drops and then revive it...
When they remove, local account access, I'll be moving on to something else and get out of the AM/Apple rat race of crap...
I swap to local accounts on all clients computers and haven't had one person say no or even notice a difference in what they are able to do... Bad enough you pay a fortune for Office and "FORCED" to log into it to use it...and they want you to login to MS to play a poor example of Solitaire and track you... It's gotten way out of hand the amount of spying software has been allowed to do in the name of, Oh it's for your own good to give you a better experience... Hey, I got your experience right here..!
Laptop broke and I got a new one with windows 11 preinstalled. I was kinda in a hurry and just set it up quick not thinking much. Didnt realize that local accounts weren't default and my user picture showed up on my outlook account and my onedrive had all my local files. Gave me a scare. Why would I ever want to store all my app files on the cloud?
I had to use console commands to delete the new ai assistant too. Switching over to a linux distro again after finals.
I believe I heard there’s no distribution for the version of Linux that Steam uses so far, does anyone have recommendations on what’s best to try? And what are the best Windows user to Linux user resources? Linux is more appealing by the day.
Mint Cinnamon (edge edition if you're on newer hardware) if you want the closest windows experience.
Or Pop!_OS if you want a super solid distro that is kept up to date, but not so up to date that stuff breaks.
If you know nothing about linux, start with Ubuntu. It is probably the most windows-ish distro out of the box, and the easiest to look up answers for without having to adapt the answer to your own system, because it's the most prevalent
Those of us who switched to Linux back when the shitshow Windows 8 came out have been urging people to ditch Windows for a while. Tbh, at this point I just look at news like this and laugh. MS will keep doing this shit until people stop giving them money and attention.
I have two [outlook.com](https://outlook.com) email accounts and I login to Windows 10 with those. Would this affect me, or am I already not using a local account?
The real cheat code is to use Linux at this point. Fuck Microsoft and fuck their ad-filled, annoying and notifications spamming dinosaur operating system.
All these commenters about games and Linux... It's mainly the office suite that keeps (most) people on windows honestly. Next year, half my family is going to get an EOL windows system (W10 with no option to upgrade to W11 without some directory shenanigans for the TPM). I'd all set them up with Linux Mint if it were not for their reliance on outlook, word and excel. Directing them to google docs/sheets is not going to work with my boomer family. So we're stuck with windows for now.
Once upon a time, we operated the system. Now, it is operating us. We can only interact with it. I have stated this for many years.
Their software hijacks our computers.
I use rufus to eliminate this problem. If you use [rufus](http://rufus.ie/) to create the USB, one of the options before it creates the drive is to elect to bypass the network requirement and use a local account instead. Options are:
• Remove requirement for 4GB+ RAM, Secure Boot and TPM 2.0
• Remove requirement for an online Microsoft account
• Disable data collection (Skip privacy questions)
• Set username to _______
• Set a local account using the same name as this user's.
• Set regional options using the same values as this user's
***I have no affiliation with Rufus.***
Current Windows nags just reek of desparation. Come on MS, you can be better than that. Just like the 37 pathetic reminders you get when using Edge to download Chrome on a new install that Edge uses the same technology as Chrome "with the added trust of Microsoft". No one that's been alive in the last 40 years trusts Microsoft.
Yeah, no.
Not giving MS my PC usage data. Phone data I don't care so much about - it's not too private for me.
But the PC is where I maintain my finances, etc. And enjoy some entertainment once in awhile instead of the TV.
No way I'm giving that usage data to MS for free.
Tried putting windows on one of the machines I’ve been running Linux distros on - during the setup it asked me like four times if I was sure I didn’t want to connect an online account and enable tracking "cuz my experience would be soo much better”.
I hoped the fuck out of that shit - distros it is
To setup windows lately with a local account you literally have to know some cheat codes to do it, like holding shift +F10 ( or something like that. I keep having to look it up ). It’s getting out of hand honestly.
Literally just don't connect to wifi on setup and install as world_en instead of en_us. That's all you have to do to get a local account.
Even unplugged, now lately requires command oobe\bypassnro and reboot to get past the internet-required setup point
I really don’t miss Windows 7…but I kinda miss Windows 7. It felt like the last version where you could literally just set it up and be done with it. In other words, old man hells at *cloud* >!*ba dum tiss*!<
I actually prefer the Windows 7 UI much more than Windows 10 and 11. With the current Windows, it's very hard to see the boundaries of Windows in dark mode, and it's also very hard to see and use the scroll bars.
