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by danielbarla 3609 days ago
I'm not sure who's correct in this particular thread, but sometimes they hide the "unfavoured" approach so well that they convince people to use the new method.

In one case, I unsuccessfully tried to create just a local account in Win 8, because they had hidden it behind 3+ layers of "sign in here with your live account". I was sure that there must be a way to create a local one, but just couldn't find the right path.
3 comments
mtgx 3609 days ago
Yeah, it's called dark patterns, and Microsoft makes full use of them in Windows 10. And it seems to only get worse with the recent changes they've made in the Anniversary Update, like how they hide how you could disable Cortana in searches (they turned it into a very technical option, that no "normal" person would figure out), and so on.

I for one am glad that the French Data Protection Authority is going after Microsoft, but it remains to be seen if it can lead to major changes in Windows 10 (for the benefit of the users):

https://www.cnil.fr/en/windows-10-cnil-publicly-serves-forma...

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chli 3609 days ago
Migrated my Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 10 Home last week (pressurized by the free update ultimatum... so their strategy works !) and my local account stayed a local account and I could use the Microsoft Store with an independent account without converting my local account.
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daemin 3609 days ago
Local accounts were not available in Windows 8 or 8.1, they only got reintroduced in Windows 10.

Call me old fashioned, but I prefer my login credentials to my physical PC to be different than for my online accounts.

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danielbarla 3609 days ago
Scott Hanselman had a guide on how to actually create an offline account in Win 8 (see: [1]).

It involves navigating to a "Create a Microsoft Account" screen, and then clicking the well-hidden "Sign in without a Microsoft Account" at the bottom. Quite a well thought out dark pattern, confused me at the time.

[1] http://www.hanselman.com/blog/HowToSignIntoWindows8Or81Witho...

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microtonal 3609 days ago
That's false:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13951/windows-creat...

(I had a Windows 8 VM for compiling some software and used a local account.)

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daemin 3609 days ago
OK, I stand corrected. I recall that I had to use a Live account for a preview version of Windows 8 I installed on a test machine. Maybe my memory is off, I hadn't used it in ages.
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