- Microsoft removes guide on converting Microsoft accounts to Local, pushing for Microsoft sign-ins.
- Instructions once available, now missing - likely due to company’s preference for Microsoft accounts.
- People may resist switching to Microsoft accounts for privacy reasons, despite company’s stance.
Here’s an updated way to bypass it. This Youtuber is a little cheerful-cheesy, but the info is good.
At this point, the quicker people switch, the easier it will be for them.
You can learn linux today or you going to learn it next year. Choice is yours.
My whole company moved out of windows during the pandemic. It was all forced.
And surprisingly, after a year, it was pretty smooth.
Push your IT folks to do the same everybody. The money saved is significant. And the learning curve is annoying, but not as annoying as managing Windows.
It’s not the IT folks who need to be pushed. It’s the users.
Think I’m gonna try to replace my gaming desktop again. Its the last machine of mine still on Windows. I just hurt myself years ago by buying a 2080 TI
I was able to circumvent all of this on my Windows 10 machine, by installing Linux Mint.
I didn’t even have to throw out my PC for not being good enough for Windows 11.
Microsoft is unable to track local accounts as thoroughly.
I was finally going to attempt installing Linux Mint only to find out it is not as simple as some say. I know less than nothing about computers and then there are mirrors you have to choose from to download. I have no idea what would be a safe secure mirror.
Then you have to install other software I have no knowledge of to make a bootable drive…I am just not intelligent enough I suppose. I was hoping it was a simple download process.
I am just a tad bit frustrated!
To answer your first question, ALL of the mirrors are safe. The idea with mirrors is that you choose one that is geographically close to your location (same country, maybe the same region or state) to help reduce lag in downloading the files. Any selection is valid, all of the mirrors will have the same content, but for your location some mirrors may simply be faster or slower than others.
One other thing you might run in to is different types of installers. Some may be a very minimal install which only give you a command line, while others will provide a fully configured desktop. You might also see an option for a “Live” version – that is something you put on a bootable memory stick and you can test out a working version of the operating system without actually changing anything on your computer, but all of your settings will go away when you reboot.
I haven’t used Mint so I can’t provide specific info, however some things that are common to ANY linux desktop – You probably want to start with printer drivers (install CUPS) and some office software (install LibreOffice). For internet access, Firefox and Thunderbird are good choices. LicreOffice, Firefox, and Thunderbird can all also be used on Windows if you want to check them out ahead of time. There are many lists online that can point you to equivalent software, so like if you use Lightroom on windows, you might try Darkroom on linux. basically you just need to make a list of what Windows software you use and then install a similar package in linux.
Yes you will need some time to learn the new operating system and all the new software, very little will be 100% exactly the same, but they are “close enough”. You figured out how to use all these things once before, so you can do it again, and it will definitely be worth the effort.
The hard part is getting the software on a usb drive to use on the old laptop. I haven’t figured out what the instructions mean in order to implement. I have a lot of learning to do.
This is good feedback, the Mint team could definitely streamline things, maybe even with a “help pick”.
Because it’s not immediately apparent which to use (Cinnamon/MATE/Xfce).
I’m not sure how the resolve the mirror issue, sadly.
The cost of serving the data directly would be very high, but doing so would avoid scaring people. Unfortunately, it’s hard for them to 100% guarantee every mirror is safe (even though they are!), which means they have to leave instructions on how to verify.Selling pre-loaded USB sticks would be very cool, but people would have to be interested enough to spend £20.
Selling pre-loaded USB sticks would be very cool, but people would have to be interested enough to spend £20
I am one that would happily purchase something like that. I finally made the bootable drive but am not sure if the install is verified. There was no sha txt file to compare. I just haven’t figured it out yet
The sha txt file should’ve been available alongside the iso file from the mirror you downloaded it from. Honestly, as long as you used one of the mirrors that the Linux Mint website provided, you should be perfectly fine.
Is there a way to check it after install before it is connected to the internet?
I did use one of the mirrors on the Linux download page.
It should be fine. If you’re truly worried, go here:
https://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/linuxmint.com/stable/
And click the version of Linux Mint you downloaded - it’s probably 21.3 - and then download both sha256sum.txt and sha256sum.txt.gpg by right-clicking -> “save link as…” to download the files themselves.
