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How Microsoft made it harder to create Windows 10 local accounts
If you're thinking about resetting your Windows PC with a local account, save yourself some frustration and consider upgrading to the Windows 10 May 2019 Update first.
Our experiences with the October 2018 Update nearly convinced us that local accounts were gone for good. They're not, thank goodness, but Out-of-the-Box Experience (OOBE) in that version pushes you particularly hard toward using a Microsoft account. We discovered two workarounds, though, to allow you to log in as you wish.
[...] Over time, Microsoft has tacitly encouraged you ever more to create a Microsoft account, but it's never actually blocked you from creating a local one. It comes damn close in the October 2018 Update, however. Even worse, it begs you to connect your PC to the Internet—but never warns you that once you do, the local account option will never be displayed.
In the May 2019 Update, Microsoft seems to have relaxed its tactics. But only a small fraction of users, or about 6 percent, appear to have access to the friendlier version. That estimate comes from AdDuplex, which tracks versioning as part of its ad network. According to AdDuplex, about a third of Windows users remain on the October 2018 Update, also known as 1809.
Microsoft changes up little elements of Windows from time to time, even "A/B" testing some features with some users and not with others. (Generally this happens more often in the Windows 10 Insider program.) PC makers also tweak their own factory-installed builds of Windows 10. In short, Windows 10 experiences differ by user, by PC, and by the version of Windows 10 they've installed.
With many users still stuck on the October 2018 Update or earlier versions, it's worth knowing that you'll probably want to upgrade straight through to the May 2019 Update if you prefer the local account option.
Remember, Microsoft is hoping to attract a billion users to Windows 10, and it's making money by luring them into its services and subscription model. Because a Microsoft account is the best way to do that, it's worth keeping an eye on how Microsoft "encourages" you to sign up and use one.
(Score: 3, Informative) by vux984 on Tuesday July 23 2019, @03:46AM
The *main* difference is that your account credentials are stored at microsoft. Kind of a like a giant global active-directory account. So you can reset your password via the web (since its tied to your email) and sync various windows settings, etc to other computers you use with the same account. (kind of like roaming profiles). It also signs you into to the microsoft store with the same account automatically; so your purchases there are available everywhere too; and onedrive; and skype etc... so if you use all that with the same account, the setup is all automatic.
The advertising ID the other poster mentions is there either way regardless. You can elect to show ads or not based on it, but either way they profile you unless you get aggressive at blocking telemetry.
The other thing it "allows" is for you to link your windows10 product keys to it; which gives you the ability to move your windows 10 licenses around. This is actually useful for people who build their own PCs, and either purchased windows 10, or in many cases upgraded from 7/8 to 10 and now have the win10 license locked to that hardware. Attaching the key it to a Microsoft account will let you move it.
I therefore setup and use local accounts. But do have a microsoft account with my households license keys attached to it, which i login in with once to allocate/reallocate to activate windows after major upgrades and then delete the account again.