Windows 11 is closing a loophole that let you skip making a Microsoft account
Windows 11 is closing a loophole that let you skip making a Microsoft account
Steam OS 3.8 ... Any moment now 😁
lol there's already a fix: run start ms-cxh:localonly from a CMD line in the installer
Hi another recent Linux adopter jumping in on a "fuck windows" thread.
Seriously, it's not hard to shift. If you're use to macOS, get Elementary. If you're used to Windows, try Mint. Your machine will probably be fine for either. Setup/testing it out is trivial.
I'm a long time Linux user going back to the linux 1 kernel days. The only reason I still use Windows on my home PC is for gaming. I know Linux has come a long way thanks to many contributors like Valve, but how stable are the AMD video drivers and how well does it work for playing AAA PC games? The last time I built a new PC (2023) I tried running Linux w/ Windows in a KVM virtual machine and direct GPU passthrough, but that was such a nightmare to get set up and working, I just wiped it and installed Windows 11. I game on it and run Hyper-V VMs for Linux, which works quite well actually but feels like a sin.
I have a very extensive steam, gog, and battle.net library with all kinda of games from wolfenstein 3D to Baulders Gate 3. The only game I haven't been able to run is Ground Control 2, but that doesn't work on windows 10 (possible a USB device issue). Unless you play a game with an anti cheat that explicitly deny Linux (the only one I know off the top of my head that does that is Fortnite) you are most likely good to go. I'm quite a performance/fps snobb, and I haven't found any game that runs worse on Linux either.
I’m team red with a Linux distro for my new computer I’m building so I’ll report back ha
Does the dualboot of Mint cause any issues for Windows? I only tested it very briefly on somebody elses machines where I needed to wipe windows and install Linux
I tell people to make a live usb to test it first.
Can recommend ventoy. Then simply put the iso's from the main distributions with different DE's on the stick
What about Manjaro?
What about EndeavourOS?
What about Arch?
not LennyLinux!
"Hi, I liked XY development tool having a proper GUI on Windows where can I find a non CLI..."
"LEARN TO USE NEOVIM!"
"LEARN TO USE GDB!"
"DO EVERYTHING FROM THE COMMAND LINE!"
It's not a big deal. They're removing the bypassnro.cmd script, which is just this:
@echo off
reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
shutdown /r /t 0
You can still use shift-F10 at the same point, type those two lines (not the @ECHO OFF), and it will achieve the same result.
Their intention is clear. I wonder for how long this workaround is going to stay.
Sure, but when are they going to remove that registry option?
You're doing the lord's work
LibreOffice better step up their games and make their office suites better. Outside of very niche and specialized applications like CAD or video editor, the average Joe will just need a good office suite to do stuff.
Most people just use the online office 365 thing.
What issues did you have with LibreOffice? I didn't spot any problems when I used it
Depends on what you do with it. In accountancy we and most of our clients work with Microsoft Office desktop. Also things like templates based on CRM work better with actual Word.
Edit: Libreoffice is also a bit annoying since the settings aren't in the same layout so helping others becomes harder. Not sure if they implemented it since I am not that well versed with it as with Excel, but I belief they don't have a PowerQuery alternative?
oh LibreOffice works great for me in general. Only for some documents with macros that were created in MS Office, I have problems running them. Eg: I once received a MS Word document that has some preprogrammed drop down list - so you click to extend the list and choose your items. The document opens fine, but I couldnt get the drop down feature to work. For Excel, documents with lots of VBA codes, I need to go in and do some manual changes.
In general, for 99% of the tasks, LibreOffice is fine. But it is that 1% which makes me still open up my Windows VM for MS Office.
After their shenanigan with subscription only models, we still see MS Office being used a lot. It shows how strong MS grips on the Office area is.
You are correct that 365 is used for most people. I used to use it too..For me, I prefer to be able to access stuff whenever I want. I live in an area with very shitty internet (both Wifi and 4G). Once, a client and I had to wait 5 minutes because Office Online takes too long to load up a spreadsheet. Offline for me is just a peace of mind.
We no longer own our products. We just pay to use it until they decide you can no longer use their service. What happens if they mysteriously shut down your account without warning?
That is what happened to a guy and he had to get court involved and then he found out his account was flagged for CP by their algorithm because he had a video of his 19 year old ex. False bans do happen. I couldn't find that story again sadly to share.
