Heads Up! Microsoft Account bricked my sister's laptop

[MrHalfAsleep]

My sister put Microsoft Account (MA) on her computer and hasn't been able to log in to her laptop, due to it failing.  I asked her (wrongly) to delete the account; and to be fair she did.  However, that didn't make the inability to log in go away, and I created a new account for her. 

After several hours of faffing about, I ended up in an infinite boot loop, where I would log in to MA and it would continuously kick me out with no access to the single desktop administrator account I created for her previously. I told her NOT to put MA on the account; but there were no problems until a couple of days ago.  Being a helpful sort usually, this caused me to lose it (almost) completely, (lots of cursing and shouting), mainly directed at Microsoft.

MA broke, repeatedly asking me to create a PIN, to which there were two options: retry or skip for now.  As it was broken this is where the aforementioned boot loop began; the pop up box said "We can't do this right now" or whatever.  Retry just went round and round, and skipping would just log me out.  Looking around on the internet suggested a reinstall of Windows 10, which took 6 hours.  The worrying part of this is now that this is part of reinstalling Windows 10/11.  You have to create a Microsoft Account even though it serves no purpose whatsoever.

I created a local account without the MA access, and have told me sister under no circumstances link it to MA.  I understand that this is set to be compulsory with W11 that you have to log in to MA to access your computer.  This kills any idea of me buying a new computer. AI kills it even more.  Why should I have to log into a computer 5000 miles away to get the laptop in front of me to work?  There's no tangible benefit in doing so.

I would urge anyone to create a separate local administrator account without MA access so you can avoid trashing your data/install like I had to. There is a happy ending though; the laptop now boots up as it should, and there is no MA involved. Windows Update, though, is another story... If you've made it this far, thanks for reading.

[Adduxi]

That’s why I don’t use the “Home” versions of Windows.  I’ve always use the “Pro” versions.  They don’t need a MS account to work. 

[nodrogd]

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@MrHalfAsleep wrote:

I understand that this is set to be compulsory with W11 that you have to log in to MA to access your computer.  This kills any idea of me buying a new computer. AI kills it even more.  Why should I have to log into a computer 5000 miles away to get the laptop in front of me to work? 

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It’s not compulsory. I followed the advice below when setting up my new Windows 11 Home PC. Had no problems at all with it.

https://youtu.be/DTzumvP_RYg?si=ADubEaslKEOG94RZ 

[Adduxi]

Nice work around for sure.  However I'll stick to the Pro versions as I use Bitlocker on my devices.

[big-luap]

Had similar setting up a childs account, the authorising linked Guardia is spelled wrong, even though it is correct on the account. There is no way to edit the linked email address. I ended up having to create a new account with a different guardian, but I cannot delete the old account from the family group. UURRRRRRRRG!!!!!

[MrHalfAsleep]

I STILL Don't Want a Microsoft Account!!

[Tudor]

Ah, the joys of windows. I had used it for years and was involved in betas of the original Windows and Windows server. I even had to sign NDAs and a colleague went to Redmond. The best thing I did was give it up for Apple and UNIX.

[MrHalfAsleep]

When I volunteered with Age Concern several years ago, I went to the Reading Campus to do sessions in emerging technology such as digital cameras and other bits of digital nonsense.  A train ticket was paid for (£85).  Samosas for lunch which were rather tasty.  It was a massive building that was warm, comfortable and very spacious.  There didn't seem to be many staff in there, and I'm still waiting for them to fix Windows 95d USB supplement.🙄

What worried me at the time was showing Mrs Cathers* how do stuff bordering on computer science; unfortunately this has now come full circle; the relentless march of technology and its unintended consequences have been in full swing for several years.

[MrHalfAsleep]

There's more: Pro users should also take note.

On local user accounts in the Start menu a yellow dot will appear on your picture icon (I've left mine blank).  If you hover over this a pop-up will appear asking you to create a Microsoft Account.  DON'T DO IT! As I'm an unemployed person, I was at the local Job Centre plus where I noticed a rather puzzled staff member wondering how to log in to the account someone had put on one of the public access computers. Government PC's use Pro versions of Windows.  The yellow dot situation is gonna get worse; and I suspect this may happen elsewhere, such as the NHS.  Tech types (particularly sysadmins) need need to block it if they can. I've told me sister to ignore it, but it's not going away...

One more thing:  I also asked a staff member if they had any problems with the computers over the last few weeks; the answer being yes, they have had problems.  I mentioned that it was solar storms as per another thread elsewhere on the forum.

[MrHalfAsleep]

There's more: the PIN entry can also break too; leaving the user unable to log in (and how to fix it):

Britec09 YouTube video (opens in a new tab)