Microsoft's Own VP Hates the Mandatory Account Requirement. The Teams That Profit From It Won't Let Go.

Microsoft's own VP just said "Ya I hate that. Working on it." about the mandatory Microsoft Account requirement in Windows 11. That's Scott Hanselman. Vice President of Developer Community. The person Microsoft literally pays to make developers happy. And he's publicly admitting the setup experience for Windows 11 is broken. Here's the backstory Windows 11 launched in October 2021. From day one, the Home edition forced you to create a Microsoft Account during setup. No internet? No local account? No computer. By mid-2022, they extended the same requirement to Windows 11 Pro. The developer community responded exactly how you'd expect. People started sharing workarounds like oobe\bypassnro in Command Prompt. Others used Rufus to create modified install media. Some disconnected their ethernet mid-setup just to get a local account. Microsoft noticed. They started patching the workarounds. Killing bypass scripts. Removing the "I don't have internet" button from preview builds. It became an