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this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2025
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Why the fuck is a Microsoft account so important to Windows that running it without one is considered a "loophole"?
My guess is that's it's easier to neatly package your data up for when they go to sell it.
Because we need your data silly 😊
They want to make money off of services, every service they offer requires a Microsoft account to purchase and use. Everyone that they force to make an account during setup is one step closer to paying for a Microsoft service.
There are obviously tradeoffs (less sales of these versions of windows and some users pushed away from Windows altogether among others), but the motivation is clear.
because microsoft is shifting focus from selling you a product, to selling you as a product
And they need a unique account to track every single click and thing you do on your PC, and the web, and everywhere else to facilitate doing that with greater control and ease.
Its literally what, and for the same reason, google has done for the past decade+
Microsoft will sell it as a safety thing - your essential stuff is backed up to your Microsoft account, so in the event that your computer is compromised or damaged, you can wipe and start over with your important stuff restored from your Microsoft account.
Which is not a bad idea in itself, but the rest of the data harvesting and telemetry makes it yuck. I use pihole to block access to Microsoft telemetry servers.