this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2026
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Couldn't you theoretically download an ISO for an older version of Win 11, install that offline without an account, then update it to the latest version?
Well.....here's the thing. Step 1 of your plan is to install windows 11.
In the words of Manny Calavera:
Probably. I think the update will ask for your account at some point though (I don't really use windows though, so you probably want a second opinion on that).
I've installed a more recent version of Win11 without network and local account was still working. I also recently found that the IoT Enterprise version cuts out Copilot AND the Windows store in the base install. So IoT + Massgrave ftw.
I believe they get weird about local accounts on recent versions of 11, even ones that already existed. I'm not going to verify, but yeah I think the point is they're moving towards them basically not existing.
If something is beneficial to the side with more negotiating power and is practical to do, it happens.
It wasn't plausible when Internet connectivity for accounts on local machines wasn't a given always everywhere.
And it wasn't that important for them.
Now both have changed enough.
Also I think all stable continuous changes of mass where single person doesn't change much are predictable, similarly to Asimov's Foundation (except there it was presented as something a virtuous genius does to help humanity, not quite how life works).
So expecting Microsoft and others to break their dicks is infantile. I think they'll succeed fully inside their strategic definition, their model, one can say.
Where anything divergent and interesting can happen is the fringes. Like Reticulum, Briar, hobbyist weak hardware, technologies that will emerge occasionally without mass economic pressure. Toys and jokes.
It's the Reddit and Twitter strategy, and sadly, it works.
Oh absolutely, the strategy has always been to secure the market, make it difficult to leave the service, and jack up the profit. The only thing we can do is recognise it happening and work to make alternatives available, work on our own skillsets instead of relying on their tools.
Which is a shame, but the mask is off as of late, and we can't do much about that.
When I recently set up my laptop there was an rays command I was able to do to add the option back to use a local account