ncmark wrote on 2025-08-02, 12:28:

Tell me, am I making a too big a deal over having to have a microsoft account? […]
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Tell me, am I making a too big a deal over having to have a microsoft account?

I recently got a used windows 10 computer just to get around this issue.

As car as I can tell, there is no way to set up the account without going through some authentication crap. Seems like you can't do it without a phone number or an email address. You can make up a username but seems like you have to give up identifying information. If you do it with an email address, then how do you retrieve any code if the computer isn't set up? Of wait, you have to have a second computer connected to the internet?

I saw for sale on B&H office 2024 with keycard access. I thought, great. I would get it. And that way I don't have to give micro$oft my credit card number. Oh wait, you have to have a micro$oft account. I could see them wanting to activate it and record they key code, but really, I have to have an account?

Am I just blowing this all out of proportion?

Sorry if this sounds like a rant 🙁

Do you mean that you were trying to set up an offline account on Windows 11 and you decided to use Windows 10 instead [1] or are you trying to set up that offline account on Windows 10 and still hitting that issue ?

Setting up an offline account on Windows 11 during installation is only possible with the Pro version, not the Home version, AFAIK, unless that has changed recently. There may be workarounds to switch to a local account post install.

On both newer releases of Windows 10 (Home and Pro) and 11 (Pro) , Microsoft has made it harder to create an offline account during initial install than it used to be.

[1]

I recently got a used windows 10 computer just to get around this issue.

I didn't even try widows11 with everything I read about requiring a micro$oft account

I've already asked this in another thread, but this thread seems more appropriate - so let me ask again:

What happens if you have a Microsoft account, but there's some connection problem?
You can't even login to your own computer?
If you don't have any additional boot device - how to access the data stored on the local drive?

darry wrote on 2025-08-02, 12:41:

Setting up an offline account on Windows 11 during installation is only possible with the Pro version, not the Home version, AFAIK, unless that has changed recently.

Wrong.
I've installed Windows 11 Home many times - ALWAYS with local account, using the "OOBE\BYPASSNRO" method.

And that's why I lack detailed knowledge of problems with Microsoft account usage - so I'm hereby asking around.

Grzyb wrote on 2025-08-02, 13:07:

I've already asked this in another thread, but this thread seems more appropriate - so let me ask again: […]
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I've already asked this in another thread, but this thread seems more appropriate - so let me ask again:

What happens if you have a Microsoft account, but there's some connection problem?
You can't even login to your own computer?
If you don't have any additional boot device - how to access the data stored on the local drive?

darry wrote on 2025-08-02, 12:41:

Setting up an offline account on Windows 11 during installation is only possible with the Pro version, not the Home version, AFAIK, unless that has changed recently.

Wrong.
I've installed Windows 11 Home many times - ALWAYS with local account, using the "OOBE\BYPASSNRO" method.

And that's why I lack detailed knowledge of problems with Microsoft account usage - so I'm hereby asking around.

I think the recent change is that microsoft removed the BYPASSNRO script from the latest w11 install disc, so you either need to copy it from an older install disc or use some other way.

edit: a quick search seems to indicate it got removed from the insider builds, though not all search results indicate that. sigh.

ncmark wrote on 2025-08-02, 12:28:

Tell me, am I making a too big a deal over having to have a microsoft account?
Am I just blowing this all out of proportion?

Yeah, you're being really paranoid.
Either make a local account or make a M$ account using a bogus name and throwaway email set up just for that purpose.
You don't need to give any other identifying info. I'll tell you another "secret": they don't care if the copy of Windows you're logging into isn't genuine.

Grzyb wrote on 2025-08-02, 13:07:

I've already asked this in another thread, but this thread seems more appropriate - so let me ask again: […]
Show full quote

I've already asked this in another thread, but this thread seems more appropriate - so let me ask again:

What happens if you have a Microsoft account, but there's some connection problem?
You can't even login to your own computer?
If you don't have any additional boot device - how to access the data stored on the local drive?