After that, verify the iso you had in your downloads folder by following the instructions here:
https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/verify.html
Again, as long as you downloaded from one of the mirrors linked on the Linux Mint download page, you should be absolutely fine. This step is a just-in-case, for your personal ease of mind. It will, however, need you to open cmd.exe and copy the code inside the green boxes into the terminal and press Enter. There’s a pictoral guide if you’re doing the verification on Windows still, right here:
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=291093
Let me know if you get stuck!
Thanks. These are the instructions having a time with. I am going to take a break. I think I have just stared at it too long overthinking it!
Then you have to install other software I have no knowledge of to make a bootable drive
Eh, this is the same for windows as well, you always need some sort of installation medium to boot and install from regardless of OS.
I suppose it is automatic on Windows so it has the illusion of being easy. I can honestly say, I have not had to install anything after I hit the update button. I am also old and don’t use a computer every day.
I suppose it is automatic on Window
No it’s not… When you have no OS on a computer you still have to create the bootable USB for windows in the exact same way as with Linux, you still need to boot with it the exact same way and follow the installation instructions. The process is identical with the same level of “complexity”.
My apologies. My laptop had Windows already installed therefore I haven’t had to do anything other than turn it on and follow the onscreen instructions.
The difference is OP probably got their device with Windows already installed and they only needed to go through the setup steps. Setting up the installation media really is the biggest barrier of entry to linux right now. A lot of distros are so easy to set up with a step-by-step gui installer, but a lot of non technical users don’t have the knowledge, skill, or motivation to download an iso and create a bootable drive.
I mean, obviously…but that’s not really something that’s going to change. And today it is a seriously low barrier to pass, I’m not sure how it could go any lower, aside from.maybe buying a pre-made USB stick for installation. It already requires literally no skill other than basic reading comprehension. There is a plethora of step-by-step guides online, the only thing really keeping people from switching is their own inertia.
Have you met people?
Batman: He must have friends.
“Have you met this guy?”
Dont you worry, mint provides a detailed step by step tutorial on how to do things:
https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
I think they were following the guide based on what they said was frustrating them. I think Mint could simplify the instructions for non tech people and remove the asides like checking file hashes.
Wow! Tell me more!
Linux Mint (or Linux Mint Debian Edition), is one of the most user friendly Linux distributions out there. This is especially so for people used to Windows.
You can run Mint on a bootable USB drive, fire it up, and get a sense of how it feels running on your home setup. I’d highly recommend trying this with a few different Linux distros, to find one that you like.
The Microsoft cycle:
Microsoft does thing nobody likes -> people complain -> some people threaten to switch to Linux -> a few of those people do but most people don’t -> They make some excuse and claim that once Linux reaches some arbitrary milestone they’ll switch (Adobe support, better game support, better software support, etc) -> most of those people forget (they’re a minority, the vast majority of people never cared) -> Microsoft notices and they became even more emboldened to make their products worse -> repeat
If you want change then you need to break the cycle
I did manage to switch to Linux. I can understand though why people are hesitant, there are still things that are tough in Linux, or near impossible in some cases. That’s despite having used Linux on and off for years.
That’s because what people need to understand is that fundamentally Linux is not a drop in replacement for Windows, its not some open source copy. It’ll never have full software compatibility, it’ll never run the same, it’ll never look exactly the same, and it’ll never be the same. The sooner people accept that the sooner people understand what their options are. For me that’s an advantage, I like the UI on DEs like Cosmic, I love the Unix filesystem, I love the terminal and how powerful it is, I love package managers, and I love the customizability of it all.
I don’t think something needs to be identical to Windows to be a good replacement for it. I think there should be a replacement for Windows, and distributions like Linux Mint are that replacement for some people.
I also think that parts of the Linux ecosystem have major problems. Not necessarily problems with the kernel itself, but problems with the surrounding software like programs and user interfaces. Wider application support would be a start. Some distributions and parts of modern Linux systems can be unnecessarily complex or downright esoteric. Some features like HDR have very poor support, and are difficult to enable/setup where they are supported. It’s also difficult for developers to publish to Linux because of the wide variety of different Linux systems. Flatpaks and snaps help with this obviously but have divisive in the Linux community for one reason or another.
It’s also difficult for developers to publish to Linux because of the wide variety of different Linux systems.
I disagree there. The issue is that in Windows people bring over their own version of libraries they compiled on (the millions of .dll files) and you can even look in your Uninstall Apps settings where there’s a bunch of MS specific runtime bundles to see that’s even an issue in the MS ecosystem.
