Image description: Elon Musk & X @elonmusk • 42m Just bought a new PC laptop and it won’t let me use it unless I create a Microsoft account, which also means giving their Al access to my computer! This is messed up. There used to be an option to skip signing into or creating a Microsoft account. Are you seeing this too? This is not cool of Microsoft.
(Originally published on mastodon.social: 2024-02-25)
@clacke@libranet.de For anyone wondering, I went through this recently and the secret is to first try to login with “admin” username and any password. The login will fail and then you’re prompted to create a local account without needing a Microsoft account. It’s possible you also have to skip the initial Wi-Fi setup.
Although, even not using a Microsoft account doesn’t prevent Windows from collecting heaps of data, including possibly for AI training. Having Musk express the same kind of technical ignorance as people he probably would have branded as luddite himself is quite ironic.