Your computer continues to work as normal. I've logged in and out during outages many times.
Windows is not always-online (for now😐).

weedeewee wrote on 2025-08-02, 13:37:

I think the recent change is that microsoft removed the BYPASSNRO script from the latest w11 install disc, so you either need to copy it from an older install disc or use some other way.

No.
I've just downloaded current Win11_24H2_English_x64.iso:

$ md5sum Win11_24H2_English_x64.iso
bb2acb101d4a360c71530e4be00ec43c Win11_24H2_English_x64.iso

It's identical to the one I installed many times, in Home setup, with BYPASSNRO.

Make an install USB via Rufus. It can remove some restrictions if you choose so. Works for Win10 and Win11.

https://pureinfotech.com/create-usb-install-m … indows-11-22h2/

I am unsure if it is even an option on Windows 11 Home, but if you select "For a school or business", and then select "Join an Active Directory Domain" during setup, it creates a local account. You dont have to provide domain info. It will work in workgroup mode, until you actually enroll it later.

Windows Home doesn't support AD domains - never did.

Very unfortunate.

Even still, "Even on the Pro version", Microsoft *REALLY REALLY WANTS YOU TO MAKE AN ACCOUNT*

Note the many places it tries to misdirect you into creating one, and how it tries to gatekeep creation of a local account behind creating a domain account, despite these being very different things.

Its quite disgusting.

As for "Ways around it"

Aside from using Rufus to neuter that bologna at the gate, you can set up with a microsoft account, then boot up a linux live-usb, then use chntpw to forcibly enable the builtin local admin account, and set its password to <blank>.

Then, disconnect the internet, boot into windows, log in as this admin account, create a local account with the users and groups [neutered home version], delete the Microsoft Account based entity, shut down, reboot the linux live-usb, use chntpw to re-disable the builtin admin account, and pretend you did not have to jump through the hoops.

You will need a very good imagination.

There is currently a very easy way to make a local\offline account in Windows 11 Home or Pro.

Once the system has done the first reboot and you are ready to start configuring an internet connection, keyboard layout, etc. just do this:

Press: Shift-F10 to bring up the command prompt.

At the prompt enter: start ms-cxh:localonly

This will bring up a window for making a user account. You make the account as normal and it just works. No internet or account required. I just did this a few days ago on a fresh install of Windows 11 Home 24H2.

One thing I will say though, and this is a potentially huge privacy issue with offline accounts:

If you ever download free applications via the Microsoft Store and you do not have an MS account on the computer, they will *forever* be linked to that computer\motherboard. I repurposed a computer from a friend last year, and removed the SSD from it so I could install a new one. He had been using an offline account in Windows 10. When I went to the MS store with a brand new offline account on a fresh windows install on a brand new SSD, all of the apps and games the previous owner had used from the MS store were listed as being in the "library" on that system. They were not downloaded, they were just in the library, ready to be "reinstalled". This is because MS creates profiles\accounts to keep track of MS Store downloads based on hardware identifiers if there is no MS account being used. You cannot change or delete these profiles or the apps attached to them as far as I know.

Presumably, if the user of this computer then connects this offline account to an MS account all of those apps will now show up in their own library on that MS account, even though it was the previous owner of the computer who downloaded them on a completely different Windows installation\drive. This isn't widely known, but it is a known issue and it seems to be yet another way for Microsoft to attempt to make things "convenient" for users who do not use an MS account.

Personally, I just use an MS account on my PCs and have never noticed any issues or felt like I was being tracked or manipulated in any way. I do not use Bing or anything else that MS can influence and I always disable as much telemetry as possible and any recommendations or other things. I also do not use Windows' built in online search, ever. I'm sure they're getting some data from me, but then so is everyone else these days, except for maybe vogons.org. 🤣

The mistakeis using MS's store.

