Microsoft Really Wants You Online When You Install Windows And Are Making It Harder To Avoid

They’re Doing It For Your Own Good, Of Course

Microsoft is testing a way to block one of the more popular ways to avoid setting up an online account with them when installing Windows. That is not to say there aren’t still ways to successfully avoid doing so, after all their business customers would be deeply unappreciative of being forced into this but the easiest workaround will be no more.  The registry edit mentioned in the article Slashdot linked to is one such way to avoid this step while you install Windows, for now.  This follows Microsoft’s attempts to prevent installing Windows 11 on older hardware, another move which annoyed a lot of their users.

Microsoft has decided to actually give a positive reason for their obsession with needing a live internet connection during a Windows install.  They are finally getting around to pushing the long promised Quick Machine Recovery out to Insiders, accessible via the advanced startup settings page.  The recovery tool was first imagined after the CrowdStrike fiasco which happened just under a year ago.  That saw millions of PCs, most in businesses, become unable to boot and required physical access to the systems to resolve.  The ability to pull a fix from the internet during a failed boot could ensure such a disaster is much less likely to occur.

In less interesting news, the BSoD may soon become the BSoD, Black Edition.  For reasons unknown to everyone but themselves, Microsoft intends to fiddle with the famous crash screen which used to give you a somewhat useful error description on a blue background which they replaced with and utterly useless QR code on a blue background.  It may soon have a black background and actually have an error description again if the screenshot from The Verge is an accurate example.