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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday July 23 2019, @01:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the ever-harder dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

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.


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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 23 2019, @04:56AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 23 2019, @04:56AM (#870221)

    Nobody should be surprised by this. The goal of much of Big Tech is to own your computer and data, with you paying for it.

    It's probably only going to get worse from here, as it has been for years. This is the whole point of Windows 10.

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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 23 2019, @09:21AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 23 2019, @09:21AM (#870255)

    Just wait until they offer "free" computers. Then you know we are truly screwed.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by Pino P on Tuesday July 23 2019, @01:33PM

      by Pino P (4721) on Tuesday July 23 2019, @01:33PM (#870315) Journal

      Cellular Internet service providers in the United States have offered "free" pocket computers for years. They were "free" in the sense that the bill for data service didn't go down after the 2-year commitment ended. This ended around the start of T-Mobile US's "Un-carrier" campaign [wikipedia.org], which separated the handset financing and the data service into two line items, with handset financing dropping off the bill after two years. T-Mobile's competitors eventually followed suit.

      Instances of this business model for desktop computers are harder to find, but off the top of my head, I remembered i-Opener [wikipedia.org] and PeoplePC [wikipedia.org].