Solved Forced online account and question about Win 11 Pro

paperplane · Aug 8, 2022

I bought a Windows 11 laptop that came with the Windows 11 21H2 Home edition. I was completely annoyed by the forced use of a Microsoft account but I managed to create a local account. However, with every application MS is trying to force me to login, and each time I do so thinking its for that one application, it changes my account to an online account and auto logs me to all other MS services.
I tried removing the account and clicked the option for not to auto login to other MS services but it still happens every time. If I use the widgets, the app store, the whiteboard app, and even mail (if I'm using an outlook email). Irrespective of my wishes MS is forcing their online account down my throat.
I'm so annoyed by it that I have decided to return the laptop and get an older Windows 10 one before they disappear from the market, but before I do I wanted to ask is it different with Windows 11 Pro because I remember reading MS was doing this forced online account thing with the home edition. Will Windows 11 Pro behave the same way if you use any of the applications mentioned above?
Thanks in advance!

Bree · Aug 8, 2022

paperplane said:
with every application MS is trying to force me to login, and each time I do so thinking its for that one application, it changes my account to an online account and auto logs me to all other MS services.

Welcome to Eleven Forum.

Yes, the big friendly default 'Next' button does that. The trick is not to click it. If you want to sign in an app with your Microsoft account and keep your local account then you must click the small print 'Microsoft apps only' link instead.

Bree · Aug 8, 2022

paperplane said:
...is it different with Windows 11 Pro because I remember reading MS was doing this forced online account thing with the home edition.

No, it's the same in Pro. In fact, recently MS have changed things so that the latest version of Pro now requires you to use a Microsoft account when you first set up the PC out of the box, it used to be just Home that did that. As you found with Home, there are ways to bypass this requirement and set up with a local account instead.

All my W11 machines, Home or Pro, just have local accounts - but do have a few specific apps of my choosing signed in to use my MS Account (widgets, for example).

Winuser · Aug 8, 2022

paperplane said:
I'm so annoyed by it that I have decided to return the laptop and get an older Windows 10 one before they disappear from the market,

You don't have to return the laptop. You can download an ISO of Windows 10 Home and do a clean install. I suggest that you give Windows 11 a try first though. Don't forget that support for Windows 10 is slowly coming to an end. If I remember correctly, the end of support is Oct. 2025. If you have any questions or need of assistance, we are more than willing to help.

paperplane · Aug 8, 2022

Bree said:
Welcome to Eleven Forum.

Yes, the big friendly default 'Next' button does that. The trick is not to click it. If you want to sign in an app with your Microsoft account and keep your local account then you must click the small print 'Microsoft apps only' link instead.

Thank you for the reply!
I did see the option and I fiddled with it before. I guess I was annoyed that the account gets added under my profile and didn't pay attention to the status of my profile. Your post made me try again and re-evaluate it. Now I understand it better. Having it there and then changing the sign-in option to "Apps need to ask me to use this account" reduces some of the annoyance, and will keep my account local.
Widgets don't like it though when I do that and won't sign me in, other apps worked fine. Its a compromise I can live with.
Are you able to get Widgets to work when you choose "Microsoft apps only"?

paperplane · Aug 8, 2022

Winuser said:
You don't have to return the laptop. You can download an ISO of Windows 10 Home and do a clean install. I suggest that you give Windows 11 a try first though. Don't forget that support for Windows 10 is slowly coming to an end. If I remember correctly, the end of support is Oct. 2025. If you have any questions or need of assistance, we are more than willing to help.

Thank you for the reply!
I would have really liked it if I could put Window 10 on the same machine. It was the first thing I searched for but my understanding was there are no downgrade rights?
Would Windows 10 activate on the same machine that came with a Windows 11 license? I would be really happy if that option was available.

Thanks in advance!

Bree · Aug 8, 2022

paperplane said:
I would have really liked it if I could put Window 10 on the same machine. It was the first thing I searched for but my understanding was there are no downgrade rights?
Would Windows 10 activate on the same machine that came with a Windows 11 license?

Yes, it would.

