Installing Windows 11 without an online Microsoft account

[Retro]

When installing Windows 10, Microsoft pushes the user into doing so with an online Microsoft account, but it's possible to refuse it and install with just a local one if one jumps through a couple of minor hoops. Not so with Windows 11: it forces it, making it literally impossible to do so without an online account. Therefore, if there's no internet connection, then it cannot be installed at all. Outrageous! But there are workarounds which change with every build of W11 released as Microsoft closes the loopholes in a continuing cat and mouse game. It really shouldn't be like this.

JayzTwoCents shows us two ways of getting round this with the current build. Note that he doesn't specify what the build number he worked with is though, which is a bit naughty.

Nerd level: techy / legal rights.

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[Arantor]

This is no great surprise, Microsoft are clearly setting the stage - and have been for a while - for an era where you just have a Windows subscription. They already do this for Office, Windows won’t be that far behind.

I’m waiting for the Steam Deck to push gaming on Linux further forward and I think that by the time Win10 reaches end of life, that’ll be the time I get off the Windows bus. I just don’t want to miss out on gaming without getting into the consoles too hard.

 

[Tiffany]

I haven't watched the whole video yet, because I just had a very spirited conversation with my daughter on the nature of subscriptions and then SMR drives came into conversation because I just saw that SMR drive conversation at TPU.

I'll watch the rest of the video, it started out fun in the beginning, looking forward to watching it.

 

[Retro]

This is no great surprise, Microsoft are clearly setting the stage - and have been for a while - for an era where you just have a Windows subscription. They already do this for Office, Windows won’t be that far behind.

Yes, it certainly looks like it. They've been getting ever more invasive over the last 10-15 years.

@Tiffany Oh it's well worth it for the JayZ's entertainment value alone when you can.

Sounds like the perfect conversation for a forum! Have you seen my post at the end of the thread where I confessed to buying a new drive in the end using the logic of enthusiastconomics? For now, it's still gloriously sealed in its antistatic bag.

@Arantor I'm qubit on there and this was my thread that Tiffs referred to:

My SMR drive - opinions please

In April 2020 I bought the WD Blue WD60EZAZ 6TB drive. I use it to store my game installs and occasional virtual machines (I tend to test and discard) and it's currently holding 3.3TB of data. It's not backed up, since the games are all on Steam, Origin etc so can be downloaded again, although...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[Tiffany]

@Retro It was indeed a classic conversation for a forum and we did go down many rabbit trails.

@Arantor My daughter and I both agree though that we don't like the subscription route, which is one of the reasons why I just outright purchased Coreldraw rather then subscription.

We hardly finished the SMR drive conversation. I do have your TPU thread opened, found it this morning (because I went to that other place and is was still....well...still and thought I'd go to TPU and saw your alert) and I'm still reading the "whole thang" and everyone's opinions.

*I have 4T split between 2 SSD's on my desktop; same on my laptop. I use my laptop all of the time, and I use my desktop for the serious stuff like server access.