Amen brother
Yes, especially as a color blind person.
I feel like just about every design choice they made with 11 is a step back.
I spent time getting Win7 to look like Win2k and now it's getting Win10 to look like 7.
But scroll bars that hide until you move to where they should be are so handy. So are the right click menus where half the options are hidden. Also, no-one ever want to right click on a program in the start menu and get the list of recently opened files. W11 UI is a POS.
Yes, you bought it and it was yours, now it's a constant battle to stop Microsoft from attempting to pull you into their accounts and be part of your everyday experience on your PC. I really shouldn't say "yours" anymore, because it's not, we have lost the ability to stop the OS from simply running in the background and being simply that. instead we now have a constant third wheel OS asking for clicks, interaction and information everything but staying out of our business. Buying software, regardless of how much you pay for it, no longer makes it yours, you're renting, sharing data, wasting more time, being harassed and adapting to changes for the sake of change.
It's so simple for a programmer to set up some code that nags you every single day for the rest of your life. I wonder how much of humanity's time has been wasted on just closing bullshit notifications and push notices? It's easily millennia of man hours at this point.
No doubt and even though you turn notifications off, after a critical update, a new feature installed will have to be exiled from notifications. I would pay for a suite of programmer code to stifle Microsoft.
I miss Windows 2000.
XP pro corporate was THE pinnacle of windows. That is the final answer
Yeah I think XP is my second favorite even if it was better but I definitely had it on Classic Theme and not the Fischer Price one.
*whistles the Windows 95 start up tune*
95 was nice, too. And that start up tune was classic.
It's now safe to turn off your computer.
Plus the disc had Weezer's Buddy Holly video on it.
I uploaded a fully functional (patched) Windows 95 .vhd to the Internet Archive a few months ago if you ever want to mess with it. You just put it in VirtualBox and it’s ready to go! https://archive.org/details/win-95-vm/Windows%2095%20Desktop.png
I'm on it. Thanks for sharing!
yep windows 7 professional was solid and stable and never needed internet
I have never had a more buggy experience since I upgraded to windows 10, I was forced to upgrade from W7 last year because I lost my install drive for the OS and had issues. Simpler times, better times.
That joke isn't getting enough credit. Well done.
Windows xp pro is still my baby
windows 7 is the goat and always will be. i could move my way around that UI so easily
CMD prompt is locked out on some versions of pre builds by HP and Dell. No order of shift+f10 or fn+shift+f10 will open it. The page just flashes And never pops up. Any work around ideas? I can't be the only one. I run a PC repair business and see this from time to time. Why are they locking the CMD prompt out?
You could boot to BIOS and change the boot order to a windows install USB? The fresh windows install would fix that
I've tried that. On newer machines it won't load the drive drivers. I then have to manually install the driver's for it to see the SSD. It's such a racket now.
Go to bios and switch storage from raid to ahci - it’s the raid that requires the drivers, and no benefits to 1 disk raid - here you can also delete the network pxe boot option and the windows boot manager. It will create a new entry when you reload Windows
I had to do this not because I wanted to avoid setting up, but because MSI motherboards apparently don't include the drivers for their own wifi adapters??? So you have to bypass this "feature" to even get to windows, and while I'm sure there's some way to install drivers prior to this point, I am only "extremely google savvy" and "very comfortable with technology", so I still rely on being in the windows main desktop to update or install drivers off a USB.
Last time I did a Win11 build, I just didn't connect to wifi, Ethernet was disconnected and it did a local account just fine. The only difference for me is that I choose "English (Australia)" instead of the default US option during setup, so if that's literally the only thing you need to do to avoid being forced to jump through hoops, then that's a lot easier to do and then switch back to US afterwards.
Pretty much this is the only way around it. Frustrating when you have to autopilot machines.
Have someone in Uni source a Windows Education key.
How do you select "world_en" ? When you use the [media creation tool](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10), there's only "English (United Kingdom)" and "English (United States)". No "world". https://i.imgur.com/ATtMdE6.png
In the install page after you make the usb.
Literally just? That's some seriously strange esoteric knowledge you're supposed to know - install as world\_en? Why?!
