{"id":13777,"date":"2025-10-07T09:03:01","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T16:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/?p=13777"},"modified":"2025-10-07T09:03:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T16:03:01","slug":"microsoft-is-plugging-more-holes-that-let-you-use-windows-11-without-an-online-account","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/2025\/10\/07\/microsoft-is-plugging-more-holes-that-let-you-use-windows-11-without-an-online-account\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft Is Plugging More Holes That Let You Use Windows 11 Without an Online Account"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>(Headline article below) Of course they are because Windows 11 is spyware. And they&#8217;re kind of forcing you to buy new hardware with the plans to make their AI agent a default, to keep tabs on you, along with controlling what software you can load on your computer. And if you pay attention to what the EU is trying to implement, it&#8217;s an AI agent to spy on you before it goes to secure apps. The timing is interesting as Windows 10 is going end of life on October 14th unless you sign up for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.windowscentral.com\/software-apps\/windows-10\/windows-10-esu-support-free-updates-cloud-backup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">online backup or pay $30<\/a>. My formerly Windows 10 desktop has been converted to Endeavor OS (Arch), and it is working very nicely. And games work, but perhaps not quite as well as they did under Windows 10, but that could be the Nvidia driver and virtualization&#8230; Anyway, I&#8217;m never going back to Microsoft spyware, and can you trust them anymore?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Has Windows become Spyware?\" width=\"1290\" height=\"726\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IT4vDfA_4NI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/news\/793579\/microsoft-windows-11-local-account-bypass-workaround-changes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/news\/793579\/microsoft-windows-11-local-account-bypass-workaround-changes<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-ub-divider ub_divider ub-divider-orientation-horizontal\" id=\"ub_divider_65908977-9f9b-45c1-b0f9-c8176c51d195\"><div class=\"ub_divider_wrapper\" style=\"position: relative; margin-bottom: 2px; width: 100%; height: 2px; \" data-divider-alignment=\"center\"><div class=\"ub_divider_line\" style=\"border-top: 2px solid #ccc; margin-top: 2px; \"><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Microsoft really doesn\u2019t want you creating a local account on Windows 11.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>By Tom Warren<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.theverge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/08\/STK109_WINDOWS_A.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&amp;w=2400\" alt=\"STK109_WINDOWS_A\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Microsoft is cracking down on bypass methods that let Windows 11 installs use a local account, and avoid an internet requirement during the setup process. In a new <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.windows.com\/windows-insider\/2025\/10\/06\/announcing-windows-11-insider-preview-build-26220-6772-dev-channel\/\">Windows 11 test build<\/a> released today, Microsoft says it\u2019s removing known workarounds for creating local accounts as they can apparently cause issues during the setup process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are removing known mechanisms for creating a local account in the Windows Setup experience (OOBE),\u201d says Amanda Langowski, the lead for the Windows Insider Program. \u201cWhile these mechanisms were often used to bypass Microsoft account setup, they also inadvertently skip critical setup screens, potentially causing users to exit OOBE with a device that is not fully configured for use.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The changes mean Windows 11 users will need to complete the OOBE screens with an internet connection and Microsoft account in future versions of the OS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Microsoft already <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/news\/638967\/microsoft-windows-11-account-internet-bypass-blocked\">removed the \u201cbypassnro\u201d workaround<\/a> earlier this year, and today\u2019s changes also disable the \u201cstart ms-cxh:localonly\u201d command that <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/witherornot1337\/status\/1906050664741937328\">Windows 11 users discovered<\/a> after Microsoft\u2019s previous changes. Using this command now resets the OOBE process and it fails to bypass the Microsoft account requirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These workarounds have been widely used to avoid a Microsoft account or internet access on Windows 11 Pro and Home installs in recent years. They\u2019re easy to use, so you don\u2019t have to create a custom unattended answer file to force Windows 11 to create a local account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A lot of Windows users simply want to avoid using a Microsoft account or just want to customize the user folder name that Windows 11 creates from the email address of a Microsoft account. Thankfully, Microsoft is now adding a way to name your default user folder during the setup process, although you\u2019ll need to use a command to get a custom folder name. Hopefully this will eventually become a simple option during the setup process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Headline article below) Of course they are because Windows 11 is spyware. And they&#8217;re kind of forcing you to buy new hardware with the plans to make their AI agent a default, to keep tabs on you, along with controlling what software you can load on your computer. And if you pay attention to what [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech","category-world"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jason","author_link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/author\/jturning\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13777"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13778,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13777\/revisions\/13778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}