Also, make sure you always have back up turned off or have one drive not installed on your phone. If you're a parent, be careful what photos you take of your children because if those get backed up to cloud, their AI will kill your account because it can't tell between CP and normal family photos.
I actually want to own our products than make accounts to use.
We no longer own our products.
This is a popular saying but its not as clear cut. You have choice. You can own the products you use or buy. So why don't you?
Yes, the software we used yesterday is no longer a one time purchase today. However, you still own the software you bought yesterday and you have choice to buy new software which you will own or you can subscribe to a service providing the updated version of the new software. Example:
I can still use a purchased copy of Adobe Lightoom from 2010.
I can buy a new license for Affinity Photo today and use it forever.
I can pay to use Lightroom as a service.
Imo, the only price you pay is the trek you take into unfamiliarity brought on by using new software.
This happens on the Google side of the fence as well - this article immediately came to mind.
I'm glad I started self hosting so I still have a "cloud" convenience while still owning all my data and being the sole person responsible for it.
Nothing's stopping you from nuking your Windows install and installing some Linux distro though, at least on a normal PC. Surface products tend to be more locked to Windows though. I haven't ran Windows as a main OS in years and don't plan on going back, and Windows has gotten so user-hostile lately that I don't even trust it enough to dual-boot it anymore, LTSC included.
(so far LTSC has dodged most of MS' worst atrocities but it's only a matter of time before that version starts getting compromised in some way too, so I don't trust Windows outside of a VM, period, anymore, at least if I virtualize it, whatever stunts it may pull are isolated to that VM and won't affect the host generally)
Funny how corporations think taking away consumers freedom and privacy is a good idea.
Have fun losing customers.
"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power."
-Benito Mussolini, 1932
Its a good idea for their shareholders, who don't think beyond the next quater. Pretty sure most of them don't have object permanence.
Are they trying to kill windows on purpose?
The sad thing is they know the large majority of users will comply. Most people put familiarity and convenience above their own privacy and general well-being.
Once valve drops better nvidia support into the kernel, and steamos starts coming pre-loaded on laptops and pre-built desktops it's over for their consumer division.
The fact that Facebook still exists is proof of this.
Also, I will not be surprised if they audaciously disable Win 10 Home edition for security purposes once end of life is reached.
Games. Most of the games I play don't play well with Linux.
I keep a Linux laptop for banking that only connects via ethernet cord while I'm banking. Which is nice, I don't worry about key loggers now.
companies do things like this when they feel they have the power in the business/customer relationship and there's no regulations to stop them.
I don't know what is going on at Microsoft. I'm starting to think that they are trying to pivot to a completely different business model. In addition to this Windows 11 crap and XBox seemingly being given up on, they appear to be losing their embedded market as well. In the past, if you saw any screen in an industrial setting, there's a good chance that there was the embedded Windows version behind that screen. Lately, all the new products are moving over to Linux.
I wouldn't say that, more just abusing a monopoly.
Yeah, they probably want to kill it and switch people over to a cloud service with a monthly subscription.
They have done that for years, and every time there is an army of geeks and gamers who look for registry hacks or PowerShell scripts to install Windows anyway. If even those geeks do not want to spend 5 minutes looking for doc on how to install Ubuntu (which is a billion times easier to use than Windows), you can be sure Windows will never die.
I've used the unpatchable Win11 account loophole, that exploits a functionality of your pc, where you wipe your boot drive, and install NixOS on it
That's a neat trick!
Why the fuck is a Microsoft account so important to Windows that running it without one is considered a "loophole"?
My guess is that's it's easier to neatly package your data up for when they go to sell it.
Because we need your data silly 😊
They want to make money off of services, every service they offer requires a Microsoft account to purchase and use. Everyone that they force to make an account during setup is one step closer to paying for a Microsoft service.
There are obviously tradeoffs (less sales of these versions of windows and some users pushed away from Windows altogether among others), but the motivation is clear.
because microsoft is shifting focus from selling you a product, to selling you as a product
And they need a unique account to track every single click and thing you do on your PC, and the web, and everywhere else to facilitate doing that with greater control and ease.
