this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2026
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Windows 11’s push for mandatory Microsoft accounts is hitting a nerve with users who say the change complicates setup, privacy, and basic PC ownership (www.windowscentral.com)
submitted 18 hours ago by throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] joelfromaus@aussie.zone 2 points 21 minutes ago

Since all of the “Linux is easy” folk are here I’ll ask a question even though I’m not near my PC:

I’m dual booting W11 and ZorinOS, I have 3 drives and only the OS drive mounts at boot. The other 2, games SSD and a storage HDD, have to mounted manually. An online search yielded that this was “expected behaviour” and “how it’s designed to work” but unfortunately it confuses Steam each time I boot because as far as Steam is concerned the drive ceases to exist.

Has anyone else had the same issue? I think I could use crontab to mount the drives at boot but it seems like something that shouldn’t be happening at all.

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

First last and only time I ever tried to get a microsloth account, they fucked up my password selection and basically locked me out of my system wherein resided my steam account, emulation, and music libraries and all of my non steam games. Never ever did that again

[–] Wooki@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

A late stage capitalism indicator: corporatised capital theft.

At some point you have to realise they have not innovated on their operating system in over 2 decades and as a result they are just that far behind everyone else.

Meanwhile FOSS Operating Systems are just so far beyond Microsoft's reach now. All the While they did nothing but create new ways to squeeze customers for lipstick on the pig.

[–] viov@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

To people still on Windows 11 go back to Windows 10 some way somehow if you really are set on not using Linux for whatever reason

[–] Reginald_T_Biter@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

I logged into azure on my home PC with the master account in work (I know i know) and now my home PC account is renamed after the company founder, who doesn't even work any more.

Wtf Microsoft. Just stop.

[–] SleeplessCityLights@programming.dev 9 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

Everyone is thinking about this wrong. MIcroslop will only do their enterprise customers dirty at the very end, when they are dropping the Windows product altogether. How do SysAdmins do Windows 11 installs at their workplace? How are we expected to provision PCs without a MS account. Select add to domain and use your router as a 'fake' DC and then set the settings back to normal after the install. They can not remove that method, it is absolutely required for using DCs and MS makes a shit load of money licensing DCs. You have to pay per user.

[–] TwitchingCheese@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

Microsoft wants to kill on-prem for enterprise. Windows 11 Enterprise is a monthly subscription to your Office 365, sorry Microsoft 365, wait no Copilot 365 account. Exchange Server 2019 is the end with their subscription only version replacing it. They're retiring Dynamics on prem to move you to the cloud.

The cloud services are parted out just right that you get almost everything you're trying to do with one package, only to need the next level up at double the price for one little thing, or an add-on service that just so happens to need the E3 version instead of E1. Oh but you can pay twice as much again for the all-in-one bundle, it comes with everything! Expect that thing you need for regulatory compliance, that's still extra. It's like they studied the predatory pricing of freemium games and went "we can do better than that"

Selling you an OS once is of no interest to them. Monthly charges? Better but still not enough. All of your data flowing through their systems, ripe for harvesting and vendor lock-in? That's the good stuff.

[–] CoopaLoopa@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I think enterprise is the least affected.

Win11 installs are done with Autopilot. Users log in with their company MS accounts and if admins need access they log in with the LAPS account.

Enterprise moved away from local accounts even before COVID.

[–] Boiglenoight@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

This is the case where I work.

[–] Alberat@lemmy.world 28 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Microsoft doing their part to get people to move to Linux

[–] Angrydeuce@lemmy.world 17 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

More "Microsoft doing their part to get people used to the idea of having to login with an internet connection so that they can make Windows 12 subscription based."

Thats what this bullshit is. Training the user base for OSaaS.

And they will have enterprise by the balls because they control like 90% of the enterprise market. The consumers, they could give a fuck if they take it or leave it. Windows licensing is such an teeny tiny part of the equation that screaming at them is going to get as much traction as screaming at Nvidia for the fact that a midrange GPU is 1000 bucks now. Nvidia doesnt care if their consumer gpu market disappears tomorrow, they've got the AI fucks locked in.

[–] Pulsar@lemmy.world 5 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

Wow. This is absolutely has to be the reason. There is nothing better than a recurrent revenue stream. Look at Spotify, Netflix business model.

