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The temporary profile doesn't really pretend to be the user, but Explorer's default (which I hate) is to obscure the full path, "C:\Users\TEMP" and just show the username. You have to hit "CTRL + l" to see the actual path. You can't even navigate 'up' a directory to see where you are, and if you right-click in that directory there is no "Properties". I tried talking them through this on the phone before they shut the computer off. It was basically impossible to figure out over the phone. This type of "magic" bullshit really irritates me.

> This type of "magic" bullshit really irritates me.

Microsoft seems to have tried to get rid of outmoded notions such as directories, without ever articulating what new model they favoured. So you get these privileged spaces (I have no better word) like "Documents". They've tried to make Explorer as invisible as possible.

But they never finished the job! So you end up with a mess of "AppData" (apparently a normal directory) and "Application Data" (not accessible). I presume the first is an alias for the second; but the second should be invisible if it's not accessible (there are other directories like this).

This started with Win7. Then they stopped abruptly, but never reverted these aborted changes. It's as if there's nobody in charge. My guess is that forcing Microsoft accounts, "instrumentation", and failed attempts to hegemonize mobile were prioritized over fixing what they'd broken.

NT4 was a reasonable OS, with a rotten commandline. Nothing they've shipped since has come close.

It’s like how Windows seems to have at least four different control panels now. There’s whatever comes up if you search for, say, “user accounts”. There’s the actual Control Panel. There’s MMC. And there’s the group policy editor. (Maybe that last one gets a pass.)

And all of these partially duplicate functionality. Want to change the password of a different user account? You can’t do it from the user account panel - you can only do it from the other user account panel.

Same half baked changes. It was too time consuming to change everything, so they only changed surface level stuff that ‘normal’ users need.

MMC and Group policy do way more than user accounts.

But yes it is a mess and only as an IT person I can somewhat make sense of when to use the modern Settings - Accounts, Control Panel users, MMC or sysdm.cpl

And there’s the group policy editor. (Maybe that last one gets a pass.)

I've always joked that the gpedit.msc is where the real settings are. It's one of the pieces that has stayed the same (and even been added to) while all the other parts are gradually dumbed-down and becoming less useful.

Interestingly that's the one they decided to take away from the vast majority of their users. Just because Windows users paid for it doesn't mean it's not Microsoft's computer and MS doesn't want users messing with their stuff.

"Application Data" and "Program Files" were chosen for Windows 95 as a safety valve for programs that were upgraded to work with long files but might still be making assumptions such as filenames won't have a space. It would cause them to fail early so those bugs could be fixed.

But it also made the 250 character path limit much easier to reach. When the NT unification happened with 2000/XP the shorter AppData was used with "Application Data" remaining as a junction point to the roaming profile for compatibility.

ApplicationData can store data shared by all users for an application to avoid duplicating for each user in their app data and such

> but the second should be invisible if it's not accessible

It is invisible unless you decided to enable "Show hidden and system files".

Should Explorer have three modes, "no hidden", "show hidden and system but only some", "show all files"?

Who would complain if they would make it like that?

Ah, that'll be it.

Thing is, I don't want any hidden files, ever. I've been driving with "Show hidden and system files" set for 20 years. It's just about the first setting I change on a new Windows system.

> Losing connection to an online Microsoft account can also result in a user ending up with a temporary account.

What the fuck?!

So it all but forces you to link your identity to something Microsoft owns... just to refuse your identity back and throwing you into some unrecognizable woods if Microsoft fails to validate it.

I guess failing to log you on your own computer because MS is down would enrage people. So it's better to gaslight them until they give up.

Creating an account allows to choose between using a Microsoft account or creating a local account.

But doesn't windows later prompt you to migrate to a Microsoft account?

And there's this nagging alert that keeps popping up:

"Microsoft account problem."

"We need to fix your microsoft account. (Most likely your password changed). Select here to fix it in shared experiences settings."

Which I assume most novice users would obey.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/seeing...

Also, in the latest versions of the windows 11 install or OEM first boot setups, the only way you can get the local account option is to kill every network connection. The local account option is hidden otherwise.

My ritual for family machine setup is locate wifi kill switch-> if not available, announce wireless going down-> kill network->setup to local account->reenable network

It's patently infuriating. Throw in where I've had family members set up Microsoft accounts with only 1 form of auth (Phone number), change that, them get locked out of their Microsft account for a month because of Microsoft's daft policies. Though I didn't set up that machine. It boggles the mind that Microsoft's default flow would run the risk of such an outcome.

Alternatively you can enter no@thankyou.com as the username and a random password, which causes the login to fail, allowing local account setup [1].

[1]: https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-11/269419/tip-set-u...

...That is horrifying.

No we won't just add a "No thanks" button, but we'll set up an undocumented magic username to serve the same purpose?

And to make it even more nightmarish, where is that check? Is it extractable from the installer binary? Or is it some weird exception case implemented in server code only viewable by microsoft?