Microsoft made no changes at all to the digital license or the keys for Windows 11. All keys or digital licenses are now regarded by Microsoft as being valid for 'Windows 10/11', and will activate either W10 and W11 provided they are the edition your license is for, Home in your case.

paperplane · Aug 8, 2022

Bree said:
Yes, it would.

Microsoft made no changes at all to the digital license or the keys for Windows 11. All keys or digital licenses are now regarded by Microsoft as being valid for 'Windows 10/11', and will activate either W10 and W11 provided they are the edition your license is for, Home in your case.

I'm going to give this a try!

Thank you for your help!

Bree · Aug 8, 2022

paperplane said:
I'm going to give this a try!

I have a couple of machines that dual boot Windows 10 and Windows 11. One way to add a second Windows OS without disturbing the original one it to use a native boot .vhdx file. That's how both mine are set up.

Native Boot Windows 11 Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX)

This tutorial will show you how to boot a Windows 11 VHDX file natively to dual boot with Windows 10 or Windows 11. Native Boot allows you to create a virtual hard disk (VHDX), install Windows to it, and then boot it up, either on your PC side-by-side with your existing installation, or on a...

www.elevenforum.com

Create Windows 11 Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX) at Boot to Native Boot

This tutorial will show you how to create a Windows 11 Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX) file at boot and natively boot it to dual boot with Windows 10 or Windows 11. Native Boot allows you to create a virtual hard disk (VHDX), install Windows to it, and then boot it up, either on your PC side-by-side...

www.elevenforum.com

Bree · Aug 8, 2022

paperplane said:
Are you able to get Widgets to work when you choose "Microsoft apps only"?

Yes. In fact it was widgets that was the first app I signed into with my Microsoft account, choosing 'microsoft apps only' when I did so. After that it was offered for use by other apps, if I chose to allow them to sign in.

Winuser · Aug 8, 2022

Bree said:
I have a couple of machines that dual boot Windows 10 and Windows 11. One way to add a second Windows OS without disturbing the original one it to use a native boot .vhdx file. That's how both mine are set up.

Native Boot Windows 11 Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX)

This tutorial will show you how to boot a Windows 11 VHDX file natively to dual boot with Windows 10 or Windows 11. Native Boot allows you to create a virtual hard disk (VHDX), install Windows to it, and then boot it up, either on your PC side-by-side with your existing installation, or on a...

www.elevenforum.com

Create Windows 11 Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX) at Boot to Native Boot

This tutorial will show you how to create a Windows 11 Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX) file at boot and natively boot it to dual boot with Windows 10 or Windows 11. Native Boot allows you to create a virtual hard disk (VHDX), install Windows to it, and then boot it up, either on your PC side-by-side...

www.elevenforum.com

I just looked at the VMs I created in Hyper-V, and they are .vhdx files. I have Linux Mint, Windows 10 and Windows 11. When I'm not so tired I might give it a try. It definitely won't be today or tomorrow. Working outside in all this heat, takes it out of you.

paperplane · Aug 8, 2022

Bree said:
Yes. In fact it was widgets that was the first app I signed into with my Microsoft account, choosing 'microsoft apps only' when I did so. After that it was offered for use by other apps, if I chose to allow them to sign in.

I don't know why mine is not working. I even rebooted a few times. Everything else is working fine.
Might be something else going on. I'll try to troubleshoot it later.

Thanks again!

paperplane · Aug 8, 2022

Bree said:
I have a couple of machines that dual boot Windows 10 and Windows 11. One way to add a second Windows OS without disturbing the original one it to use a native boot .vhdx file. That's how both mine are set up.

Native Boot Windows 11 Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX)

This tutorial will show you how to boot a Windows 11 VHDX file natively to dual boot with Windows 10 or Windows 11. Native Boot allows you to create a virtual hard disk (VHDX), install Windows to it, and then boot it up, either on your PC side-by-side with your existing installation, or on a...

www.elevenforum.com

Create Windows 11 Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX) at Boot to Native Boot

This tutorial will show you how to create a Windows 11 Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX) file at boot and natively boot it to dual boot with Windows 10 or Windows 11. Native Boot allows you to create a virtual hard disk (VHDX), install Windows to it, and then boot it up, either on your PC side-by-side...

www.elevenforum.com

That is very useful. Definitely something I didn't know and I can see it tremendously helpful.
I'll have to experiment with booting from a vhdx file.

