"Slightly more worrying for consumers, however, is that users will require a Microsoft account in order to set up a Windows 11 system."

A workaround that once worked, no longer works for 11 Home. My workaround was after the first restart to disconnect the ethernet cable; if you had WiFi only, do not check the box to automatically connect. Being the morally bankrupt people that they are, Microsoft took that away in 11 Home. Still haven't tested it in 11 Pro. Still, the "net user" commands still work to create a local account.

I suggest everyone here continually send Microsoft negative feedback about forcing people to use a Microsoft account. I repeatedly do this, and always say it is high priority. Furthermore, I do not use language that would cause it to go straight to the bin. But I do make it a strong point to tell them how morally wrong this is, and there is no ethical justification for it. All of need to spam Microsoft's feedback about this.

I knew about this with the home version, but the articule implies that it's also the case with the pro / enterprise versions in the new release. Can anyone confirm? A very bad idea if so - there are a number of circumstances where I need to set up work computers with local accounts.

I have just this week had to rebuild a machine, so clean install from media, not an upgrade, and wasn't given the option to have a local account. We do all have 'windows' accounts, but it's a pain having to link new devices to a 365 account, before you can join it to the domain, instead of just using a local account.

We are in the process of deploying a load of new hardware anyway, as it is time for a refresh, (laptops and some desktops), so we are taking advantage of that to phase a rollout of 11.

So far, very few issues. Some of our users are extremely technophobic, and many of them haven't even noticed the change, so I'm not sure what kind of people the article is expecting to need to retrain to use a slightly different GUI.

The biggest annoyance for us so far has been that 11 was delivered as an 'update' so the users are able to do it without our interaction. Fortunately very few have (so far).

Is this the current pro / enerprise version of W11? If so then there definitely is an option, although they make it difficult to find!

We manage most of our computers through either WSUS or Intune, both of which allow us to hold the machines at W10 and the W11 update isn't offered. There are a few standalone ones, but fortunately most of them don't meet the W11 hardware requirements!

Is there any point reminding them that despite not liking Microsoft's decision - you haven't gone away.

I haven't heard of any major enterprises jumping ship so they can continue to use their existing hardware fleet. The message to Microsoft is they can upset you in so many ways for there own benefit without losing market - except, perhaps against ChromeOS in education.

Enterprises escaping the Microsoft trap is hard and expensive in the short term. Probably harder and more expensive as time goes by. Few will take the certain pain now for any future benefit elsewhere.

Significant shift in Windows share of the corporate desktop will only come when new disruptors with no Windows heritage grow to become significant global corporations. But then these will probably be using server AI apps to displace the need for any wetware driven desktop. Hence windows can maintain its share of a declining market while trying to grab that cloud based server market to maintain and even enhance revenues.

Can't say for sure if this will go away in the update, but at least on the current Win11, you can create a local user once you've installed and then just ignore the other account, or use it as the backup admin account. It's an extra couple of steps, but if you're already ripping out the ethernet cable, you're clearly motivated enough to do this.

They've B***DY gone and done it again!

My move to Linux a decade ago was triggered by MS dropping support for (1) a large format - 1.5 metre roll feed - technical drawing printer which we used for CAD output, AND, simultaneously, (2) my personal Minolta 35 mm film scanner. Neither were supported in a Win 8 environment, but, believe it or not, both worked still perfectly in an Ubuntu environment, with the manufacturers producing Linux drivers. We were talking about £ 000s of kit here, not something to be casually replaced.

About 3 years ago (I'm now retired) my Minolta scanner died, and after some research I replaced it with an Epson V600 - not quite as good as the Minolta for film scanning, but still good enough for my needs, and properly supported by Epson with Linux drivers (plus Vuescan for Linux systems as well). I still work with an ex-colleague who also uses a V600, but in a Win 10 environment. He has just been told that the Win 11 upgrade he is being pushed to install will NOT support his Epson scanner. "advice" is to get a new machine that Win 11 will play nice with - at least £650! What are MS playing at? This is modern kit, not a relic of the dark ages.

We have arranged a visit when I will see just how much of his kit will play nice in Linux - it is all looking good on paper so far - and will probably end up with me moving him onto Mint 20.3.

It is bad enough having MS trying to "own" your whole machine, but he is determined to make sure that they do not get to own his whole budget as well!

Kinda sounds like the device maker stopped updating their drivers for Windows. For you the end result is the same, but it's not really something Microsoft has control over. You can yell and scream at Microsoft all day, but it's kind of like yelling at a goldfish for losing a foot race.