In Linux, developers have relied on the library versions just being there. It is, I’d argue, the most compelling reason package managers basically had to come into existence. On the flip-side this can cause issues where there is some version on the system by the package manager that replaces another version. And something not a part of that package management system isn’t a part of those dependency checks and if they don’t put the libraries with the binaries…well it is just luck if you have them all or if other versions can support those library calls in the same way still.
In Linux that is all those .so’s in /var/lib and stuff.
You don’t really see many proprietary things using package managers and those that do are packaged by someone else and are in some sort of repo that isn’t part of the vanilla install because of legal caution.
Companies that made their money on porting games to Linux prior to Proton basically causing them to shutter Linux porting would put their .so’s in with the game bundle themselves, just like you see happening in Windows when .dll’s are inside the actual program’s folders.
However, the more that this sort of dependency management has become abstracted by development suites that take care of this for the developers, the less they understand about it.
Flatpaks actually take care of this and it is one reason they are so popular. They figure out (well that’s a simplification) those library dependencies, sandbox the apps with those dependencies so the library paths don’t interfere with other flatpaks or the base system itself. People complain about this as a con because “the download is BIGGER” even though flatpak doesn’t install the same runtimes over and over again, so once they are there, the download may still be bigger but the installed storage isn’t.
Anyway, yes Linus Torvalds complained about the “Linux fragmentation” issue but it was about DE’s not the state of the development ecosystem itself as I recall, though the rant is very old, so maybe I don’t remember all of it.
Wider application support would be a start.
Sure, but that’s not a Linux problem, that’s a developer problem. Linux supports application development just fine. It is a kernel and the surrounding ecosystem is the operating system after all. It is developers that don’t support it. That isn’t really something Linux in and of itself can effectively solve. Users have to increase and developers supporting applications for Linux will also increase. The classic Linux Chicken and the Egg problem but it is capitalism and that’s just going to be how it has to work.
Honest question: What does Microsoft expect people with no Internet access to do?
When I bought my Windows 11 laptop a month ago, I was able to set up a local account after turning on airplane mode. (I had entered my wifi password in an earlier step since I thought it was just for installing updates.)
People with no internet access obviously don’t exist.
They added telemetry. 100% of responses had internet access.
That’s just science.
Microsoft learned the right lesson, everyone has internet! \s
Beauty.
I see what you did there.
They’re poor…fuck 'em, who needs them!?
This is the actual, real, subpoena-the-emails-you’ll-find-it answer.
Can someone ELI5 why the us goverment is doing nothing against these anti consumer practises
You know how China has a strong centralized government and cooperates with their big companies? Government says jump, Huawei says how high?
We have a similar system. A strong centralized government that cooperates with the big companies. The primarily difference is that on the spectrum of
Government power <-----------> corporate power
The US leans more to the right.
Really what’s interesting is both the US and China are slowly converging onto a point in the middle. Zizek said something like this some years back… authoritarian capitalism is unfortunately the most effective form of capitalism.
Authoritarian capitalism is not the most effective form of capitalism. It is the most effective for those that are already on top, but for the market as a whole (and especially for the society around that market), it’s going to be worse in the long run.
Companies that are protected from competition by an authoritarian government will be able to extract higher profits in the short term, but their products and services will become worse in the long term, which not only harms their customers, but also the company’s chances of selling their products on actually competitive markets. The American car makers are a good example of this imo.
Companies that are protected from having to pay fair wages and/or providing good working conditions, will be faced with labor shortages if the workers have alternatives, or with a depressed consumer market because the people have less money/time to spend on consuming things.
It depends how you define effective. Of course the consumer would prefer a free market with competition and low barriers to entry. This is the most egalitarian system, where money (and therefore power) gets distributed almost democratically.
It’s a liberal democratic version of capitalism. It’s the version of capitalism that works. Not perfectly, but it rises people out of poverty and is more or less egalitarian, relative to the alternatives.
Authoritarian capitalism is where you still have the large private sector except you don’t have the political freedoms. Think China post 1970s, modern Russia, Singapore.
The government essentially rewards companies that support the power structure. They get privileges and a say at the table. It creates a sort of incestuous relationship between the government and large corporate entities.
