5 ms·
I feel like I see this exact article every year or two and then it always comes out that you can easily get around this with some type of easy loophole. Of cour
by Melatonic 5y ago
I feel like I see this exact article every year or two and then it always comes out that you can easily get around this with some type of easy loophole. Of course that might still get the majority of people switching to an online account but..... if you are practically giving away an OS for free is that really so bad?
Not that I am saying I support this change personally of course - I would much rather have microsoft give a CLEAR and easy way to set up a "pro" OS without internet. Why am I paying for something that spys on me again?
For a completely legal way to get around this: Get a copy of Windows 10 LTSC 2019 or 2021.
LTSC 2019 is officially supported and updated for 10 years until 2029
LTSC 2021 is officially supported and updated for 5 years until 2027 (confusing I know)
LTSC 2019 IOT is supported even longer but I have not tested it and it may have additional restrictions that make it not useable as a desktop OS (2032)
Microsoft will officially try to steer you away from LTSC by saying it is for embedded devices and whatnot - this is basically just a straight up lie.
LTSC functions much more like Windows 7 in that it gets all of the regular security updates without the yearly giant "feature" updates. Managing it is much easier but you may not get the latest and greatest shiny microsoft new features. I have deployed it extensively in a corporate environment to certain people / situations and not run into any pieces of software that will not work on it.
LTSC also comes fairly stripped down compared to Windows 10 enterprise (a good thing in my opinion). However if you want things like the Windows 10 store its not hard to add it. If you enjoy talking to dumbest of the cousins in the Siri family then you can probably find a way to add Cortana back too :-D . It runs quite lean comparatively and with a few tweaks you can disable almost all Microsoft telemetry.
If you liked Windows 7 then LTSC is the closest you can get to that experience.
LTSC generally is only available to enterprise customers and education - no idea if you can purchase it stand alone. However an easy way to get a legal copy is simply to find someone with a valid school email or take some classes yourself - the microsoft volume licensing center generally gives away almost all of their software completely for free to students (even including their very expensive datacenter hypervisor licenses / server licenses / Config Management).
- opencl 5y agoThe loophole for years has been not being connected to the internet, they're getting rid of that. Buying LTSC licenses as an individual is not particularly easy or cheap.
- Melatonic 5y agoMight be a good time to take some affordable evening classes at your local community college wink wink nudge nudge
- fortyseven 5y agoWhat a shitty thing to say to someone.
- cpsns 5y agoWhat? He's suggesting getting a student license for Windows/MS Products.
- HWR_14 5y agoThey meant to qualify for educational pricing and discounts, not to improve their skills.
- gjvc 5y agoI'd love to do some electrician qualifications at the local community college.
- iqanq 5y agoOoops, virtue signalling gone wrong here.
- idiotsecant 5y agoWhat is the word for complaining about virtue signalling as a way of virtue signalling?
- SSLy 5y agoIs so meta, even this acronym.
- gruez 5y ago
- Zhyl 5y agoThe "easy loophole" last time was to install windows without an internet connection and then repeatedly try/fail to create an account until the option appeared.
- criddell 5y agoI'm guessing there will still be a way for domain-connected installs to complete without a Microsoft account.
- tssva 5y agoThe Microsoft release notes specifically mention that this only applies to personal use installs which means non-domain installs.
- KSS42 5y agoI heard that a loophole is to install Windows with a MSFT account, create a local account with admin access and then delete the MSFT account
- Dylan16807 5y agoThat doesn't solve the problem.
- BenjiWiebe 5y agoYou can hammer the keyboard to make a Microsoft account and then delete that account. Microsoft won't have learned much about you except that your name is wduwbe73ne7cn47wh.
- Zhyl 5y agoI still wouldn't call that "easy" though. Sure it's a small number of steps, but they aren't trivial or immediately obvious and don't escape the basic issue that we're having to evade the operating system here.
- gruez 5y ago>LTSC 2019 IOT is supported even longer but I have not tested it and it may have additional restrictions that make it not useable as a desktop OS (2032) >LTSC 2021 is officially supported and updated for 5 years until 2027 (confusing I know) LTSC 2019 IOT is supported for the same amount of time as LTSC 2019[1]. Maybe you're talking about LTSC 2021 IOT? That's the one that has 10 year support[2]. [1] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/windows-10-iot-enterprise-ltsc-2019 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/windows-... [2] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/windows-10-iot-enterprise-ltsc-2021 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/windows-...
- Melatonic 5y agoMy bad - not really up on the IOT thing. Regardless LTSC 2019 (non IOT) seems to have 10 year support which goes longer than LTSC 2021
- _dain_ 5y agoI don't get why they make it so god damned difficult to get LTSC. If they just sold it openly it would be popular.
- Melatonic 5y agoThen nobody would use the Windows Store or all the other stuff they want you to use!