@chrisgardner2548
I agree, I miss the days when your windows computer was really "your own machine". Little by little everything seems to be moving to away from a standalone computing environment to a cloud based subscription model which feels very intrusive. Thanks for the great videos
@Zotalofen
I still remember Windoes 98 when there was no need to login to anything it was just a computer. I miss that.
@DavidCNZZ
Computer guy of 30 years here. Watched your video with interest. It reinforced and crystallised my own feelings about local accounts versus MS accounts. The information about Bitlocker also useful and interesting. Thanks
@itftcomputers
As an IT professional with over 25 years of experience, I agree with you 100%.
@LedoCool1
For me "you can't log in into your machine until microsoft allows you" is enough to forfeit all the possible benefits.
@icecreamjunkie6790
Great video as always! And you don’t even need to sign in with a Microsoft account at all during initial setup. If you type ‘a’ into the username and password fields, it will tell you something went wrong and just let you make a local account. As someone who works in IT and sets up new computers all the time, this is a huge lifesaver.
@richarddaugherty8583
Excellent presentation. Retired IT guy here... used to be a Sr. Application Developer. You are spot on!
@renx215
I was a computer tech, and the amount of people both home and corporate users who had no idea they had bitlocker installed was astounding. If I had to replace a system board on a machine that could not post, and when presented with the the Bitlocker recovery key would think its my fault and responsibility to fix.
@stephenbarrette610
As an IT professional from 1981! - and as many other folk have said here - I totally agree 100% with your advice. It is appalling how MS treats it’s customers, (or it’s competitors - Netscape et al.) And MS’s policy of more or less forcing / tricking Win 11 users of certain editions to always use an MS account is even more of a concern. They really are as bad as ever were. And did I suffer a retro 1970’s acid trip? BUT - didn’t MS say ‘Windows 10 was the last operating system you will ever need to buy’? Thanks for your great content.
@MicheIIePucca
As an IT professional for 26 years, and a PC geek since 1978, I avoid any external authentication related dependencies I can when configuring a workstation, (especially authentication!!!!), and for a company that we already know exploits there users as a "product". So, I also agree with you. That said, I use a completely different login for packages such as Microsoft Office (I don't use office365 at home), a different login for skype, etc... on new installtions I disable onedrive, and avoid other "cloud" logins where ever possible.
@sebrinar2804
Wow!! Thank you SO much for this eye-opening video! I'm a long time Windows user and I honestly never gave it a second thought logging in with my microsoft account versus a local account. That's going to change. I'm also going to share this with the many other users I know in hopes they will change their ways as well. Appreciate this!
@TheGameBench
There is one advantage you didn't list... and that's having the Windows license being bound to that user account rather than the motherboard of the system. So, if you have to replace the motherboard, or you build a new computer, you don't have to worry about activating Windows. However, that's really mostly relevant to the DIY space. It's also a double edged sword, because if your account is hacked... you might never be able to get back in, and that activation would be useless and you have to get a new key. Regardless... I always use a local account as my login to the machine, for all the reasons you listed. People need to keep in mind that Microsoft doesn't care about selling Windows anymore. They're more about selling services and your data. Windows is no longer the product... you are.
@strukitru
As an IT professional with no years of experience, I agree with you 100%.
@pchilfe6309
The first thing I do when I want to install Windows 10 is to unplug the Internet cable or turn off Wi-Fi. This allows you to bypass the Microsoft login requirement and have peace of mind. Great video. I absolutely agree with you! Greetings from Germany!
@Vousie
The thing about the "having things backed up to Microsoft's accounts means a subpoena could let a three letter agency see all your data" thing is that the same applies to pretty much any other online backup software. The only way to get around that is to back things up using an external harddrive, which can be rather tedious...
@mitcharbiter3371
Totally agree with you. It's MY computer, MY data and I am not going to add another dependency (that as you mentioned, can be hacked) between me and MY computer. In fact, I circumvent using the Microsoft account when installing/setting up the OS. It's bad enough that we've given up so much control over our computer in the HOME editions (which are verging on spyware).
@NH-xg9mp
Wanted to make some changes to my microsoft account for ages and didnt even quite realize that i login with my ms account, this has pushed me to finally do it, thanks
@mabroukali1598
Thank you. I just switched to local account after your video. I was pissed off when I been forced to use Microsoft account during installation. And I just forgot about for almost 2 years. Thanks again for the remind.
@Riley_1955
I have used a Microsoft account for many years and I have come to the same conclusion as you ..... I don't need or want a MS account anymore so starting tomorrow I will be switching all my PC's (4 desktops) over to a local account ..... keep the vids rolling you have some very good info about computers.
@uninvited298