The US is moving towards this system as wealth inequality and corporate influence rises (more strongly under Biden than Trump, might I add. Probably to do with pandemic). More $$$ = more power. More power, more influence within the government. Creates a cycle where it’s a “buy your policy” type of democracy.
Slowly our political freedoms are being eroded. Mass surveillance, the CIA and Pentagon are now allowed to spread propaganda on US soil (they were not allowed to before early 2000s), erosion of democratic institutions through populism. For example “fake elections” and events like Jan 6th. We are starting to censor and ban outside views (“misinformation” bans from Covid, the banning of TikTok, Google & Facebook & reddit & Twitter regularly manipulate the information people receive and cooperate with the government)
Only some crazy number like 20% of people approve of Congress in this country. The democracy is falling apart and some new system is forming.
As China is opening up their private market to become more like us in terms of finance, big capital, corporate rights, etc. We are closing down our political system to become more like them in terms of the loss of political freedoms, censorship, etc.
Back in my day you could turn on the computer and operate it without anyone knowing. Our “internet connection” was demonic screeching from hell on the telephone and you didn’t need it to play solitaire.
I miss those early days.
Computers were weird magic boxes with all kinds of zany and crazy shit you could put in them.
Games were just graphically impressive enough to lose yourself in, while not needing a super computer to run them.
The internet was a curiousity for nerds and not a corprotized information hoover adpocalypse hellscape for the exploitation of the masses.
Recently set up my Win 11 gaming pc and despite being tech savvy, I couldn’t get around the requirement without googling. I needed to run a fucking command in order for the Windows installer to let me create an offline account. That’s just so scammy. Imagine paying money for Windows.
Remove Ethernet or internet. They cannot force you to sign in if you literally can’t. Anybody who doesn’t want to and yes they recently removed it from the system so fuck windows and Microsoft for continuously being the shittiest and most popular OS but this is impossible to circumvent so it’s 100% foolproof for offline accounts. The only way is if they gave you a local database of every account but that would be stupid as shit.
IIRC you are required to connect to internet to continue the setup process in newer versions.
Yes, you have to unplug ethernet AND do the oobe/bypassnro command and reboot.
Antarctica too? What about people who don’t have internet?
Just bought a ROG Ally. It’s my first forced use of 11 and the device is great, however Windows has never been more of a pain in the ass.
You enjoy using it? Any gripes? How’s it compared to Steam Deck? Why did you decide to get it over Steam Deck?
Honestly, Windows is my only gripe. I did choose knowing it because I wanted not only Steam access, but xbox cloud/gamepass and any other launcher. When using the built in Armory Crate software, which is their custom gaming software, it runs great, almost flawless. The software toggles for framerate limits, refresh rates etc is really well done.
Hardware wise, it’s light which I love, the screen is really solid and audio actually is impressive. I know fully cranked specs will drain the battery quite quick. So far though with stardew valley and Xbox cloud, I’ve been surprised at battery life, and haven’t felt a need for an external battery yet.
Plus I paid less than the cheapest Steam Deck despite me getting the 512gb version too.
I’ll just wait until Windows 10 reaches EOL. My expectative is that, by then, someone has created an ISO with the option of offline accounts enabled or Microsoft just gave up with this nonsense. IrIf not, I have Nobara already set up in dual boot. Proton is getting better and better by the day, anyway.
What’s crazy is the cybersecurity teams at big corporations actually hate this because its putting half their security in Microsofts hands. (And their security has been abysmal for a hot minute or more)
Corporations hate this shit too because they want to be using their internal, domain-controlled users, not Microsoft accounts that pass a ton of trade secrets to Microsoft. Is Microsoft training its AI on your trade secrets? Who knows!
So Microsoft is literally killing core competencies not just for end-users, but for businesses, too.
This will convince a lot of businesses the switch to an all Linux internal domain to be worth it, imho.
What’s even crazier is that corporate customers don’t actually deal with this in any way! There’s no Microsoft account required on an Active Directory controlled PC.
Source: I am big corporate IT. Oh, and my personal AD deployment, outside of work
How are you accomplishing this? Provisioning the PCs to be part of the domain with a Powershell install script during automated setup? Because I was under the impression that this also had become a difficult task with 11. Because a Windows 11 machine doesn’t know it’s going to be part of the domain until it has been added to the domain. So, the only way I can see that working is like Powershell combined with WDS or something.