Its literally what, and for the same reason, google has done for the past decade+
Microsoft will sell it as a safety thing - your essential stuff is backed up to your Microsoft account, so in the event that your computer is compromised or damaged, you can wipe and start over with your important stuff restored from your Microsoft account.
Which is not a bad idea in itself, but the rest of the data harvesting and telemetry makes it yuck. I use pihole to block access to Microsoft telemetry servers.
Man, Microsoft advertising for Linux Mint YET AGAIN?! They are so gracious.
Why is everyone reccommending linux mint all of a sudden? What happened to ubuntu and fedora?
Uh
Who's ready to talk Linux
I'm liking Linux Mint and Kubuntu personally.
Especially Kubuntu for my main desktop PC, Linux Mint for my little clunker PC I use to run my 3D printers.
Same, I just loaded kubuntu on another new system
I am! Looking for a distro that I can use AGI32 on. It already crashes consistently on Windows for large projects and I reckon it'll do worse on wine.
I also use substance painter a lot but I reckon moving into a FOSS alternative will be a good move for that. Wean myself off Adobe dependency. Unless it works in wine but I've been told anything Adobe or Autodesk can't run in wine.
Oh wow I looked up AGi32 and that thing seems like a mess. I feel sorry for you.
I get that it might be hard to migrate some really nastily written software, but... In the year of our lord 2025, it should not be acceptable for any sort of simulation software that requires an expensive paid license, to be 32-bit only.
Unfortunately the "horror" that is windows persists almost as much as the horror of Linux. Which is a bunch of fanbois crowing about their distro without any explanation at all. But why do they do this? Because that's how they got into it, and that's how the people that got them into it got into it.
Which fucking distro should I use?
- Well, really it's just preference.
Then I choose arch.
- Uh, wrong try again lol.
Fair enough, Which fucking distro should I use?
- Well, really it's whatever works for you.
Okay, I didn't like the feel of that one.
- Well, you were using the wrong desktop environment.
*�😑😤😠... ...Which fucking desktop environment should I use?
- Well, really it's just preference.
*�. 🤬🤬, 🤬. 🤬.
- Look clearly you don't know what you're doing just use Ubuntu, or Kubuntu, or Lubuntu, or Xubuntu, or Fubuntu, or Poobuntu, or Schmubuntu. And with cinnamon obvi.
Well how do I know? The site for each one uses the exact same bloviated claims. They're all feature rich, and lightweight, and extended support, etc. Do I have to install them all to find out?
- Yes but that's impossible. So just use mine, it works.
Until it doesn't. Then you need to hit up Linux self help forums, to get help from Linux bros, who are the most detestable group of unhelpful, impatient, and pretentious neckbeards imaginable. "Did you try searching first?" "Just use our discord!" "Just use [my fucking distro!]"
😖🤯👺
FML
I really hope the whole shift away from American products will convince more software and game developers to provide native support for Linux. I am approaching the fence.
Describing the ability to make a local account as a loophole is letting a little too much real intention slip out.
This is only for the Home version of win 11.
But not for the home version of Wubuntu 11.
This forced account shit is infuriating. I’d see students with computers that cannot get to government-provided education sites because they are forced to sign up with a Microsoft account to use their PC, which forced them to setup a child account because of their age and therefore be under a parent account, which means the child account can only use Edge and can only go to whitelisted websites, which blocks some government education sites unless the parent account allows it through which they can’t until the student goes home.
Aren't the students provided computers?
Here students usually get provided computers and then MS accounts are no problem since they just have to logon with their domain account.
You can still skip it with MicroWin and also Rufus. I've tested it just recently.
Did you try that with the latest beta build?
No with the latest ISO from windows 24H2 I believe
I'm so glad I finally ditched that shit for good
Windows 11 is enshittfying a feature that let you skip making a Microsoft account
There, FTFY.
Tried Pop PS recently. Night and day difference.
Just one more reason not to use Windows, As if forcing data scrapers down our throat in the guise of AI wasn't enough.
I just deleted my old Mocrosoft account. Forgot I had it until recently.
did you export your skype data?
I haven't ised Skype since Microsoft bought them.
Will people just stop using windows already. I get for work but if you just waiting on that one game then fuck off it's not worth it. I gave up some of my favorite games because it wasn't worth using Windows
Proton is amazing though. I got Lego LotR working on my steam deck by installing some DirectX 9 dependency to fix a graphical glitch with the game. Runs like a dream.
