You’ll need a Microsoft account to set up future versions of Windows 11 Pro

[ian87w]

It depends on when you installed your Win 11.
Local setup logins disappeared from Win 11 Home some months ago.
Local setup logins are disappearing from Win 11 Pro currently.
There will, I understand, be an exception for Win 11 Enterprise, but you will have to log in to your local Windows Server.

I believe, but I haven't bothered to do it, that once you have set up an initial login tied to a MS Account, you can set up a local log in.

As the nice man in the MS shop said -- "All your data is belong to us".
Well, not if I'm using Ubuntu...

The issue is that a Windows 11 laptop is basically unusable out of the box unless you sign up/use a Microsoft account. This is unprecedented, as any computing device beforehand can at least perform its basic function without requirement to sign in to any sort of online accounts. Macs, iPhones, Android, all can be functional out of the box without having to sign into any accounts.

And my surprise is, everyone thinks this is okay.

 

[chrfr]

I believe that only works for Windows 10. In Windows 11, you are forced to connect to a network beforehand, and no option to skip it. And looks like Microsoft will enforce it on the 11 Pro as well.

It absolutely works in 11 Home as well. I just set up 8 computers that way. This is the process I followed:

Set up Windows 11 Home with an offline account

With each new version, Microsoft pushes home users to use a Microsoft account to log in to their computer and makes it more difficult to set up Home edition with an offline (local) account. Let me show you a really simple trick to overcome this hurdle and set up Windows 11 Home with an offline...

4sysops.com

 

[ahurst]

My biggest annoyance with this is VMs, which is where I use Windows most of the time. When I set up a VM or a dedicated testing computer, I want it to be self-contained and not linked to my personal stuff in any way (e.g. if I'm running a program in a VM because I don't fully trust it, I don't want it to be able to know my name or email).

My other annoyance with this is that it makes it harder to sell used computers. If I had an old Windows machine before and wanted to fresh-install before selling it, I would create it with a local account so it would work out of the box and not have my personal info on it. Now that's a lot harder to do.

 

[ian87w]

It absolutely works in 11 Home as well. I just set up 8 computers that way. This is the process I followed:

Set up Windows 11 Home with an offline account

With each new version, Microsoft pushes home users to use a Microsoft account to log in to their computer and makes it more difficult to set up Home edition with an offline (local) account. Let me show you a really simple trick to overcome this hurdle and set up Windows 11 Home with an offline...

4sysops.com

Wow, thanks for sharing the workaround. Good to know. 👍🏼

 

[mi7chy]

It absolutely works in 11 Home as well. I just set up 8 computers that way. This is the process I followed:

Set up Windows 11 Home with an offline account

With each new version, Microsoft pushes home users to use a Microsoft account to log in to their computer and makes it more difficult to set up Home edition with an offline (local) account. Let me show you a really simple trick to overcome this hurdle and set up Windows 11 Home with an offline...

4sysops.com

It's an easy Google search but some just don't want to believe like you can install Windows 11 on a 2008 Thinkpad like I and others have even on older devices.

 

[StellarVixen]

You can easily work around the Microsoft account requirement in Windows 11 Home by disabling the network connection at the appropriate point in the initial setup. I would guess that Pro will work similarly.

"You can just workaround"

Stop, please. We shouldn't be forced to do this in the first case. You can always workaround, but that is not the point.

 

[mi7chy]

"You can just workaround"

Stop, please. We shouldn't be forced to do this in the first case. You can always workaround, but that is not the point.

How do you workaround and disable cloud device check on Macs even when Find My is not enabled?