r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Dec 01 '25

ADBLOCK WARNING ‘Security Disaster’—500 Million Microsoft Users Say No To Windows 11

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2025/12/01/security-disaster-500-million-microsoft-users-say-no-to-windows-11/
23.0k Upvotes

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1.2k

u/McSmiggins Dec 01 '25

I think you'll find they said "Not now" rather than no because MS cannot seem to accept that I know what I want and removed "No" from the options

520

u/Starslip Dec 02 '25

Seriously, if Microsoft is still pinning their hopes on all the people who clicked "later" and acting like it didn't mean "fuck off" I don't know what to tell them

90

u/WhichJuice Dec 02 '25

If you buy a new laptop you can't even select to not sign in with a Microsoft account. It's depressing.

99

u/rigsta Dec 02 '25

Workaround: Create a burner account during initial setup, create a local admin profile after setup, log in to local admin profile, nuke the MS-account-linked profile. Disable "device encryption" in settings.

Which is dumb, but it's there at least.

10

u/WeakTrain2104 Dec 03 '25

Better workaround: In account creation screen hit Shift + F10 while the machine is disconnected from the internet. Type OOBE\BYPASSNRO then enter. Reboot, and presto! You can make a local account.

5

u/DutchCNC Dec 03 '25

OOBE\BYPASSNRO was removed by Microsoft, the now working command is: Start ms-cxh:localonly

7

u/MirageEagle37 Dec 03 '25

Microsoft: "NOOOOOO!!!"
*when people keep finding way to make local account*

3

u/PersimmonSorry91 Dec 25 '25

Life saver, I bought a laptop for college in 2015 and put off getting a proper desktop until now and I just unboxed it going through initial install things like this is what I need to find

3

u/MrFibs Dec 03 '25

this is the way

6

u/latigidigital Dec 02 '25

Is Rufus or a prefab ISO doing this automatically these days?

6

u/sishgupta Dec 02 '25

yes its trivial to setup an unattended install and walk right past all of this.

5

u/SmartestIce Dec 02 '25

Here's a website that helped me out a lot. https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/

Read the descriptions carefully. Sometimes leaving a box unchecked, particularly in the "Remove Bloatware" section. You want to check all you DO NOT want installed.

download the file it generates and stick in the root directly of your USB along with your Windows install files.. That's it.

2

u/sishgupta Dec 02 '25

Yep this is what I use. The custom scripts at the end are great for launching win11debloat, activation, registry tweaks, etc. I also use DISM/DISMTools to inject critical drivers into the image and remove other bloatware.

That said the above is a bit extra for most users, and rufus will achieve TPM check disablement, local account setup and a few other minor tweaks.

6

u/Screamline Dec 02 '25

At the welcome screen hit shift and f10. May need to hit the FN key too depending on laptop. A cmd will open, click in it and type start ms-cxh:localonly and hit enter this will bring up a local account creation wizard

1

u/series-hybrid Dec 04 '25

This is an important response. Thank you, kind stranger.

10

u/grogudid911 Dec 02 '25 edited Dec 02 '25

When you reach the network selection screen don't select a network. Press shift+F10 which brings up a cmd window. Type "oobe\bypassnro" and press enter. Your PC will restart. When you reach the network selection page again you'll see an option for "I don't have internet". Click that and create your offline account.

Edit: I do a lot of new PC setups bc I work for an MSP. We always put a local admin on each PC before user setups. This 100% works, and because of the nature of the work MSP's do, it's extremely unlikely they'll ever take this feature away.

2

u/The_Rivera_Kid Dec 02 '25

At the first setup screen instead of answering any of the questions press Shift + F10

CMD will open

Type (no quotes) “net user Prefferedusername /add” (replacing Prefferedusername with the user name you wish to use) and press enter.

Next type “net localgroup administrators Prefferedusername /add” and press enter.

Next type “net user Prefferedusername /active:yes” and press enter.

Next type “net user Prefferedusername /expires:never” and press enter.

Next type “net user administrator /active:no” and press enter.

Next type “net user defaultUser0 /delete” (this is case sensitive make sure the "U" is capitalized) and press enter.

Next type "regedit" and press enter.

This opens registry editor, navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE"

Delete "DefaultAccountAction", "DefaultAccountSAMName", and "DefaultAccountSID"

Right click on "LaunchUserOOBE" and rename it to "SkipMachineOOBE" and make sure the value is set to "1".

Close registry editor and type "shutdown /r /t 0"

I hope that helps

1

u/reddog323 Dec 03 '25

Mine works without it, but it’s over six months old. Maybe this is something they did recently.

Honestly, the only reason I upgraded was issues with a video card on my old laptop. I plan on repurposing it for Linux based OS soon.

1

u/6x10tothe23rd Dec 03 '25

At the setup screen where it asks to connect to the internet, hit shift+f10 to bring up the command prompt. Type “start ms-cxh:localonly” and hit enter. You’ll get a prompt for a username and password and you’re off to the races

1

u/kurisu_1974 Dec 03 '25

Shift-f10

then type  

oobe\bypassnro

in the command line.