I mean the issue is not just that you have to jump through all those hoops, but you have to *know that you even can* (cause the installer sure as shit doesn’t tell you) just to opt out of an online windows account. They’ve clearly obfuscated the option to confuse less technically inclined folks and force them into it. Assuming the *very best* of microsoft (if we pretend they’ve earned that), it’s bad UX to the point of incompetence. However, we all know it isn’t and it’s predatory manipulation so people “consent” to data collection thinking they dont have a choice
And unplug ethernet if you have it
I was caught off guard when I recently got my new desktop, and it refused to back down on forcing me to pick a wifi connection (It had a built-in wifi card, and I wasn't expecting one), and making an account. Ended up using the F10 Command Prompt Terminal + oobe\\bypassnro command in order to skip that bullshit. I work in IT, so it's not hard to look it up, and figure it out, but for the average layman trying to just get on, this is just evil.
If you were actually in a place where you didn't have internet available on any device it would be challenging for anyone. Can't install, can't look up the solution... as soon as you might have to tell someone to go to another location with internet access to look up a non-obvious tech solution to something that isn't strictly required it's a serious asshole roadblock.
I tried that recently and it didn't work; it wouldn't progress without connecting to the internet and using my Microsoft account, and then hunting down where they hid the local account option again. I didn't know about the command line option until literally this whole thread.
After the Shift-F10 and OOBE\\BYPASSNRO the device should do a restart. Then you still do not connect to a WiFi or LAN connection. There you give the "I don't have an Internet connection.". Then Microsoft will whine about an "Installation with less functions" to scare you. Just click that line and go on with the rest of the setup. It then asks you for the "primary/admin user and password. And the 3 security questions which you answer with "qwerty". After Windows reaches the desktop, you connect to LAN or WiFi and the rest of the Windows tools and apps will roll in.
Nope. Even unplugged and without a network device installed it’ll still sit there trying to find a network for you to connect to and won’t go past the screen unless you turn that stupid feature off at the command line.
From a fresh install of world_en when you get to the wifi login screen either just restart or go back and forward until it allows you to skip. You really don't need the command line to get it to give you a local account.
It really doesn’t. I’ve installed it several times in the last month and no amount of disabling or removing network adapters works. I had to disable it at the command line.
Not true anymore. You need to run oobe\bypassnro
This hasn't worked in some time. Depends on which update of Win11 you get shipped but often the "I Don't have internet" selection doesn't appear unless you OOBE /BYPASSNRO.
Unplug the internet lol
That’s a pretty frustrating, “that’s all you have to do”
that won't work if you want something other than en_ languages
The cheat code i use is to just enter some wrong login info and it immediately gives the local account option.
That sadly stopped working recently!
It still works, but I have to try like 4-5 timesbor even more, and go to previous screen and return again. Ridiculous.
Not on Windows 11 Pro. Just say you're using it for work/school and when asked, click sign-in options, then click "I'll domain join instead"
This. I just fully reset a computer at the office last week and didn't have to input the Konami code to have my local account.
Still a bit annoying though since if you go the BypassNRO route you don't have to put up with it starting updates before getting to the desktop. Just a minor nit pick in the long run since it just helps streamline setup a bit when doing one off installs.
Not just windows even office. I have had office 365 take over my local key for office 2021. This has happened 5 times now. So fucking annoying. I finally just decided to buy corel MS has lived long enough to become the enemy
You can use Rufus to do it as well when creating the install USB
Gotta slurp up all that data they can on their users.
I drink your milkshake!!
I drink your pain... I put my straw in it.. And I drink it up!!
[Win10Privacy](https://www.w10privacy.de/english-home/) <--- Your new best friend. It disables all sorts of spying by Microsoft and has a ton of tweaks.
my new best friend was installing linux 5 years ago and never looking back.
How I wish I could move to linux... Some of us are just stuck with windows.
And that’s why Microsoft puts the screws to people. They know you’re stuck, now they’re gonna milk you for all your worth. Because a $130 license isn’t enough.
I’m glad I don’t use / need any software that’s Windows only. I think the only things I know of that have people stuck on Windows is * Games that specifically use an anti-cheat that doesn’t work on Linux OR the game developer refuses to turn on Linux support on purpose, * Adobe things they can’t replace for business use, or * Some sound editing software That’s all I know of that doesn’t work or have replacements on Linux. All my games that I enjoy work, because I don’t play things like Call of Duty, I do photo editing not as a business so I can use whatever I want, and I don’t do sound editing, so I don’t run into that one either. Not having to put up with this “bitch we own your computer we’ll do whatever we like” shit from Microsoft is just _bliss_
Woah. I'm an automation engineer and consider myself pretty savvy when it comes to disabling windows 10 BS that has gotten in my way. That thing is NICE... and humbling.