"but it's not really something Microsoft has control over"

Depends on whether or not the problem is caused by changes MS have made to the way drivers interact with the system - in theory, so long as you can still physically connect the peripheral to the PC, then it ought to be possible to continue using the original drivers to drive said peripheral so long as the OS lets you, because the hardware hasn't changed, the original drivers haven't changed, so the only thing left that could change and break stuff is the OS. At which point the ball would very definitely be back in MS's court.

Problems can also arise due to MS messing around with how Windows deals with new devices when they're first connected, which can make it harder than it ought to be to even attempt to install older drivers - when I tried connecting my old Canon Pixma inkjet to my new W11 laptop, as soon as I plugged in the USB cable (noting that at this point I hadn't tried to pre-install any of the old Canon drivers I still had lying around), 11 was automatically enumerating it as being something other than a printer rather than simply deciding, as it ought to have done, that it actually had no idea what it was I'd plugged in and leaving it listed as an unknown device in need of manual driver installation. You know, a bit like how older versions of Windows used to behave when new stuff got connected. Again, that's on MS and MS alone.

"users will still need retraining before venturing near the user interface – for reasons known only to Microsoft"

It's not just MS - this is a recurring theme with many UI redesigns across a variety of products from different companies. Seems to be a case of UI designers in general not being content until they've changed things sufficiently that the users *have* to pay attention to the changes one way or another, rather than simply continuing to use the new UI without giving it a second thought...

*scene cross-fades to a design studio somewhere in central London*

"I say Tarquin, the latest focus group study shows our users are able to navigate the new UI almost as quickly as the old one, am I reading this report correctly?"

"I know Lavinia, I know, something's gone terribly wrong here, what can we do to make their lives miserable again?"

"What ho Tarqs, Lavvie, wouldn't it be a splendid wheeze if we, you know, just move *everything*?"

"And change the colours to be less contrasty whilst we're at it?"

"What about removing some of the visual cues users rely on to know which parts of the UI can be interacted with?"

"My god, I think we've got it! Quick, get those changes pushed into production - no, skip the test phase, this is TOO important to delay - and away to the wine bar we go for a celebratory drinkie-poos"

*credits roll*

Yes yes, I know, hideous stereotyping of graphics design people there. But you know what, after suffering the effects of their handiwork in various products I use on a daily basis over the past few years, my ability to be nice to them is practically exhausted, and I now regard them as fair game for whatever levels of ridicule and scorn get thrown their way by users fed up beyond our capacity to cope as we struggle with UI design changes that offer so much less than they take away.

Similarly, Windows 11 22H2 will also try to install its updates when the local electricity supply is coming from renewable sources, assuming it has access to data feeds with that information.

So of all the potential improvements possible for an MS OS, it wasted carbon on virtue signalling?

It's a huge assumption given AFAIK that information doesn't exist, and there aren't really any plans (other than maybe marketing) to supply that data. 'Smart' meters don't do it, they're just there to allow 'demand management'.

Even if the data were available, it'd lead to interesting situations. So-

http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/index.php

Wind has been low due to the err.. weather. So MS issues a critical update, power manager sees you're running on gas, and postpones the update. On the other hand, I guess MS could collect a lot of detailed power supply and usage data. Given the current energy crisis, that could be rather valuable.

I just got a shiny new 12th Gen i7 system, so I'm committed to the Win11 ecosystem like it or not. I'd probably see a pretty significant performance decrease and lose access to the primary selling point of the 12th gen Core chips. Guess it's a good thing I really don't mind most of the changes to Win11. I actually like some of the file manager changes, like putting cut/copy/paste/delete functions as easier to access buttons at the top of the right-click menu. I wish they'd add the functionality for it to remember which virtual desktop it was on when being restored, but I only tend to reboot to install updates, so minor annoyance. The rest doesn't really bother me. I was using the Ctrl-Shift-Esc keyboard shortcut to get the task manager for so long I never even noticed the option in the taskbar until seeing El Reg mention it. I almost never use the start menu, having trained myself to use the search function which has come a long ways since Win8. A lot of people might be happier pinning Windows Tools to their start menu.

What I want to see more of, however, is Microsoft ripping out elements that have been around since the NT 3.1 days and put in native WinUI 3 replacements. I'm not a fan of the current visual style, but once you have everything running on the same graphics API you could add in functionality akin to GTK+ themes to change the visual appearance without messing with underlying functionality.

Rather than move to another platform, they stay with the one they dislike and think whining and wishing it better will make it so.

Almost the same way people would rather vote Tory in the hope they change than prompt the change by voting for someone ( anyone !!!) else.