Win 11 install - user account

Hi

Just got new dell laptop. Need up and running fairly quickly but want to use a local account. The dell install routine (I am sure it downloaded and installed windows after I switched on and went through the dell process) only seemed to allow an install against a microsoft account. This I did. Then created a local account which is what I wish to use and a folder with the name of the local account has not appeared in the users folder. The only folder there is the one taken from the first letters of my microsoft account name.

I will at some point upgrade the SSD and then reinstall windows, hopefully skipping the microsoft account bit by unplugging from internet at the appropriate time. May be I could have done that in the dell install routine but forgot to do so.

But I still don't understand why when I then create a local account a folder with that name does not appear in the users folder.

Can anyone help me unpick this before I proceed?

Thanks in advance.

kevinboardley said:

The dell install routine (I am sure it downloaded and installed windows after I switched on and went through the dell process) only seemed to allow an install against a microsoft account.

Click to expand...

Windows would have been pre-installed, not downloaded. It may have checked for update later though. At first Boot it would have booted to the Out of Box Experience (OOBE) which is where you get asked to create your first account....

kevinboardley said:

This I did. Then created a local account which is what I wish to use and a folder with the name of the local account has not appeared in the users folder. The only folder there is the one taken from the first letters of my microsoft account name.

Click to expand...

Have you signed out of your first account and signed into the new one you've just made? The user folders for a new account don't get created until the first sign in.

Bree said:

Windows would have been pre-installed, not downloaded. It may have checked for update later though. At first Boot it would have booted to the Out of Box Experience (OOBE) which is where you get asked to create your first account....


Have you signed out of your first account and signed into the new one you've just made? The user folders for a new account don't get created until the first sign in.

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Hi Bree thank you. Yes OOBE had forgotten the name for that.

Well I am currently showing as signed into my newly created local account so doesn't that suggest that I am logged out of my MS account or am I missing something there?

kevinboardley said:

Can anyone help me unpick this before I proceed?

Click to expand...

You also have this option...




And here's ten points just for filling out your computer specs.

Ghot said:

You also have this option...

Switch to Local Account from Microsoft Account in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to switch to a local account from a Microsoft account to sign in to Windows 11 with instead. You can sign in to Windows 11 with a local account or a Microsoft account. However, you can easily switch between using a local account or a Microsoft account to sign in...

www.elevenforum.com

And here's ten points just for filling out your computer specs.

Click to expand...

Hi Ghot The point is that I have done that. As noted in my first post. Dell OOBE > set up MS account (as this was only option) > created local account (different user name) > don't see a folder for the local account in the users folder anymore.

I have done a bit more digging and it appears that a folder with the local account username has been created as a subfolder in C:\users\[ms account name]/appdata/local/connecteddevicesplatform with the prefix L.[local account name]

Is this a windows thing or something to do with the Dell configuration?

UPDATE: this looks like a linking of my local account to the ms account which sort of defeats the purpose which was not to have them linked.

kevinboardley said:

Is this a windows thing or something to do with the Dell configuration?

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It's probably a Win 11 thing. MS is determined to have everyone on an MS account.
I can't be very helpful with this, because I did an In-Place upgrade from Win 10 to Win 11.
My Win 10 was installed with a Local account, so it upgraded to Win 11 that way.

Technically, I've never "installed" Windows 11. ^^

I'll fight MS to my last dying breath... ack...ack!!


Btw... Windows updates are gonna start in about 5 minutes.

So I wonder then, is it still possible to use Win 11 without this link to a MS account?

I discovered this new config when starting to move the location of the windows default folders to a partition other than the C drive (my data partition). And I wanted to to this on my newly created local account. So it was when I was checking which account I was logged in with that I saw that even though windows reports my local account as logged in when I look at the location of the special windows folders, there was no folder specifically for my local account to where I expected to move them. Obviously as it currently stands there is no distinction.

I have a full retail licence emanating from Win7 that was upgraded to Win10 and has been running for years, presumably on a digital licence key. I have used a cfg switch in the past to force an install from USB boot media to allow installation of that pro licence on my previous laptop that was supplied with Win 10 Home.

I wonder if that will still work? I definitely didn't uninstall the Home licence on my old laptop before doing the Pro install using my own full retail key. So it worked before.