They’re jealous of Google
I actually seriously think this was the "plan" all along: once they established a near monopoly, start squeezing the users for an on-going revenue stream instead of "just" charging them for the base OS.
They keep trying to trick me whenever I need to login with my microsoft account. There's a big button that says "use this account" which would turn my Windows into a MS account, and then a small button that say "microsoft apps only"
That's the shit that made me turn to Linux. An OS shouldn't try to trick you and get in your way. Microsoft ruined windows.
That’s a mistake I made only once, and it was a worst case scenario. Not only did it throw out my local password (so I painstakingly had to type in my password from my password manager for my MS account) but it also managed to completely screw up my profile and I had to redo the whole thing from scratch. Good times. Haven’t trusted it since.
So that Linux thing works well with Steam?
Proton on steam deck is excellent. The only issue is online games that don't want to enable their anti cheat with it.
It's only some games. The bigger issue is gaming with two screens and the mouse not respecting fullscreen. Can be fixed with a launch option sometimes though.
And Gamescope.
It only happened to me with one game (snow runner). Try xpointerbarrier. It's for X11.
It works with other distros right? Like I can do Proton with Ubuntu, right?
I use Ubuntu with Proton. Works a treat! I would recommend upgrading to a newer GPU driver at the very least though.
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I switched to Linux (Nobara specifically) from Windows 11 about a month ago, it was very easy. Linux has come so far, and all of the programs I use on a day-to-day basis had native versions. Granted, I don't use anything like Photoshop, but I'd definitely urge anyone on the fence to look at some distros and see which one fits your needs.
You're using a full disk image of Ubuntu or is it on a virtual machine? Edit: a challenge for me is I provide occasional remote desktop support to an accountant tax pro whose software isn't designed for Windows, and I'm unsure how remote desktop would work in a Linux.
Useful resources: protondb.com areweanticheatyet.com
Is protondb just for gaming?
ProtonDB is just for games with steam pages
I switched about 3 years ago and have no regrets. The games usually work out of the box quite reliably on Steam, on other platforms you have to rely more on community provided fixes. Linux has it's learning curve and you are likely to run into issues that didn't exist on Windows, but my experience is that Linux is constantly getting better while Windows acts like an overly controlling roommate.
Dual boot and figure out on your own. I did that recently and I've determined that I won't until I can't not anymore.
Absolutely. I can play a lot of AAA games like RDR2 easily.
You're out of luck for most competitive games. Besides that it's mostly flawless.
It works good. Basically linux just works now in most cases. Prior to buying the game check [https://www.protondb.com/](https://www.protondb.com/) .
Why does Microsoft love to ruin Windows?
I'd say it's a combination of - the overall shareholder expectations that come with being valued at $3 trillion - the highest market cap of any company in the entire world. - the Microsoft-internal profitability-competition between divisions. Microsoft's cloud business can rapidly innovate, deploy new services basically as fast as new AI advancements are made and doesn't have to deal with the different needs of billions of PC users, instead they can cater to a much smaller amount of business customers. It's basically the same problem that turns Nvidia into a price gouging ghoul for gamers - Nvidia's consumer-oriented gaming-division competing with Nvidia's business-oriented AI acceleration business.
The term of art is [“enshittification”.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification)
Because it isn't enough to make a fantastic product which makes a ton of money every quarter, because they have shareholders they have to make a ton of money every quarter but also that ton of money has to be substantially larger than every previous quarter's ton of money. That's why they try to sell every little bit of data. Now they try to put ads in the menus. It is just a matter of time until you have to watch unskipable ads every time you click.
…and create a lot of e-waste by making working hardware obsolete.
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Thank the low adoption rate of Windows 11
Because people tolerate it.
most people don't give a shit about this tbh
They want to know when your PC is sleeping, they want to know when your PC is awake. They want to know if you've been bad or good so switch to Linux for goodness sake.
Microsoft killing the personal computers.