For that matter, who owns thankyou.com? Is there some unfortunate sod with no@thankyou.com as an email address?

There is so much wrong with this. I can't even...

You're thinking this through much more than Microsoft ever did. The OP was only saying to pretend that you can't log into an existing account.

That doesn't fix the issue. They are going dark patterm, which is the bloody issue.

There is nothing about that setup that isn't an exercise in plausibly deniable forced on-ramping. No it isn't a best practice to create the illusion you can't use an operating system without agreeing to a cloud services contract.

That's BS, and should be called out as such. UX is trying to gaslight the non-technical into services they don't need, and I'm willing to go out on a limb that everyone in the market is trying to converge on that exact practice.

>in the latest versions of the windows 11 install or OEM first boot setups, the only way you can get the local account option is to kill every network connection.

And when you did, the next step required you to first select "I don't have internet" then next be shown some embarassing pseudo-technical propaganda appealing to your FOMO, to provide one full page of discouragement before you agree to "continue with limited setup" if you want to actually have a full regular local account. And that illusion is maintained further into the user experience, where status will sometimes be reported as "setup incomplete".

With the Sept 2022 release of W11 you can't even do that any more.

When you reach this point and there is no longer the option to admit your poor soul has no internet, the incantation here is to hit Shift+F10 which opens a command prompt. Click in the CMD window to make it respond to your keyboard then oobe\bypassnro. Reboots and reverts to previous "I don't have internet" option.

Sheesh.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but nothing at the link you posted (that I could see) says that that message would migrate a local account to an online one.

Ok, fair enough. So what does it mean? This is seen on local Windows accounts, but it's referring to Microsoft accounts. Sure looks like an attempt to "join" the two.

Not on modern Windows 11, though you can still do so by saying you use the computer professionally, entering bad credentials in the MS login and then clicking the "local account" button. Who knows how long that'll keep working, though.

If you click "Domain join instead" on the Azure AD login screen it gives up and asks you to make a local account, which you can then use to join the domain once you get to the desktop.

Domain joining from setup is impossible (it requires a reboot, and then group policy could push something that breaks the rest of the out-of-box experience), so it's safe to assume that will always be there (unless they do a major change to how AD joining works, but they probably won't since they consider it "legacy").

On Pro you can.

https://imgur.com/a/TXNtJHy

Select "Join a domain/corparete" network and there is a button for offline account.

"Allows you to choose" is absolutely the wrong way to describe it.

But yes, if you get an script with the set of actions that make local accounts possible, you can replicate them.

It's easy to miss but it is/was absolutely possible to decline creating a Microsoft account when installing Windows 10.

You can decline to create a Microsoft account but it will prompt you to make one again every time you install updates and there’s only an option to “remind me later”

Long ago it was always the advice to never use an odd numbered windows release.

Seems like it still holds!

Original windows 10 offered it as an option.

But the current versions of windows 10 only offer that if you don't have internet (no ethernet cable in, and answered "I don't have a wifi" in the screen before user creation), if you connected to the wifi it won't show the option for local account.

Not any more. You can do it if you are completely offline during initial setup, but if you do the first network setup it won't let you continue until you set up an MS account. I'm sure 11 does the same thing.

On Pro you can.

https://imgur.com/a/TXNtJHy

Select "Join a domain/corparete" network and there is a button for offline account.

Why do people put up with this? Just use linux. KDE is amazing these days.

People don't tend to care about operating systems, but they do tend to care about applications.

Its a one-time thing on setup. Yes its dumb for sure.

Lol this is why i have a reminder at the end of every month to log in to some critical but not often used accounts just to make sure it's still there lol. I lost a yahoo account after they started their use it or lose it approach.

> So it all but forces you to link your identity to something Microsoft owns...

If Microsoft has full access to your hard drive and can make changes to your system and files any time they want they own a lot more than your user profile. It's their system. They are the admin, and you are a peasant and the extent of your access to your(?) data and Microsoft's system can be limited or revoked at any time.

That literally isn't anything. You're making up a situation that isn't a thing.

The exact same thing can be said of Debian maintainers, Ubuntu maintainers, etc. They probably “own” as many servers as Microsoft.

The real-world number of linux admins who inspect all packages before applying them is basically zero. Most Linux/BSD systems likely have unattended upgrades enabled by default.

I could log into my latest Windows 11 developer preview update computer offline or online or I can lose connection to the internet while I'm logged in and literally none of this happens. Everything just always works.

> Was the profile actually corrupted

How do you diagnose a corrupt profile? What causes corruption? Is there some diagnostic I can run that will detect and repair corruption before it's too late?

^ yeah, this. Since the user doesn't create their own profile, and it's all arcane internal windows crap, why can't it be a bit more helpful than "Woopsie, you're in a temporary profile now! Normal rules do not apply." Like, "Do you want Windows to create a new profile and try to migrate your data to it?"

>Losing connection to an online Microsoft account can also result in a user ending up with a temporary account.

Not on Windows 7