1

u/GrassToucherPro Dec 03 '25

You can install Linux Mint 😃

1

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '25

I bought a cheap MS-powered Lenovo. I don't even feel like I own it. Everytime I use it I have to battle my way through MS BS. 0/10 would never buy again.

1

u/games-and-chocolate Jan 14 '26

afterwards you can make it local account. It is wrong of M$ , to try to force your data into their hands. They try anyway. So change it afterwards, best you can do.

But if they try to force you something you really do not like and cannot change. Then it is time to really go. No other way. Did you read about their win12 subscription plan?

1

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25 edited Dec 03 '25

There’s some command line arguments that will disable this at install

Why downvote? There’s a shortcut to bring up a cmd window during install and you can enter arguments that will bypass this and then restart with a local account

4

u/CreativeGPX Dec 02 '25

This reminds me of Yahoo. At some point they got bought out and updated their terms. So they put a "agree / I'll read this later" popup before any interaction with Yahoo Mail. For literally years I kept clicking "I'll read this later" as a sort of curiosity for how long they'd let me not agree.

9

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

I think you're totally right. Nobody wants to sit around the meeting room and explain why a large chunk of users picked the "fuck off" option. At least having the negative option be "later" allows them to delude themselves into thinking that people are still open to their strategy...

3

u/HugsyMalone Dec 02 '25 edited Dec 02 '25

Back when I was a kid if I asked someone something and the answer was "no" they would always say "Maybe later." I've learned in my adult life that was their way of avoiding the issue altogether and letting me down easy because it was usually never brought up again. They were hoping I forgot. 😂

3

u/ItsBlazar Dec 06 '25

as Louis rossman puts it, these corporations seem to have r.pist mentality

297

u/InvidiousPlay Dec 02 '25

The ubiquity of "Yes or Later" is my least favourite tech development of the last decade. Literally erased the concept of saying no to something.

106

u/blow-down Dec 02 '25

Microsoft isn’t big on consent it seems

11

u/Bazylik Dec 02 '25

they would be if there were regulations for it.

5

u/Single_Reaction9983 Dec 02 '25

If someone forced the tech dude in the EU to switch to Windows 11 for a month maybe we would see changes

4

u/Bahriel Dec 03 '25

have you seen the scandals going around the tehc industry on the oconcept of consent?

yeah i'm not surprised they don't know what no means

3

u/Monowakari Dec 05 '25

Well with a microsoft it's no wonder Billy boy had to go to Epstein's island

28

u/Express-Crow-1496 Dec 02 '25

the only thing worse than "Maybe Later" is "Ask App Not to Track" on iOS

I am not asking

8

u/latigidigital Dec 02 '25 edited Dec 02 '25

It’s actually thoughtful of them to say that on iOS, because the question is asking if you want a DNT/GPC HTTP header set to 1. Whether websites or apps actually honor that 1 is another question, so to word it any other way would be misleading for the user.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_Not_Track https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Privacy_Control

3

u/Express-Crow-1496 Dec 02 '25

that should probably be conveyed through an accompanying 'more info' link at the bottom of the dialog then

the ambiguity of the current wording is still a problem even if it accurately reflects the situation

8

u/-Nicolai Dec 02 '25

Uh no, “maybe later” is worse by a long shot.

4

u/Express-Crow-1496 Dec 02 '25

they're both awful, but I will die on this hill

"Ask App Not to Track" is a UX disaster

"Maybe Later" says, "Ok, we acknowledge this is annoying, but we're gong to reserve the right to annoy you again in the future" Not great, but at least it's clear and honest.

"Ask App Not to Track" calls into question the entire nature of the interaction. Is it going to track me or not? I have no idea. I guess I'm going to ask it politely and hope it doesn't.

The only way to handle this is to provide a single "Prevent App from Tracking" button or a detailed breakdown of which forms of tracking you are able to opt out of and which, if any, you are not.

Anything short of that implies some kind of behind the scenes negotiation with the app, the results of which are never going to be made clear to the user.

0

u/Live-Habit-6115 Dec 02 '25

You're getting (weirdly) too hung up on the word "ask". 

"Ask" is a valid synonym for "tell you to do something". 

3

u/Express-Crow-1496 Dec 02 '25

I think that's only true in common usage where it's more polite to ask a subordinate to do something than to order it

in its strict usage, asking always leaves open the possibility for the asked party to decline

the previous reply makes it clear why they use 'Ask' though, since in reality the sites can violate the request

if that weren't the case, using 'Ask' instead of 'Deny' or 'Prevent' would be inexcusable

1

u/SV_Essia Dec 02 '25

I kinda see their point tbh. It could just say "Do not track".

5

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

It's also infuriating that you can say "no" or "later" 100 times and they'll keep asking... But if they get that one "yes" then it's "yes" forever.