Can I run multi-monitor high refresh rates without the desktop slugging? Last time I seriously tried switching to Linux, this seemingly simple setup in 2024 was too much for it to handle.
Sure, as long as you run a wayland capable DE. Like GNOME or KDE. It's still experimental in linux mint afaik. You might have a few problems if you have an NVIDIA card (no proper wayland support) or HDMI cables (limited to 144 fps because of copyright issues iirc).
I run 2x 1440p monitors at 165hz and 144hz fine
I don't know about high refresh rates, but multiple 4k screens was a pain point in 2023 and it's a complete non-issue in 2025.
For people with "that one game" there is a middle ground. Mine is Destiny 2 and they use a version of easy anticheat that refuses to run on Linux. My solution was to buy a $150 used Dell on eBay, a $180 GPU to be able to output to my 4 high-res displays, and install Debian + moonlight on it. I moved my gaming PC downstairs and a combination of wake-on-lan + sunshine means that I can game at functionally native performance, streaming from the basement. In my setup, windows only exists to play games on.
The added bonus here is now I can also stream games to my phone, or other thin clients in the house, saving me upgrade costs if I want to play something in the living room or upstairs. All you need is the bare minimum for native-framerate, native-res decoding, which you can find in just about anything made in the last 5-10 years.
I loved destiny 2 but I gave it up. Fuck Bungie because someone got it to work and they banned them
Chiming in as well with a Linux distro: peppermint , debian based. If you want the horrors to persist but kind of limited check out windows ameliorated. https://ameliorated.io/
Any gamers looking to switch, I've had a good experience with Bazzite.
I'm much more of a cachyos person in terms of gaming
They give me more and more reasons to stay on W10 until I give up games and move to Linux permanently.
I'll miss my TCMD scripting, though. But besides that and gaming, most of what I do nowadays is cross-platform.
What games keep you on Windows? Besides a few anticheat-enabled ones which choose not to support it, basically everything works fine. I game (and work in gamedev!) 100% on Linux.
Over like half of the games I play with friends just do not work Linux because of anti-cheat. I hate it. I also can't use it for work or studies since I need access to a good CAD that just works. These 2 things and a proper Adrenaline software from AMD is all I need to fully switch to Linux. I do have a dual-boot Windows/Linux PC at home, but honestly, I can barely use Linux most of the time.
My vr driving Sim rig just works in windows, the most I've ever had to do is map my shifter in game. Steamvr, hardware drivers, the actual games, it all just works without doing anything. Plug and play. I'm sure I can get it all working in Linux, eventually. I was(trying to) gaming on Ubuntu 10.04 with wine. I was first batch steamdeck and the amount of progress with gaming I've seen thanks to valve and proton means I'll be coming back. But I'm just waiting for steamOS to be open release. But I am a KDE head so honestly I'll end up whatever distro that does proton and KDE by the end of this year.
Why would you give up games to move to Linux? Been enjoying Cyberpunk and Guild Wars lately, and many games before that the last year. Honestly, at this point I don't even check if games work with Linux, I just assume they do unless proven otherwise.
Check out Proton DB. Gives reports on how well things run. Anything Gold or higher is going to be a non-concern to play.
Same here.
Game performance on Linux isn't always the best. So I'll keep a Win10 around.
Are Linux ports of games so hard to do? Genuine question. I am not a games dev.
Are Linux ports of games so hard to do? Genuine question. I am not a games dev.
My personal opinion is that Windows is an easier target because all Windows machines are consistent in their underlying interface with the user's hardware. Same idea with MacOS. You know what display manager and graphics library to target, and what packaging format to target.
Then, there's Linux, which can be one of any number of distributions with varying software stacks, packaging formats, etc. It's not that Linux gaming is radically difficult to support, it's just much less standardized. This makes it a lot more work for a much smaller demographic. The Vulkan graphics API has made some of the software issues much less of a problem, but you still have to contend with things like different display managers and stuff like packaging differences between distributions.
TCMD scripting? what kind?
I have just recently rediscovered DoubleCommander. it's different at places, but some of them makes it better. maybe it's compatible with your scripts
The company is cracking down on the ability to install Windows 11 on older PCs that don’t support TPM 2.0
But still runs fine in a VM (where it belongs to) on Linux on a system without TPM, right?