[–] Angrydeuce@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Really. And even better, now they can granularize Windows even further. Windows 11 Home or Pro? Naw fam, that's not enough. You'll have the baseline Windows 12 sub for $10 per month...seems reasonable, right? Except that's the baseline. That's the version that can only make use of, at maximum, 4 CPU cores. Want to use all the cores in your bomb ass new processor? You need to bump up to the $20 per month subscription which includes the CPU-MAX add on. Not a fan of the basic Windows wallpaper? Well, fret not! You just need to download the Personalization add-on for an additional $5 per month and now you can change your wallpaper. Hey, is that a new GPU you got there? Yeah, you're going to need to spring for the Gamer bundle...$20 a month for that, on top of the base sub. Oh and don't forget about your local storage...they can subscription lock that, too. "You don't even need local storage anyway! Just use OneDrive!!! It's only a few bucks extra per month!!"...deliberately priced far less than the local storage subscription so that they can scrape all your shit for marketable data which you'll see in the fine print of the ToS they're allowed to do with abandon.

Go to turn on HDR..."sorry, you need the graphics booster add on". Try to output 5.1 audio? "Sorry, no can do, you get 2.0 only, peasant, you didn't sign up for the media add-on." Want to throw another stick of memory in your rig to extend it's life? "Sorry, base Windows can only use 16GBs...you need the performance package to address anything more."

And you know what the best part is? This shit would all likely be legal. Know how I know? Because Windows enterprise server and software licensing is already like this, and has been for years.

Shit is so fucked man...

[–] Boiglenoight@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Heated seats in luxury cars.

[–] nuko147@lemmy.world 9 points 6 hours ago (4 children)

The only reason I don’t install Linux on my NVMe drive and leave it on my SSD is that I can’t reinstall Windows with a local account (though maybe there’s a painful workaround). If they break, they’re gone forever.

[–] thermal_shock@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Sail the high seas. Also, you absolutely can still skip logging in and setup a local account.

[–] Tarambor@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

Chris Titus's WinUtil. In it is a tool called MicroWin that can create a custom installation media which will allow local accounts and also remove all the telemetry, adverts and all the other crap.

[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 4 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

There's an easy workaround : install W10 with a local account, then upgrade. No need for any kind of workaround. Disclaimer : this might have worked because I'm in Europe.

Otherwise, there are workarounds for a vanilla install with only local accounts that still works to this day, I did that in a VM. But that's flimsy.

Of course, this leaves you to the whim of "fucking microsoft, we'll screw you forever, bork your data when we want, force you to change computer every other year, and you'll love it", but the option exists.

[–] osanna@lemmy.vg 1 points 2 hours ago

I’m in Australia and this works. At least the last time i installed windows.

[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 8 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Just an idea:

  • Get an HDD
  • Use dd to clone your NVME Windows drive.
  • Install Linux on your NVME.
  • Boot Windows from the HDD as you find you need it (which I suspect would be a lot less than you think).
  • If you find you need to go back to Windows, just reclone onto the original drive.

I bet you'll eventually reclaim the HDD, though. I kept mine for about two years, and I nuked it last week, because I hadn't even opened it, much less booted it, in over a year.

[–] olympicyes@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

You can also just assign the drive you just created to a vm via VFIO. No need to dual boot.

[–] Pringles@sopuli.xyz 23 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Windows 11 has given me so many headaches at work I have genuinely explored moving the entire corporate environment to Linux. Unfortunately it would be a massive multi-year operation that would not bring the amount of benefits required to get such a thing greenlighted. But simply the fact that I, and many peers, took a good hard look at it tells you just how incredibly shit Windows 11 is. It's a fucking nightmare on so many levels, it's ridiculous.

[–] courval@lemmy.world 8 points 7 hours ago

They know that, that's why they do it.. And that's why you should go ahead with it..

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[–] W98BSoD@lemmy.dbzer0.com 35 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

[–] HexaBack@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 33 minutes ago

how the turntables

[–] piranhaconda@mander.xyz 6 points 7 hours ago

I literally just recommended CachyOS to my boss while we were complaining about Windows 11 in our one on one meeting today

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 3 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Setup = download Linux iso > flash memory device > boot > install.

Where do the complications come in?

[–] sefra1@lemmy.zip 6 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (3 children)

The complication comes from when I need to use proprietary windows-only software for whatever professional or recreative reasons.

Free (as in freedom) software is great for 90% of situations, but there are things free software just can not do.

Wine exists but it's mostly focused on video-games, and honestly, it's such a pain to get a windows program to run on wine that I prefer to just have a second SSD with Faildos and boot from it when I eventually need to use such programs. Which I make sure to unplug the ethernet cable when I do.

[–] FlexibleToast@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Bottles has made wine a lot better. Also, I keep a Windows in a VM, isolated where it belongs.

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 2 points 4 hours ago

I just vm'd my entire win 7 machine with no nic.

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 2 points 6 hours ago

When does that come up recreationally?

If I can't do something I don't do it.

[–] BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

Where do the complications come in?

When drive doesn't automount and you have to manually edit fstab file

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