True. I did it twice on two different installs in the last few days for 8.1 Pro RTM - upgrading from 8.0 which had local account. Both times I looked very hard

True. I did it twice on two different installs in the last few days for 8.1 Pro RTM - upgrading from 8.0 which had local account. Both times I looked very hard to create a local account. Here is a blog describing how to get around it for preview but he describes exactly my experience for RTM. http://www.infobyte.hr/blog/337/windows-8-1-preview-how-to-install-without-microsoft-account-skip-microsoft-account/ http://www.infobyte.hr/blog/337/windows-8-1-preview-how-to-i... note: I'm talking about the install process. not in the OS UI after install.