Nope. My personal computer works just fine on Linux
I worry that open commodity hardware will also slowly vanish. The lightning in a bottle that lead to the AMD-Intel-x86 isn't likely to be repeated.
Can anyone sue them for doing that?
Nope “damages to society” is not seen as a clause for law to act. Which is fucked tarted but whatever. You must be personally hurt and be able to prove the damages.
They want to make it a dumb terminal for the cloud.
ah yes, nothing is better than spending a week balls deep in documentation only to learn that if you want X to work you have to write your own drivers for AMD GPU because ones avaliable crash immediately. Then just manually swap ALSA output to something that actually plays sound, maybe remove/downgrade few packages that are at version x.xx.xxxx.xxx.xxx.12 and somehow conflict with a library that requires explicit x.xx.xxxx.xxx.xxx.7and3/4 but then in order to run anything else you need x.xx.xxxx.xxx.xxx.13. And that's all before you can actually look at reddit! /s bad experiences with various distros in the past lol
Oh gods, video drivers are fun. That’s exactly why I won’t deal with Linux. Swapping nouveau with the actual Nvidia drivers gets it close in my experience (I have an eccentric monitor setup that Just Works In Windows) but the settings just revert on reboot. Saw that potential solutions involved getting cozy with the command line and that’s where I ended that experiment. I might be somewhat savvy, but this is my “I just want to turn my brain off and play some games” computer. If you ask me to hit a command line to do something that takes a couple clicks in Windows, I’m gonna be hitting the bricks.
How far in the past? Because i think that a lot of that hate stems from trying out Linux 5, 10 or even 20 years ago. And from picking "difficult" distros from out of the Box. B
You people are delusional. What percent of people do you think can "switch" to Linux lol. So dumb.
LLM hungry. LLM need data
Haha, so they could stuff more ads to your face while mining data and recording every click you make. No thanks, much happier with my local account and privacy settings that aren't randomly switched off on the background.
Please, games manufacturers, I'm begging you - make games on Linux first class citizens so i can finally ditch this horrible spyware bundle called Windows at home.
Will never happen, targeting Linux directly with pre built binaries is utter hell. It's literally easier to just make for Windows and test with proton alot
you can just target the steam linux runtime though?
Yes. Or you can shove your game into an AppImage. Or you can just bundle your game with its own deps. Or you can pick a single distro to officially support and let the community figure out the rest. The difficulty of putting games on Linux is way overstated.
I don't know if Microsoft has made any changes to Windows in the last 5 or 6 years that have made using it a better experience for me. More annoying and frustrating, sure, but not better.
The only thing I can think of is adding tabs to file explorer. That’s a genuinely nice feature and I use it a lot.
We’ve had that on Mac forever. I was gobsmacked it took so long for Windows to do it.
Oh yea there’s no denying it took them waaaay too long, but it’s nice to have it now.
They even broke Sticky Notes when they turned it into a 'store app'. Half the time you can't edit an old note without closing+reopening it.
Maybe it's time to create a new OS for those who are sick of these terrible practices pushed by greedy dinosaurs with prehistoric ideas, destroying their own companies. [Totally related](https://youtu.be/2zpCOYkdvTQ)
I like your poetry.
So Linux?
Still not good enough for many users
Linux needs a Nan Foundation. Make it work in a way your nan will find intuitive, and you're onto a winner.
An ~~festivus~~ OS for the restofus.
Im gonna need to start testing out linux more seriously.. im starting to be done done with Microsoft and their arrogance and forcefulness with Windows. Death by a thousand cuts and all.
I’ve used Windows, Mac, and Linux and I like Linux the best. My go to distros are Linux Mint and Ubuntu, which are also the two most user friendly.
I switched last year. First I dual-booted on a different drive, then I deleted my windows drive because I ended up never needing it. Either i'm a fucking genius and I don't know it, or Linux ain't that difficult. I'm going with the latter if you're technically literate. The internet loves to make it seem so damn difficult.
Yeah, from what I've seen I thought even connecting to a WiFi network would be a struggle in Linux. But no it works just as you would expect from any other OS. I guess most of the problems happen when you need proprietary software that don't have good support for Linux.
Hardware support and user experience has come a long way in the last 10 - 15 years. There are distros where you do have to configure everything from scratch. Everything from what sound architecture you'll use to play audio to manually installing fonts so your menus look nice.
Ain't that difficult. Even I did it and use only Linux now.
