7 ms·

My son has a personal Windows 11 Lenovo laptop and he is signed in with his personal Microsoft account. The laptop went away for repairs because the touchpad no

My son has a personal Windows 11 Lenovo laptop and he is signed in with his personal Microsoft account. The laptop went away for repairs because the touchpad no longer worked. When it returned, it turned out they replaced the main board so the bit locker keys needed to be entered again. These are typically stored in your Micsosoft account only they were nowhere to be found. Some help article on the MS website explained that sometimes it could happen that the keys are migrated to a school account. He only ever used his school account from the Teams app. Sure enough, the bit locker keys were there!! If he would have graduated or otherwise no longer have access to his school account, he would never have been able to recover the drive. Of course he has his important files in cloud storage anyway but it’s very annoying nonetheless

rsync 4y ago
"... Of course he has his important files in cloud storage anyway but it’s very annoying nonetheless ..." That doesn't sound reassuring if the cloud storage is, itself, Microsoft connected ... or even using auth/login mechanisms that connect to the Microsoft account.
- roywashere 4y ago
  It is Google Drive, actually
  - usr1106 4y ago
    So good luck with Google customer support when Google's algorithms decide that your login attempt is suspect or your usage violated whatever terms of services they might have buried in their legalize.
Groxx 4y ago
Bitlocker is such a freaking user-hostile mess. I know what I'm doing with it and I still screw it up - I have no idea how non-technical people are supposed to have any idea what's going on. They're either totally unprotected or constantly at risk of losing everything even with professional help.
Macha 4y ago
All this discussion makes me glad I'm sticking to local logins for the Windows devices I still have to use. Once that option is gone, I guess that's the end of Windows on my devices.
- croutonwagon 4y ago
  Agree. I also shy away from using google or ms oath for third party services. Partly due to privacy but partly paranoid concerns like this
- MonaroVXR 4y ago
  Or use a back-up im not being sarcastic. People with Macbooks have the same issue.
- toss1 4y ago
  Yup, Microsoft can't even keep straight their account management, yet they are insisting on depreciating the local-only accounts. I strictly use the local-only setup. I'm sort of OK if they still leave a relatively trivial backdoor to do this, but if they ever flat require an online account, I'm out, hard. This is partially due to wanting to avoid the hassle and management of yet-another-forking-online-acct-IDGAF-about, but also because I have some machines controlling industrial processes (CNC machines, custom cutting machines, etc.) that I keep entirely off any network for security & safety reasons (yes, moving anything to/from those machines is all sneaker-net; simple, works, and my shop doesn't yet have the scale to justify that kind of networking/security/admin overhead). I just hope that MS engineering is not stupid or powerless enough to allow MS marketing & MBAs to fully kill off the local account. This entire attitude of exploiting customers by requiring spurious internet accounts & connections is making me start to think that the Internet is all a huge mistake. If that approach takes over, the world will literally be worse than before the Internet in every important way (and there are some solid arguments that it already is worse).
  - jtode 4y ago
    The internet was not designed to deal with money, or security. The internet is designed strictly for information transfer from one place to another with extreme efficiency. At that, it still excels and is no mistake. The problem is all the people using it for money.
mikub 4y ago
You can also backup your Bitlocker key to an USB-Stick or external HDD. When installing Win11 they even ask you if you want to back it up on your MS-Account or an external device.
- fortran77 4y ago
  I print mine out and put it in my safe. It's saved me a few times.
jackmott42 4y ago
security is getting to be worse than what is protects against. its a daily bane, especially for work stuff as everything is locked down extra hard they tried to simplify it by tying everything to yubi keys, but just this week some things stopped going to the yubikey and wanted me to auth on my phone like we used to instead. ugh
- Hizonner 4y ago
  Letting an organization grab control of resources that do not belong to it, without the consent of the actual owners of those resources, is not "security".
- vorpalhex 4y ago
  Cryptolockers at least give you a support email and let you pay to recover your data...
sandworm101 4y ago
>>the keys are migrated to a school account. >>Of course he has his important files in cloud storage anyway So MS's defective key system is pushing people to keep their files in the MS cloud? When a defect in one product pushes users towards are more profitable/addictive product, that isn't a defect. It sound like the plan to keep users hooked into the MS ecosystem is progressing nicely. Once upon a time it was Apple getting its hooks into users while at school. Now it is MS. Does one still need an MS account to play minecraft?

