Not on modern Windows 11, though you can still do so by saying you use the computer professionally, entering bad credentials in the MS login and then clicking the "local account" button. Who knows how long that'll keep working, though.
If you click "Domain join instead" on the Azure AD login screen it gives up and asks you to make a local account, which you can then use to join the domain once you get to the desktop.
Domain joining from setup is impossible (it requires a reboot, and then group policy could push something that breaks the rest of the out-of-box experience), so it's safe to assume that will always be there (unless they do a major change to how AD joining works, but they probably won't since they consider it "legacy").
Not any more. You can do it if you are completely offline during initial setup, but if you do the first network setup it won't let you continue until you set up an MS account. I'm sure 11 does the same thing.
But the current versions of windows 10 only offer that if you don't have internet (no ethernet cable in, and answered "I don't have a wifi" in the screen before user creation), if you connected to the wifi it won't show the option for local account.
You can decline to create a Microsoft account but it will prompt you to make one again every time you install updates and there’s only an option to “remind me later”
Also, in the latest versions of the windows 11 install or OEM first boot setups, the only way you can get the local account option is to kill every network connection. The local account option is hidden otherwise.
My ritual for family machine setup is locate wifi kill switch-> if not available, announce wireless going down-> kill network->setup to local account->reenable network
It's patently infuriating. Throw in where I've had family members set up Microsoft accounts with only 1 form of auth (Phone number), change that, them get locked out of their Microsft account for a month because of Microsoft's daft policies. Though I didn't set up that machine. It boggles the mind that Microsoft's default flow would run the risk of such an outcome.
No we won't just add a "No thanks" button, but we'll set up an undocumented magic username to serve the same purpose?
And to make it even more nightmarish, where is that check? Is it extractable from the installer binary? Or is it some weird exception case implemented in server code only viewable by microsoft?
For that matter, who owns thankyou.com? Is there some unfortunate sod with no@thankyou.com as an email address?
That doesn't fix the issue. They are going dark patterm, which is the bloody issue.
There is nothing about that setup that isn't an exercise in plausibly deniable forced on-ramping. No it isn't a best practice to create the illusion you can't use an operating system without agreeing to a cloud services contract.
That's BS, and should be called out as such. UX is trying to gaslight the non-technical into services they don't need, and I'm willing to go out on a limb that everyone in the market is trying to converge on that exact practice.
>in the latest versions of the windows 11 install or OEM first boot setups, the only way you can get the local account option is to kill every network connection.
And when you did, the next step required you to first select "I don't have internet" then next be shown some embarassing pseudo-technical propaganda appealing to your FOMO, to provide one full page of discouragement before you agree to "continue with limited setup" if you want to actually have a full regular local account. And that illusion is maintained further into the user experience, where status will sometimes be reported as "setup incomplete".
With the Sept 2022 release of W11 you can't even do that any more.
When you reach this point and there is no longer the option to admit your poor soul has no internet, the incantation here is to hit Shift+F10 which opens a command prompt. Click in the CMD window to make it respond to your keyboard then oobe\bypassnro. Reboots and reverts to previous "I don't have internet" option.
I'm not saying you're wrong, but nothing at the link you posted (that I could see) says that that message would migrate a local account to an online one.
Ok, fair enough. So what does it mean? This is seen on local Windows accounts, but it's referring to Microsoft accounts. Sure looks like an attempt to "join" the two.
