Upcoming Windows 11 builds cannot install without internet and Microsoft Account

A while ago, I needed to get into safe mode to rescue a laptop that wouldn't boot.

Since it uses Windows 11, I originally logged in using my Microsoft Account and a Windows Hello pin.

Safe mode doesn't load wifi drivers and the laptop didn't have an ethernet port, so I couldn't log in to my Microsoft Account to get into Windows safe mode. Didn't have a dongle with ethernet port at that time, so I had to backup the drive and reinstall Windows instead.

That's why I use Linux these days.

wait, you need internet connection to even login? this means root cannot use computer when you do not have internet connection for any reason?

I’m not in Windows ecosystem for more than 25 years now. But I had to buy couple of windows laptops for sales team at my business. I tried very hard but windows wouldn’t allow me to set it up without first creating Microsoft Account online. I’m in Apple ecosystem, not that they are significantly different but they atleast allow me to use the system albeit in limited capacity.

I’m seriously considering going back to Linux for my next work setup.

> I’m in Apple ecosystem, not that they are significantly different but they atleast allow me to use the system albeit in limited capacity.

Define "limited capacity". Other than Apple Services like iCloud, FaceTime, iMessage, Apple Music/TV, etc, it should just be the App Store that's unavailable without an Apple ID (which _is_ crippling on iOS, but not so much on macOS).

There was a trick to bypass the online account requirement. You press Shift+F10, which launches a command prompt, then use `oobe\bypassnro`. This reboots the system and adds a button to set up offline.

> you need internet connection to even login

That's right. It sounds like a bug but this is Microsoft we're talking about here. They're probably brainstorming for ways to lock you from your own computer.

You can solve this problem by creating an offline account with Admin privileges after setting up Windows with your online account, but most users won't do that.

This doesn’t seem true. Doesn’t LSASS cache credentials for 30 days?

We’ve been running our company (6ish people) solely on Fedora and it’s been a breeze, but then we’re a bunch of nerds, so not necessarily a surprise. The real test how much the Linux desktop has matured happened when I set up a fedora laptop for my parents to get around hp desperately coaxing them into some kind of subscription and an endless stream of ads/complaints from Microsoft to buy into a cloud service. After setting up the laptop and explaining the very basics of Plasma, I’ve had to deal with it again. Because with printers, it just works (tm)

Reinstalled windows recently, now it has the window resize bug, which apparently has something to do with display sleep mode. Reportedly linux struggles with sleep modes too, but to think I should try linux for better hardware support, duh. And new windows is very fiddly, constantly tries to install new metro apps, adds them to lock screen, installs new services, runs a shit ton of services that constantly write a lot of data on the disk. Enshittification is in full overdrive now.

Linux struggles with sleep mode sometimes due to Microsoft and Intel pushing S3 into S2idle and motherboard/bios manufacturers doing the absolute minimum to support either.

No idea. Maybe it cleared the cache when I asked to enter safe mode. Either way, relying on a cache to get root access doesn't seem right.

I had the same impression, but support for new sleep modes seems to improve quickly. A few years ago I had a Gen 1 ThinkPad T14 AMD, which still had S3 sleep. A significant portion of the resumes it would come up with some devices not working (e.g. trackpad, fingerprint reader, etc.). I recently got the 5th Gen T14 AMD and the only issue I have is that the fingerprint auth takes a few seconds to come up, but other than that I haven't had any resume issues yet.

That’s not the case. I have a Windows 11 computer around, set up with a Microsoft account and Windows Hello, and I can log in just fine without internet connection.

>wait, you need internet connection to even login?

No, you can log in without being connected to the internet (that obviously happens a lot on a daily basis, where people are using a laptop with no connectivity until after they sign in).

Yeah, for anyone with a modicum of technical capacity, the year of linux on the desktop was about five years ago.