rsync 4y ago

"... Of course he has his important files in cloud storage anyway but it’s very annoying nonetheless ..." That doesn't sound reassuring if the cloud storage is, itself, Microsoft connected ... or even using auth/login mechanisms that connect to the Microsoft account.

roywashere 4y ago
It is Google Drive, actually
- usr1106 4y ago
  So good luck with Google customer support when Google's algorithms decide that your login attempt is suspect or your usage violated whatever terms of services they might have buried in their legalize.

Groxx 4y ago

Bitlocker is such a freaking user-hostile mess. I know what I'm doing with it and I still screw it up - I have no idea how non-technical people are supposed to have any idea what's going on. They're either totally unprotected or constantly at risk of losing everything even with professional help.

Macha 4y ago

All this discussion makes me glad I'm sticking to local logins for the Windows devices I still have to use. Once that option is gone, I guess that's the end of Windows on my devices.

croutonwagon 4y ago
Agree. I also shy away from using google or ms oath for third party services. Partly due to privacy but partly paranoid concerns like this
MonaroVXR 4y ago
Or use a back-up im not being sarcastic. People with Macbooks have the same issue.
toss1 4y ago
Yup, Microsoft can't even keep straight their account management, yet they are insisting on depreciating the local-only accounts. I strictly use the local-only setup. I'm sort of OK if they still leave a relatively trivial backdoor to do this, but if they ever flat require an online account, I'm out, hard. This is partially due to wanting to avoid the hassle and management of yet-another-forking-online-acct-IDGAF-about, but also because I have some machines controlling industrial processes (CNC machines, custom cutting machines, etc.) that I keep entirely off any network for security & safety reasons (yes, moving anything to/from those machines is all sneaker-net; simple, works, and my shop doesn't yet have the scale to justify that kind of networking/security/admin overhead). I just hope that MS engineering is not stupid or powerless enough to allow MS marketing & MBAs to fully kill off the local account. This entire attitude of exploiting customers by requiring spurious internet accounts & connections is making me start to think that the Internet is all a huge mistake. If that approach takes over, the world will literally be worse than before the Internet in every important way (and there are some solid arguments that it already is worse).
- jtode 4y ago
  The internet was not designed to deal with money, or security. The internet is designed strictly for information transfer from one place to another with extreme efficiency. At that, it still excels and is no mistake. The problem is all the people using it for money.

mikub 4y ago

You can also backup your Bitlocker key to an USB-Stick or external HDD. When installing Win11 they even ask you if you want to back it up on your MS-Account or an external device.

fortran77 4y ago
I print mine out and put it in my safe. It's saved me a few times.

jackmott42 4y ago

security is getting to be worse than what is protects against. its a daily bane, especially for work stuff as everything is locked down extra hard they tried to simplify it by tying everything to yubi keys, but just this week some things stopped going to the yubikey and wanted me to auth on my phone like we used to instead. ugh

Hizonner 4y ago
Letting an organization grab control of resources that do not belong to it, without the consent of the actual owners of those resources, is not "security".
vorpalhex 4y ago
Cryptolockers at least give you a support email and let you pay to recover your data...

sandworm101 4y ago

>>the keys are migrated to a school account. >>Of course he has his important files in cloud storage anyway So MS's defective key system is pushing people to keep their files in the MS cloud? When a defect in one product pushes users towards are more profitable/addictive product, that isn't a defect. It sound like the plan to keep users hooked into the MS ecosystem is progressing nicely. Once upon a time it was Apple getting its hooks into users while at school. Now it is MS. Does one still need an MS account to play minecraft?