[German]I have to bring the subject up again and ask it as a question: When reinstalling Windows 10 Pro, did any of you notice that only a Microsoft account (and no offline account) can be created there?
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Last week I took up a hint from Dr. Windows that an offline account can no longer be created when reinstalling Windows 10 Home (versions 1903 and 1909) – see my blog post Windows 10: Forced Microsoft Account also in Germany. During setup a Windows 10 Home systems, users can only create a Microsoft account. After the OOBE phase, users are able to remove the Microsoft account and switch to a local (offline) account.
Only if a machine doesn't have Internet access, the option to create a new offline account is available.
We have tested it multiple times, the behavior outlined above is only available in Windows 10 Home (versions 1903 and 1909). German blog reader Sherlock confirmed that within this German comment. Later I wrote also an article for German IT site heise (Microsoft-Kontenzwang bei der Installation auch für Windows 10 in Deutschland). For this articles also the editors at heise tested some installations in virtual machines. Conclusion was also:
- The build number of the installation image of Windows 10 version 1909 made no difference (the sub-builds .418 and .592 were tested) – which indicates that Microsoft has changed something on the server side.
- Windows 10 Home forces a Microsoft account during setup, while Windows 10 Pro setup offers a choice between Microsoft and an offline account in the OOBE setup phase.
But shortly after I published my German blog post and also the heise article, I received feedback from German readers, reporting, that Windows 10 Pro has the same behavior. The comments here, here, and here saying, they observed the same, Windows 10 Pro forced users to create a Microsoft account during OOBE phase. So my question: Has anyone else noticed this?
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