Another One Bites the Dust

[WildWestDesigns]

Another loophole for creating a local account while bypassing the online account for Windows is being closed: https://www.theverge.com/news/638967/microsoft-windows-11-account-internet-bypass-blocked

I can't think of a reason that any loophole will remain, considering that MS really wants OSs to be run on the server and the hardware just has some bootstrap software to connect to those servers. The ultimate online account if you will. And as more and more programs are able to be run in the browser, even intensive programs like 3D programs, so at some point there may not be any technical program issues why that can't happen, even with the heavy GUI programs that we have, going back to the old mainframe days.

 

[netsol]

i have to setup a windows 11 pro pc later this evening

i intend to create a microsoft account, the create login for "another user" local only
give admin rights then delete the microsoft account

 

[ikarasu]

i have to setup a windows 11 pro pc later this evening

i intend to create a microsoft account, the create login for "another user" local only
give admin rights then delete the microsoft account

With windows 11 pro you can setup a local account without ever needing to use a Microsoft account.... I believe they patched a loophole for home versions, but pro should still be fine.


I can't see them ever getting rid of that option, at least not anytime soon, as it'd make domains much harder to manage... Not everyone uses azure / entra, and most mission critical places still still use a local DC and can't use an online one.


I'm not too worried about this one! They may get rid of it for "home" users... so the vast majority, but there will always be a work around, whether it's using pro... or running a custom install script. Either way, I have like 10 different versions of windows 11 ISO's on usb sticks, They cant retroactively disable those, so unless they disable all upgrades or throw an online account into a forced upgrade... should be fine.

 

[netsol]

With windows 11 pro you can setup a local account without ever needing to use a Microsoft account.... I believe they patched a loophole for home versions, but pro should still be fine.


I can't see them ever getting rid of that option, at least not anytime soon, as it'd make domains much harder to manage... Not everyone uses azure / entra, and most mission critical places still still use a local DC and can't use an online one.


I'm not too worried about this one! They may get rid of it for "home" users... so the vast majority, but there will always be a work around, whether it's using pro... or running a custom install script. Either way, I have like 10 different versions of windows 11 ISO's on usb sticks, They cant retroactively disable those, so unless they disable all upgrades or throw an online account into a forced upgrade... should be fine.

I got a dell optiplex from Amazon windows 11 pro 24h2 you can’t setup without internet
22h2 was not like that

there are ways around it FOR NOW…

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I'm not too worried about this one! They may get rid of it for "home" users... so the vast majority, but there will always be a work around, whether it's using pro... or running a custom install script. Either way, I have like 10 different versions of windows 11 ISO's on usb sticks, They cant retroactively disable those, so unless they disable all upgrades or throw an online account into a forced upgrade... should be fine.

Their history would say otherwise. Even with Win 10, some people went with Pro, because it gave them certainly abilities and that was neutered later on, so I have no reason to suspect otherwise, especially like I mentioned, MS wants people to have thin clients and have users boot up their OSs on MS' servers. And while there are some use cases that wouldn't be able to do that, given more and more programs are getting the internet treatment (I actually don't mind it for UI stuff, but anything that I have created with that type of GUI frontend, the backend C logic that I wrote was local not on another computer, big difference in the two), a lot of MS programs are actually more cloud based now, at some point, even for the more demanding programs, it would be possible.

Of course, also have something like this: https://www.windowslatest.com/2025/...nenote-for-windows-10-so-you-ditch-it-faster/

If any of your versions of Win 11 sees the WAN, yea, there is a chance that you would get that update. Why I never liked the subscription nonsense. I don't believe that computers should be on the WAN, but I digress.

there are ways around it FOR NOW…

That's the key thing right there. There is no reason to suspect that those loopholes will be indefinite. It still may take some time, but there is no reason to think that they won't be closed.

However, I would submit that it would be better to hope for the best, but plan for the worst. Not caught flatfooted anyway. Corporations aren't one's friend and this is equivalent to a data mining boom.