Thank you for sharing!

Bree · Aug 8, 2022

Winuser said:
I just looked at the VMs I created in Hyper-V, and they are .vhdx files. I have Linux Mint, Windows 10 and Windows 11. When I'm not so tired I might give it a try.

Yes, it's worth a try. The PC I'm posting this from now is native booting a .vhdx of the Insider Release Preview build 21261. The .vhdx it's booting from stated life as the .vhdx for a Beta build 22598 Hyper-V VM. I copied it to this PC, native booted from it, and got all the Beta feature updates up to 22621. Then I switched it from the Beta channel to the Release Preview channel when 22621 was first released there.

Bree · Aug 8, 2022

paperplane said:
I don't know why mine is not working. I even rebooted a few times. Everything else is working fine.
Might be something else going on. I'll try to troubleshoot it later.

I have the sign in options set for 'other apps can sign me in'. Perhaps that's why it works. Then again, maybe it was because when I first used my MS account it was to sign in to widgets, so I'm always signed in for widgets, even after a restart.

You could try troubleshooting by going back to square one and starting over. You could go to Email & accounts, click on your MS account and remove it. Then open widgets and sign in, remembering to choose 'Microsoft apps only' of course :wink:

hsehestedt · Aug 8, 2022

I know that there are other ways to do this, but I accidentally stumbled on another way to create a local account during setup when doing a clean install without hacking anything.

Start installation as usual by booting from the installation media.
Proceed through setup up to the point where setup asks you if you want to set up for personal use or set up for work or school.

Normally at this point you would select "Set up for personal use". Don't do this. Select "Set up for work or school" instead.

On the next screen, click on "Sign-in options".

Select "Domain join instead". Don't worry - we are not joining a domain!

Enter the name to use for the local account. That's right - the name you enter here will become a local user account!

That's all. Proceed with installation as normal.

hsehestedt · Aug 8, 2022

Follow up: The method I just outlined still requires an Internet connection, which I find annoying. My preferred method of installation to create a local account is to actually use a very simple autounattend.xml file that does nothing more than create a local user account but also makes a network connection unnecessary. Since that is all the answer file does, the rest of installation is still the same as always.

Alex__ASSR · Aug 8, 2022

hsehestedt said:
I know that there are other ways to do this, but I accidentally stumbled on another way to create a local account during setup when doing a clean install without hacking anything.

Start installation as usual by booting from the installation media.
Proceed through setup up to the point where setup asks you if you want to set up for personal use or set up for work or school.

Normally at this point you would select "Set up for personal use". Don't do this. Select "Set up for work or school" instead.

View attachment 35950

On the next screen, click on "Sign-in options".

View attachment 35951

Select "Domain join instead". Don't worry - we are not joining a domain!

View attachment 35952

Enter the name to use for the local account. That's right - the name you enter here will become a local user account!

View attachment 35954

That's all. Proceed with installation as normal.

I did the same process with "Set up for personal use". yesterday.
and work build 22000.832_X64

hsehestedt · Aug 8, 2022

Alex__ASSR said:
I did the same process with "Set up for personal use". yesterday.
and work build 22000.832_X64

Unfortunately, that build does not count

That is the original release of Windows 11, which is not in question. The issue is that the behavior during installation has changed for Windows 11 22H2. 22H2 requires both that you have an Internet connection, and disallows the creation of a local account if you select "Set up for personal use".

Berton · Aug 8, 2022

Just did a factory restore of my Notebook to Win10 Pro followed by all the updates then Upgraded to Win11. Used only a Local Account as Administrator with no password, only issue I see now is can't get Widgets until signing in, doesn't specifically mention Microsoft Account. Appears to be something new since last Oct. as my Desktop from April hasn't changed. It's not critical as most of what Widgets has is on Edge when opened.

Solved Forced online account and question about Win 11 Pro

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