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Microsoft kills official way to activate windows without internet
(www.neowin.net)
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this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2026
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look fuck microsoft, but - who is trying to activate windows without any internet access at all?
Sorry souls who don't want to create a MS account if they just need to reimage a PC or only need a local account. Such a blatant attempt at locking folks into their ecosystem. Same as Apple.
this isn’t about microsoft accounts or local PC accounts. this is just about activating the OS which you can do on a provided website (without an account).
Use Pro edition and you aren't locked into an account.
Yeah. Owning the thing you pay for is a premium feature.
That doesn't make sense.
Yeah, but that's apparently how Microsoft rolls, as you noted.
💯 this. Yes, you can still create a local account from the Out of Box Experience with the Pro version when selecting "Domain Join". But my original statement still stands as this feature had to be added back in after many folks complained. Whereas the Home version has been slowly losing the methods to just make an account and go about your day. Pretty pathetic if you ask me.
FUD. The pro version has always had local account creation during OOBE.
[Citation needed]
That never happened to me despite deploying hundreds of PCs in the early stages of the initial OS rollout. Even in nondomain systems, creating the local account was trivial, even if you did have to navigate through dark patterns to make you think you didn't have another option.