The bells are tolling for Windows 10 and many users who have been waiting are now choosing to update to Windows 11. If you are one of them, congratulations on the continued security updates and new features, but also on an operating system that has received a lot of criticism since its launch in 2021 – sometimes justified, but often exaggerated.
Because if you look beyond the glassy surface with its rounded corners and the Start menu in its strict position, the differences are actually not that crazy. It’s not like switching to Mac or Linux, certainly not.
In many cases, these are fairly small changes that you can quickly get used to. In many cases it’s even possible to restore or emulate old behavior, and new additions that you don’t need can often be disabled or hidden.
Relax and enjoy the ride and everything will be easier, right?
Microsoft has become more like Apple in one area in recent years. Where the company used to make an effort to step aside and let users choose how they want to use their computers, now it prefers that you do certain things a certain way.
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The most obvious example is that you are almost forced to sign in with a Microsoft account instead of a traditional local account. For example, normally it is not possible to choose a local account when installing the system. This can be circumvented quite easily, but Microsoft keeps harping on all the benefits of its account.
In a sense, the company is right. For example, with a Microsoft account you don’t have to worry about registering Windows because the license key is linked to the account and is easy to reactivate if you make changes to the hardware. I find this very useful because sometimes I boot my Windows installation directly and sometimes into a virtual machine. Even though the hardware is completely different, the system has no problem with activation.
Windows 11 Home can encrypt local storage with Device Encryption, but it requires a Microsoft account to save a copy of the recovery key. So if you want to use a local account, you’ll need a Pro license to encrypt the drive.
Further reading: How to save your older PC when Windows 10 reaches end of life
Other benefits include synchronization of settings and applications installed from the Microsoft Store between computers and automatic authentication for all other Microsoft services and applications. If you have a Microsoft 365 subscription for Office, things will be much easier if you’re signed in to Windows with the same Microsoft account.
But if you don’t subscribe to Microsoft 365, don’t use OneDrive, don’t need disk encryption, and rarely if ever change hardware, a Microsoft account has no practical benefit. If you want, you can still choose a local account, even with Windows 11 Home.
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