Even MORE reason not to upgrade!
Is it possible to skip account creation by installing while not connected to the internet?
Nope, you need an internet connection to get past initial setup. Unless you use pro, there you can select to domain join computer instead and it'll let you create a local account
You are wrong for now, it is still possible.
This will not work if you're already connected to a wifi. BypassNRO sets a registry flag, so it's only a matter of time till they patch it out, but it works for now.
Edit: Rufus also allows the creation of a local user when making the installation USB, skipping the entire setup process.
Ok, so setup a DC (in a VM on your linux laptop), install Win11 joined to that domain, create a local user, then leave the domain & destroy the VM...?
Or install Linux 👍🏻
That's what they're disabling now
How does this work nowadays when you buy a PC from a store?
Does it come with Windows already installed?
And if so, with what account?
Installed yes, but the OOBE that runs (assuming the OEM didn't fuck it up) is more or less the same as a retail install: you have to add the account, untick the 300 'yes, please spy on me' boxes, and tell it that you do not want office 14 times.
Remember clippy on word 2000? That was annoying.
Every time I hear about Microsoft it makes me wanna take a shit
Pavlov Reaction?
Let's install Windows 10 for protest
Or linux.
I do have Linux installed to all my PCs in my house. Now I need a Windows that doesn't require MS account ;)
Meh... Yet another thing that everyone will just accept as a new norm. :c
Ah sweet vindication for getting my gaming PC and daily driver laptop on Linux
Looks like I’ll finally be migrating my final workstation off of Windows 11.
I mean, I still have a while. The Dell T7910 still meets all of the Windows 11 Workstation 24H2 requirements, so Rufus only needs to modify that one part of the installer. And once I have Windows installed, I can do upgrades over Windows Update.
But once the machine gets too old for that…
At least OpenSUSE meets most of my needs.
Yet another reason to not use windows 11.
Ok, so this solidifies my desire to never buy a Windows PC/laptop and why my switch to Mac was a good choice a few years ago. However Mac gaming is nowhere near where it should be right now and I was thinking about getting a cheap Windows laptop for games that aren't available on Mac.
I remember a push a few years ago to get some linux distros pre-installed on some OEM hardware but I didn't hear much of anything past the hype. Anyone have any good OEM brands that have linux installed instead of Windows and are relatively affordable?
It's funny that with how enclosed the Apple ecosystem is, even they don't force you to create an Apple account to use macOS.
Framework laptops can come with optionally no OS if you choose, and I can attest to their build quality being quite good.
I know there are some brands that will have Linux pre-installed, but I don't know enough about them to comment.
I have heard about identity provider software on Linux for self hosting.
Is that a possibility for family members' win11 accounts too, when they run into that problem in the future? Or is a M$ account the only way then?
One or all of em.
"Sucking off Bill Gates is bad, but Linux doesn't support video games"
I switched to Ubuntu a few months ago, and all my Steam games work just fine. Never looking back.
Bill Gates doesn't run Microsoft anymore. He's not the CEO and largely not responsible for the change in their business model.
Also, I game on Linux more than I do on windows (though I do have a partition in my drive to run windows for games I couldn't get working on steam OS/ Bazzite. It's literally 4 games out of over 100.
I'm making fun of the juxtaposition of people that express frustration/animosity for Windows with the need to stay on Windows in order to consume cutting edge video games.
It gets to be comical. Something about the "height" difference. Like you have the giant "They're taking away my ownership of my data and my very computer!" standing next to little old "But I like my raytracing."
"My data is being exposed in the name of corporate AI!" next to "But I can't play games with anticheat with my friends." It's funny. I'm going to laugh.
To be far this command was only needed for win 11 Home. Pro did not need a command as the option is available through normal prompts windows gives you.
I think that option was removed even on Pro a pretty long time ago, no? At least the last couple of times I installed W11 Pro the graphical option was nowhere to be found. It used to be available easily enough that anyone could choose it if they didn't blindly click Next, then it got more and more hidden away and now I'm 99% sure you need the command unless you prep the ISO using Rufus and its function to create a local account for you. On that note, I wonder if this will affect the Rufus method too..