To use Windows without a Microsoft account requires tech literacy these days, I thought. I would not be suprised if users didn’t choose to sync with a MS account but it’s doing it anyway, if that’s what MS want.
You can’t do that anymore, at least not with a normal Windows installation. All of the tricks of forcing it offline, clicking cancel 10 times and jumping up and down don’t work anymore, they’ve disabled them all, the only way to install Windows 11 now (using the normal Microsoft installer) is by linking it to a Microsoft account.
I didn’t know this either. and in normal install GUI indeed there is no way to skip MS account. So pretty good trick as this open terminal/command worked at that exact step/screen.
Sorry, but the argument above was for a regular user, who doesn’t know what Rufus is, who doesn’t know the concept of OS, who simply knows thinks the files are saved “on the computer” (while they somehow ended up on OneDrive).
I’m not even sure if you can install without an MS account if you don’t use Rufus anymore. Rufus requires literacy for sure, and even if you can still do it without it is designed to make it impossible to know you can from within the installer itself.
Main issue with Rufus is secure boot unfortunately, otherwise Rufus is easy enough that I gave a couple “click here, then here, then here and here are some screenshots” to a friend they were able to navigate it just fine. At this point I swear Rufus is easier than using the official installer provided Secure Boot is off.
Images patched by Rufus can definitely pass secureboot, as long the bootloader wasn’t touched. Secureboot only checks the signature of the bootloader, not every single file of the operating system, otherwise it will take hours to boot
Plus Rufus touches some XML read by the installer, doesn’t crack the executables
To use Windows without a Microsoft account requires tech literacy these days, I thought. I would not be suprised if users didn’t choose to sync with a MS account but it’s doing it anyway, if that’s what MS want.
If you sign in with a Microsoft account at all I don’t believe there’s the capability to opt out.
I only use local accounts. I have never had a Microsoft account. I never will.
You can’t do that anymore, at least not with a normal Windows installation. All of the tricks of forcing it offline, clicking cancel 10 times and jumping up and down don’t work anymore, they’ve disabled them all, the only way to install Windows 11 now (using the normal Microsoft installer) is by linking it to a Microsoft account.
I download win11 from Microsoft last week and the 1st method in the page worked (ms-cxh localonly)
https://learn.microsoft.com/sv-se/answers/questions/5581996/windows-11-local-account-on-installation
Interesting, I haven’t seen that approach before
I didn’t know this either. and in normal install GUI indeed there is no way to skip MS account. So pretty good trick as this open terminal/command worked at that exact step/screen.
Using Rufus still works. I did it as recently as a couple of days ago.
Sorry, but the argument above was for a regular user, who doesn’t know what Rufus is, who doesn’t know the concept of OS, who simply
knowsthinks the files are saved “on the computer” (while they somehow ended up on OneDrive).… and who doesn’t know that you can even install an OS to begin with!
You can still create a local account by setting the PC up as a “School or Business” PC and then choosing the local account option.
This is not true. There are several tools to create a bootable USB that uses a local account.
They just made it hard for Joe Schmoe to avoid it.
Joe Schmoe buys new laptop with Windows preinstalled.
Joe Schmoe boots it for the first time.
Greeted by first-log-on.
Goes through steps and is immediately captured.
Just update a W10 local install. It won’t even try to ask you to add a microsoft account.
I have a windows 11 installation without an account. You got to get an alternative image (I got LTSC).
I was really hoping there would be a jailbroken version of windows by now, you know a version that doesn’t update and doesn’t have any bloatware.
I guess it’s just not worth it given how far Linux has advanced.
I’m not even sure if you can install without an MS account if you don’t use Rufus anymore. Rufus requires literacy for sure, and even if you can still do it without it is designed to make it impossible to know you can from within the installer itself.
Main issue with Rufus is secure boot unfortunately, otherwise Rufus is easy enough that I gave a couple “click here, then here, then here and here are some screenshots” to a friend they were able to navigate it just fine. At this point I swear Rufus is easier than using the official installer provided Secure Boot is off.
Images patched by Rufus can definitely pass secureboot, as long the bootloader wasn’t touched. Secureboot only checks the signature of the bootloader, not every single file of the operating system, otherwise it will take hours to boot
Plus Rufus touches some XML read by the installer, doesn’t crack the executables