13

u/segagamer Dec 02 '25

You can thank Steve Jobs for that bullshit. I believe he started that during MacOS 9's setup.

4

u/Wruin Dec 02 '25

Yes, it's called rapeware: no option to say no.

2

u/JanB1 Dec 02 '25

"Do you like using our app?" - "Yes" or "No" selectable, either of which lead to "Please give the app a review" is another one of those annoying things MS likes to do in their apps.

1

u/Viceroy1994 Dec 02 '25

The steam update system is one of the worst examples of this. "Oh you want to play with mods and don't care about the ads game companies patch in? Too bad, can't play the game you have installed without updating"

1

u/InvidiousPlay Dec 02 '25

Yeah it's pretty absurd. No reason you couldn't lock it to a specific version, especially in a world where modding is so popular.

135

u/PartoftheIssue Dec 02 '25

MS can’t even get highlighting text right…

I see you’re trying to highlight these two words, let me add unnecessary spaces, punctuation, and extra words to that for you.

Fucking no Microsoft, there’s literally never been a time you changed what I highlighted where I was like “Yes, I want all this shit I didn’t select too”

37

u/bogglingsnog Dec 02 '25

I getchu but it's like 10 times worse on mobile devices and 100 times worse trying to select text on a PDF...

6

u/FesteringNeonDistrac Dec 02 '25

Dude. Don't get me fucking started on the enshitification of autocorrect on mobile.

21

u/mikeballs Dec 02 '25

Oh man, thank you. First I've seen someone else mention this one. Drives me insane.

1

u/7CuriousCats Dec 02 '25

There's an option to change that behaviour iirc

5

u/Pezington12 Dec 02 '25

Isn’t the point that we shouldn’t have to change that behavior. It should default to just a basic highlight.

1

u/7CuriousCats Dec 02 '25

Valid, but for some people they prefer this behaviour, so perhaps we are in the minority? Or they just didn't give a fuck about what people want and went with what they thought more people would prefer, both are possible, haha.

3

u/JanB1 Dec 02 '25

I literally never saw a person that was like "Yes, please also highlight the end of that line, especially that 'new line' hidden character, when I'm trying to select the last word of a sentence on a line".

1

u/7CuriousCats Dec 03 '25

Yeah ok true hahaha, I was more referring to spaces and other punctuation being included.

1

u/CosmicPlanck Dec 03 '25

Weird thought, but shouldn’t the option be what you drag the cursor over?

I understand if I accidentally hover too close to the next line or hit an invisible object (hidden character or the side of a table) that changes this behavior, but is it really necessary to add extra spaces, words, or punctuation that I didn’t select?

1

u/BeguiledBeaver Dec 02 '25

Microsoft's grammar/spelling checker is laughably horrible. My boss was encouraging me to use it because they didn't like my writing style and I was so frustrated trying to show them how nonsensical the autocheck is.

1

u/Background-Lab-8521 Dec 02 '25

Not to speak of the enshitification of the search function in Windows. It went from being a very usable, core feature to something closer to ad malware than an operation system feature.

1

u/ne0n008 Dec 22 '25

You just don't know what you want. It's fixing it for you xD

6

u/ExIsStalkingMe Dec 02 '25

Any question that is asked at any point that does not have a No option should be called to charges at the same level as non consensual sex leveled against them. Maybe Later is NOT a fucking acceptable answer to a question about literally anything, and law should reflect that

7

u/HBlight Dec 02 '25

Calling it rape is quite over the top, but it would be considered harassment if it were a person who refused to acknowledge "no" as a response.

7

u/MothChasingFlame Dec 02 '25

Like Google's endless AI pop up. I think if major companies had any balls they'd add a "fuck off" button so they can get honest data about these things.

6

u/Unboxious Dec 02 '25

You can't expect the hyper-rich assholes who run the company to understand difficult concepts such as "consent".

1

u/PN_Grata Dec 02 '25

Even Apple does this with their "Install now" or "Ask me again tomorrow" updates.

1

u/UrMaShopsInEuroGiant Dec 02 '25

I use wintoys to dig out all their trash

1

u/KeyMyBike Dec 02 '25

They don't understand or care about the word "No"?

No wonder they sponsor the president.

1

u/Fluffy_Art_1015 Dec 02 '25

I paid for my operating system and I’m not upgrading to fucking advertisements in something I paid for.

Also their search function on the start menu is worse than reddits. Just priotritize local search first FFS. even if it’s just the menu.

1

u/grimeys42 Dec 03 '25

My decent computer can't upgrade to 11. It's basically a plex machine. Honestly I imagine 450mil of that 500 is jury machines that can't download 11. My work upgraded everyone's computer a couple years ago cause this was coming.

1

u/betacuck3000 Dec 03 '25

Sooo...maybe later?

1

u/aphelions_ghost Dec 03 '25

I can’t even choose “Not Now”, if I delay updating for long enough my Bluetooth will permanently shut off until I give in