Microsoft’s User Hostility: Forcing Accounts and Removing Freedom in Windows 11

Microsoft’s decision to remove the Windows 11 offline account workaround reveals a deeper pattern of user manipulation and control, a deliberate attempt to strongarm users into its ecosystem under the false guise of security.

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By. Jacob

Jacob Kristensen (Turbulentarius) is a Web Developer based in Denmark. He is currently pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Web Development at Zealand, focusing on learning React and refining his existing skills.

Edited: 2025-11-04 15:57

We’re removing the bypassnro.cmd script from the build to enhance security and user experience of Windows 11. This change ensures that all users exit setup with internet connectivity and a Microsoft Account.

In March, Microsoft announced that they would be removing yet another workaround to install Windows 11 without a Microsoft account, using wording that is both offensive and provocative. The language they used to describe the change indicates a clear intent to force people into creating a Microsoft account to use Windows — which is, of course, completely unacceptable and a serious act of malice toward their own users. When we get outraged by other kinds of abusive behavior, sexual or otherwise, we should certainly also be outraged by abusive behavior from big tech corporations.

Now, instead of fixing their flawed installation interface by reintroducing the option for local accounts — which existed in earlier versions of Windows — they have doubled down on their malicious behaviour and continued to demonstrate technical ineptitude:

Local-only commands removal: We are removing known mechanisms for creating a local account in the Windows Setup experience (OOBE). While these mechanisms were often used to bypass Microsoft account setup, they also inadvertently skip critical setup screens, potentially causing users to exit OOBE with a device that is not fully configured for use. Users will need to complete OOBE with internet and a Microsoft account, to ensure device is setup correctly.

From a technical standpoint, there is no valid argument for forcing users to create and use Microsoft accounts; installing Windows 11 should not require one. Period. It is unacceptable for Microsoft to remove features and functionality that people depend on without implementing better alternatives.

What Microsoft should be doing is righting their past wrongs to show good faith toward their own users. For example, they should fix their broken taskbar implementation in Windows 11 and once again make it possible for users to move the taskbar — as it has always been. They should drop support for their own email clients and instead start backing open-source clients like Thunderbird. I still haven't forgotten how they stopped supporting old and functional clients like Outlook Express and later Windows Live Mail, which ultimately forced me to switch to Thunderbird permanently. Now, I have to deal with their broken implementation of Microsoft Exchange, which typically doesn't work in open-source clients.

I should not need to remind people that Microsoft's vision of the internet is not necessarily in our best interest. We need decentralized, open-source solutions to defend ourselves against corporate abuse and deliberate acts of sabotage. If not deliberate, then at least grossly incompetent and negligent.

Microsoft — and Apple likewise — should, by law, be required to include an offline account option in the graphical installer of their operating systems. Their continued refusal to include such an option is not an issue of security — that claim is a red herring. It represents a deliberate design strategy to restrict user autonomy and strong-arm integration into their own ecosystems. Such manipulative design practices, while not yet criminal, ought to be treated as digital abuse under future regulation, because they violate users' personal freedom.

Microsoft should respect their users’ freedom of choice — even in cases where using an account may offer minor or limited security advantages.