[damien c]

I refuse to have a Microsoft account for Windows and will continue to refuse to have one for as long as possible.

I was talking about this elsewhere but there is currently only a couple of things keeping me on Windows and if those change, I will leave Windows in the past.

1: Destiny 2 get's Linux support officially or Keyboard and Mouse support on Console officially.

2: Elgato create Linux drivers (only if one of the options from number 1 happen).

3: Frontier provide full Linux support or add the ability to use any hotas and keyboard on console with Frontier supporting console again.


At the moment I have Windows 11 Pro on all my pc's, but now that I have found an issue that was causing an issue with 1 of the pc's, I will eventually be reloading both pc's with my Windows 11 Enterprise ISO's I have, then making sure that I get rid of any extra bits that are left in for Microsoft to steal information for selling.



This whole Microsoft Account thing started when they started giving the "Upgrade from Windows x to Windows x for free", the only reason they did it for free is because they were/are selling your data to anyone and everyone willing to pay for it including:


Device connectivity and configuration data

Device properties such as the OEM manufacturer, processor type, and memory attributes.

Device settings and configurations, such as networking and peripherals data.

Product and service performance data

Basic error reporting, such as whether updates were successfully installed.

Reliability data about the health of the operating system or services.

Software setup and inventory data

Operating system version, configuration details and updates installed.

Apps and drivers installed on the device.



This lot is supposed to be "Optional" but if you don't change it then it's "Mandatory"

Browsing history data

Browser activity, including browsing history and search terms in Microsoft browsers.

Changes to browser configuration impacting search experiences.

Device connectivity and configuration data

More detailed information about device settings and configurations.

Inking, typing, and speech utterance data

Samples of the content you type, write, or dictate on the device.

Details about status of transcribing input into text.

Product and service performance data

More detailed information about device and service health.

Product and service usage data

App activity, such as which apps are launched.

Operating system and services usage.

Software setup and inventory data

More detailed information about the operating system, apps and services installed.



All of that information is associated with you, and it doesn't matter if you use a "Throw Away" account or not, if they are keylogging and screen scraping etc they know that "Throw Away" account is not you really, and given everything they are trying to do with Data collection (Recall), the UK Government trying to get access to everything on our pc's, phones, tablets, cars, brains etc etc, it won't be long before they will be scraping everything.


If you manage to get rid of the telemetry and block all that lot going back to them, the question then is why bother with a Microsoft account?

There is no legitimate reason to force a Microsoft account, it's all purely about getting as much information to sell as possible.