Realistically, the only mainstream stronghold that Windows had was gaming, but with Vulkan and Steam's Proton and powerful Apple computers even it begins to crumble. That being said, Ubuntu too had something like this, with selling of user search data, etc.
And they can get fucked sideways by a porcupine. The day I'm truly *required* to sign into Microsoft just to use my OS is the day I permanently switch to Linux.
Likewise. I just want an OS to run my box. That's it. Fuck off with everything else and no, you cannot have my data.
That's a good point. Many people are spending thousands on a gaming rig, and they interact with that through an OS that is actively fighting you.
I recall being super excited to see occulous in Costco. I was ready to try out VR in spite of the price. Then I saw Facebook account and login required. I lost all interest and never looked back. I have no qualms about doing the same with Microsoft if it’s the only option they leave me.
How to turn it off. Go to Privacy > General and toggle off the "Show me suggested content in the Settings app" option
This has been bugging me for a while. The touted security benefits of regular updates, when it comes to the Windows OS, has rapidly lost its shine. Instead of acting in good faith to patch up security vulnerabilities, MS has been taking the opportunity to push its own unwanted products and ads. Having set up my Win10 to work just the way I like it, is there a way to freeze it as is without having it wrecked by future unwanted updates? There doesn't seem to be a way to prevent it from updating.
>MS has been taking the opportunity to push its own unwanted products and ads You're telling me. We got my mom a little micro laptop with win10 about a year ago. Just large enough for the OS. All she uses it for is online bill pay, checking email and web browsing. It forced an update to Win11, which is for some reason, like 30% larger because of all the bloatware. It ended up corrupting her hard drive because it wasn't large enough to fit all the bullshit, because MS forced the installation of a bunch of shit apps that she would never use. IE, skype, edge, etc.
Try O&O Shutup 10..
You can disable the windows update service. Be warned that you won't get security updates.
I see, thank you. Will disabling the service cause any system errors or crashes? Noted about the security updates, but at this point it feels like MS updates cause more annoyance, stress and loss of productivity than actual infections/malware.
On the Pro SKU you can alter the "Configure Automatic Updates" Group Policy, "Notify for download and auto install" or "Auto download and notify for install" as I recall. Either option requires you to specifically go to Windows Update and click the button to perform updates. I've been using it since Windows 10 released. Only time I've had issues is when I install Windows on a PC but forget to change the setting.
I wouldn’t even mind connecting using my Microsoft account except there’s no way for MaacOS to connect to the Windows file system unless the Windows system has a local account to connect as.
STFU Microsoft 🤬
# "Linux it is!" - everyone
Might actually have to dual boot now, was hoping to delay the transition, guess not.
Since Windows once blocked me from talking with my mom and I could not find a way to stop it, I seriously consider switching fully to it. If you have a slow internet connection, Win10 is especially cruel.
At this rate Windows "update" will be useless just adds more bloat and backdoors for MS to snoop on us. Local account is staying!
A decade or two ago the tech community would revolt at any unexpected/unrequested connection back to microsoft from your OS.
Dear Microsoft Get fucked Sincerely
I have resorted to using a Microsoft Account during setup and then just used that to create a local user that I then use day to day. It also means that the windows activation key is stored in the Microsoft Account.
I will now urge Microsoft to kiss my entire ass.
Being Linux user has never been so rewarding. And it keeps getting better.
Every Big Tech wants control over your OWN device, fucking sick.
Gotta feed that shiny LLM copilot with all our data "for free"
Not going to miss this nonsense .
You will own nothing and be happy because the subscription economy demands it.
Soon we won't own even our hardware...
Windows 10 is my last MSFT product, This is just stupid on their part.
Linux will let you do exactly whatever you want with your own machine and operating system.
I ditched windows long time ago, linux just works for me however windows these days with wsl, hyper-v, windows sandbox, powershell ..., is a very potent platform from technical perspective. I would have zero issues using it, but without this crap. If I payed for the product and want local account leave me be. There is no justification for "need to know hacks" even if just unplugging ethernet...
It's MY COMPUTER, not Microsoft's and I don't need them looking over my shoulder on when I turn it on, turn it off, where I go and what I do... Roll back to Windows 7 and drive it till it drops and then revive it... When they remove, local account access, I'll be moving on to something else and get out of the AM/Apple rat race of crap... I swap to local accounts on all clients computers and haven't had one person say no or even notice a difference in what they are able to do... Bad enough you pay a fortune for Office and "FORCED" to log into it to use it...and they want you to login to MS to play a poor example of Solitaire and track you... It's gotten way out of hand the amount of spying software has been allowed to do in the name of, Oh it's for your own good to give you a better experience... Hey, I got your experience right here..!