Source: Am small IT
EDIT: Also, the LTSC version of Windows 11 isn’t coming until later in 2024. So I’m very curious how this works with 11 specifically.
Windows 11 Enterprise likely uses a different OOBE, I just tell it to join during setup. At work, everything is image-based and pre-configured so no standard OOBE.
Like most things at MS, those with the resources get everything they want while the little guy gets screwed.
Anyone who wants to switch to Linux we welcome you with open arms. Ask as many questions as you need. There are no stupid questions just bad answers. (You probably know the type)
If you can’t switch, that’s ok. Alot of us know what it’s like, especially us gamers, Nvidia card owners, and recovering adobe-holics. Life is tougher but a whole lot more rewarding. I moved from windows/Macos and I wouldn’t give it up for anything.
I’m actually gaming on nvidia! Didn’t take any tinkering either. I got the Nvidia version of Nobara, which many steam games “just work” on.
That’s not to say I didn’t start tinkering anyway, but new games I install and just run work fine.
It’s amazing how fast we got here though isn’t it. There were a ton of talented people, most of them working without pay just to make it happen.
I love the sense of community from something like that even if all I could do is be a beta tester, request potential improvements, and donate to my favorite projects.
This is the nicest way someone’s put it. I’ve tried to switch to Linux three or four times but until there is a distro that makes it plug and play like Windows or mac its going to be a tough sell. I consider myself tech savvy enough (I can google things, and for goodness sake at the bare minimum I can cut and paste into the terminal) but the barrier for getting Linux to work is too high right now for a very large part of the population.
I have W10 computer running the arrs and my plex server that I’m going to have to figure out as I can’t get W11 on it.
I want to do it so bad!.. but I think I’ll probably just end up getting a new, used computer that can run W11
I need a PC that runs with no monitor and gets interfaced with through remote desktop only. I just installed Linux on that machine. It currently must have a keyboard and monitor because if it gets rebooted, it comes to the login screen. The login screen cannot be brought up via remote desktop (RDP through Remmina). I also have so far been unable to find a way to force it to automatically sign in “passwordless” like it used to do with Windows.
This box runs Plex as well as whatever game server I want to run for friends and I at the moment. (Currently Minecraft, which is having trouble since th switchover with server lag, but that is far less important than being able to reboot the screenless server box and have it work with no further input )
I have three ideas: First, you could switch the desktop environment to one of the ones that has a GUI settings tool to set passwordless automatic sign in. I think Gnome 3 on Ubuntu, and Mate Desktop on Linux Mint have that feature. There are probably others.
Second, you could switch your display manager to “nodm”. The display manager is the thing that runs the X server or Wayland, and it starts the greeter (the greeter is the program that shows the login screen). nodm is a special display manager that doesn’t use a greeter or ask for a password. It immediately starts the session using the username and desktop environment specified in its configuration file.
I use nodm for my HTPC and it works very well. The only downside is that you have to edit its configuration file, /etc/default/nodm , using a text editor. I’m not aware of any GUI configuration tool for it. However, it’s pretty easy to configure.
Third, you could abandon all display managers, and start the session manually, either from a shell script, or over SSH. This is a little more complex. You will probably want to get comfortable with SSH before trying this (SSH is the command-line analog of remote desktop).
Configuring automatic login shouldn’t be difficult. Here are instructions on Ubuntu (should work on any GNOME system), and here’s how to do it with pretty much any KDE system. This is a feature of desktop managers (like gdm or sddm), not desktop environments (like GNOME or KDE), so if neither works for you, you’re probably using a different one. If that’s the case, reply with your distro and as much info as you can provide.
That said, what exactly is the problem you’re trying to solve? It’s usually a lot easier to login remotely using SSH instead of remote desktop, and then use console commands to do whatever you need. To login with SSH:
ssh <user>@<IP address>So if your username is tux and your IP is 1.2.3.4:
ssh tux@1.2.3.4And then if you want to reboot:
sudo rebootAnd if you want to shutdown:
sudo shutdown -h nowI use an app on my phone to login, so I can get it done while sitting on the toilet in like 10s (I use it to unlock my computer so my kids can use it). If you’re accessing from your computer and just need to run a single command, provide it after the command in quotes (note, sudo commands won’t prompt for a password and will just fail).
Adding to this if you rub Plex from Docker, and you tell systemd to start docker on machine start you can also have the Plex container start automatically.
Then you dont even have to worry about logging in.
