This is horrible. How can launching apps be depending on a cloud service being available...
replies(8):
It's not, per se. The apps will launch if you block the specific subdomain, or turn off internet. The problem is if the computer thinks it can connect and keeps trying.
It’s a huge problem on Windows where Explorer.exe still blocks the UI thread while it checks SMB shares if it thinks it can connect to them, but it skips them if it knows the computer is disconnected from a network. So using a Windows computer on a very spotty WLAN is actually more painful than being disconnected due to all the timeouts and dropped packets. Office Outlook is another main offender. I have a Windows Firewall rule just for Outlook.exe when I know it’s going to lock-up a lot.