Do not make that mistake.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2025-08-02, 19:24:

yet another way for Microsoft to attempt to make things "convenient" for users who do not use an MS account.

Not users specifically. It's basically the same system for activating Windows and other products for OEM partners.

Grzyb wrote on 2025-08-02, 13:07:

Wrong. I've installed Windows 11 Home many times - ALWAYS with local account, using the "OOBE\BYPASSNRO" method. […]
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darry wrote on 2025-08-02, 12:41:

Setting up an offline account on Windows 11 during installation is only possible with the Pro version, not the Home version, AFAIK, unless that has changed recently.

Wrong.
I've installed Windows 11 Home many times - ALWAYS with local account, using the "OOBE\BYPASSNRO" method.

And that's why I lack detailed knowledge of problems with Microsoft account usage - so I'm hereby asking around.

I meant "officially". There are workarounds for many things and those may or may not keep working going forward.

What is "officially" allowed/supported (or not) is also a moving target thanks to Microsoft rolling release/moving goalposts "strategy".

OK, so the conclusion is:

With the current installation media - Win11_24H2_English_x64.iso - there's no visible option to install the Home setup with local account.
But it's still possible to install with local account, eg. using the Shift+F10, OOBE\BYPASSNRO method.

It may be different in the "insider" builds.

Also, I can't see any sense in avoiding Win11 in favour of Win10.
I can't even see any important difference beween them:
- both can be installed with local account
- both later need online activation
- both keep calling home without even asking the user about permission
- both have equal chances of getting suddenly bricked by poorly-tested automatic update, and/or deleting user's files

BREAKING NEWS! 🤣
The last Windows version free of all that pathology was Windows 2000.

Grzyb wrote on Yesterday, 09:31:

BREAKING NEWS! 🤣
The last Windows version free of all that pathology was Windows 2000.

and Windows 2000 is getting better all the time with things like ExKernel, ExCore, ACPI 2, AHCI/NVME, USB 3, and more. In contrast, every piece of news regarding modern Windows is some kind of horror story.

BTW, Bill Gates went to Epstein island.

Grzyb wrote on Yesterday, 09:31:

OK, so the conclusion is: […]
Show full quote

OK, so the conclusion is:

With the current installation media - Win11_24H2_English_x64.iso - there's no visible option to install the Home setup with local account.
But it's still possible to install with local account, eg. using the Shift+F10, OOBE\BYPASSNRO method.

It may be different in the "insider" builds.

Also, I can't see any sense in avoiding Win11 in favour of Win10.
I can't even see any important difference beween them:
- both can be installed with local account
- both later need online activation
- both keep calling home without even asking the user about permission
- both have equal chances of getting suddenly bricked by poorly-tested automatic update, and/or deleting user's files

BREAKING NEWS! 🤣
The last Windows version free of all that pathology was Windows 2000.

Doesn't windows 11 have that AI screenshotting assistant to "help" you remember things you've done? Oh and also all the screenshots get uploaded to one drive, but don't worry, they're secure we promise.

I know you can turn it off, but MS really wants everyone to constantly upload screenshots of their desktop usage, so updates constantly turn it back on.

One of the main reasons I went for Linux ~6 years ago. By then I was already fed up with their bullshit and what I've heard, it became so much worse since then. Luckily everything I need was already available on Linux, had alternatives that are just as good or the compatibility solutions worked well enough to run the Windows app without issues.

But as things stand, most proprietary software are rapidly turned into cloud services and with cloud services OS doesn't matter.

Namrok wrote on Yesterday, 15:46:

Doesn't windows 11 have that AI screenshotting assistant to "help" you remember things you've done? Oh and also all the screenshots get uploaded to one drive, but don't worry, they're secure we promise.

I've never noticed anything like that - but again, I've never created Microsoft account, and I guess no OneDrive without Microsoft account.

With my Windows usage - very minimalistic! - there's no difference between Win10 and Win11.
Both live their own lives, and I would never keep any important data on a Windows machine.