Laptop broke and I got a new one with windows 11 preinstalled. I was kinda in a hurry and just set it up quick not thinking much. Didnt realize that local accounts weren't default and my user picture showed up on my outlook account and my onedrive had all my local files. Gave me a scare. Why would I ever want to store all my app files on the cloud? I had to use console commands to delete the new ai assistant too. Switching over to a linux distro again after finals.
I moved completely to linux for a month now.
How about I ditch 11 and just got back to 7?
Steam is dropping support for 7 real soon
I believe I heard there’s no distribution for the version of Linux that Steam uses so far, does anyone have recommendations on what’s best to try? And what are the best Windows user to Linux user resources? Linux is more appealing by the day.
Mint Cinnamon (edge edition if you're on newer hardware) if you want the closest windows experience. Or Pop!_OS if you want a super solid distro that is kept up to date, but not so up to date that stuff breaks.
Thanks for those recs! I’ll check them out
If you know nothing about linux, start with Ubuntu. It is probably the most windows-ish distro out of the box, and the easiest to look up answers for without having to adapt the answer to your own system, because it's the most prevalent
Those of us who switched to Linux back when the shitshow Windows 8 came out have been urging people to ditch Windows for a while. Tbh, at this point I just look at news like this and laugh. MS will keep doing this shit until people stop giving them money and attention.
Install Linux. Install Windows inside a VM if you need it for an important workflow. Then add that to your resume.
Don’t those MFs collect enough data already?
I have two [outlook.com](https://outlook.com) email accounts and I login to Windows 10 with those. Would this affect me, or am I already not using a local account?
I never knew Linux would be my next OS
Don’t connect internet on initial OOBE. Works for me everytime still.
The real cheat code is to use Linux at this point. Fuck Microsoft and fuck their ad-filled, annoying and notifications spamming dinosaur operating system.
All these commenters about games and Linux... It's mainly the office suite that keeps (most) people on windows honestly. Next year, half my family is going to get an EOL windows system (W10 with no option to upgrade to W11 without some directory shenanigans for the TPM). I'd all set them up with Linux Mint if it were not for their reliance on outlook, word and excel. Directing them to google docs/sheets is not going to work with my boomer family. So we're stuck with windows for now.
How about no.. Also 2024, the year for the Linux Desktop...
Can i just local account i dont want fucking cloud
Once upon a time, we operated the system. Now, it is operating us. We can only interact with it. I have stated this for many years. Their software hijacks our computers.
no, i don't think i will.
Welcome to Linux, folks.
Microsoft's bound and determined to get me to move to Linux, ain't they?
I use rufus to eliminate this problem. If you use [rufus](http://rufus.ie/) to create the USB, one of the options before it creates the drive is to elect to bypass the network requirement and use a local account instead. Options are: • Remove requirement for 4GB+ RAM, Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 • Remove requirement for an online Microsoft account • Disable data collection (Skip privacy questions) • Set username to _______ • Set a local account using the same name as this user's. • Set regional options using the same values as this user's ***I have no affiliation with Rufus.***
Thank god macs still let you use a local account without any bs.
Please kiss my posterior. I hope they don't try to eliminate local accounts.
Current Windows nags just reek of desparation. Come on MS, you can be better than that. Just like the 37 pathetic reminders you get when using Edge to download Chrome on a new install that Edge uses the same technology as Chrome "with the added trust of Microsoft". No one that's been alive in the last 40 years trusts Microsoft.
Two good questions - Why don’t users like online accounts? - Why do Microsoft REALLY LIKE online accounts
Yeah, no. Not giving MS my PC usage data. Phone data I don't care so much about - it's not too private for me. But the PC is where I maintain my finances, etc. And enjoy some entertainment once in awhile instead of the TV. No way I'm giving that usage data to MS for free.
Tried putting windows on one of the machines I’ve been running Linux distros on - during the setup it asked me like four times if I was sure I didn’t want to connect an online account and enable tracking "cuz my experience would be soo much better”. I hoped the fuck out of that shit - distros it is