Hot Take Upcoming Windows 11 builds won't have the ability to install without internet connectivity and a Microsoft Account.

[Marko :)]

It is not free. It just works for personal use. If you try to use it in enterprise, then it will not function correctly when connected to other Microsoft enterprise products. To integrate and work, it must have a valid (or stolen license).

Bill Gates wrote a manifesto some 40 years ago as to why Microsoft will not prosecute individuals that use pirated Windows for personal use. It is by design and Microsoft adheres to an ideology and a business strategy - not altruism. The point being for Microsoft to maintain its Windows OS monopoly and stranglehold on the world's nations, all governments, all businesses and all the people. The ideology and strategy is to protect marketshare, but by protecting that marketshare Microsoft has continuously killed-off innovation, competition, and better solutions. Want to talk about the Techonology Evil Empire - then Microsoft is it. First and foremost.

$40 billion in lost revenue due to Windows piracy - which is not collected via ads, collected data or by any other means - is a revenue shortfall that matters a lot to Microsoft investors.

I really don't care. People and businesses that pirate ANY software are thieves and criminals. All criminals - even jay-walkers that don't pay their jay-walking tickets - should be prosecuted. All the fines collected would be a financial windfall for world governments. If people cannot pay, then seize whatever property they have that will cover the fines. Far, far too many people in this world today get away with crimes.

For every Windows pirate, Microsoft charges a fee (%) to those who legitimately pay for Windows. So the paying Windows license buyers subsidize all the freeloaders and criminals. India and countries like it are notorious for that crap.

When I'm talking about something, I always talk from my perspective. I am home user, I don't own a business and I couldn't care less about Microsoft's business products and practices. What matter to me is how Microsoft works towards home users.

How did you come up with $40 billion in lost revenue due to Windows piracy? The last time Microsoft published data on loss of revenue was in 2006, when they said it was $14 billion, and that included Windows, Office and all other products. This was at the time Microsoft products were heavily pirated and couldn't be used unactivated. No way that number is way higher today when Windows isn't limited as much as it was before.

You do realize you're talking like you're an innocent person that never broke any law? I'm sure you downloaded illegally movies, TV shows and music at some point of your life. Games also very likely, and software too. Piracy isn't stealing, it's just copying. I don't see anything wrong. People don't pirate because they don't want to pay; people pirate because the content either isn't available to obtain legally or it's expensive. Piracy is justified in most of the cases. Companies have power to stop it, instead they just make people pirate more and more.

In the Balkans area, one of the first thing to learn on PCs was how to download movies, TV shows and music. Music is much less pirated today because music industry was clever, but the movies and TV shows are high on the list of pirated content—try to guess why. Same goes for sports.

If you want to pay, pay. But don't judge people pirating content because you're don't know their reasons or situation.

I am more concerned that remote UAC elevation might require a password and bypassing a local password is a breeze. Honestly, I would not feel safe using a local account.
Windows Hello using MSA can not be bypassed remotely, it is impossible, even if you would use PIN 0000 and the hacker would know it, a local password is a different matter.

This never crossed my mind because chances of that happening... well, I'm more likely to win a lottery. Someone would need to have control over my PC and that's really hard to get unless you steal my device. If you don't download malicious files, know what you can and cannot do, you're safe.

 

[Digmor Crusher]

Piracy isn't stealing, it's just copying

Piracy is justified in most of the cases.

Strongly disagree.

 

[Marko :)]

Strongly disagree.

Did you know that prior to 2016. when Netflix came to Croatia, we didn't have any legal way of watching movies and TV shows on our PCs and phones? That's right. We pirated every single movie/TV show we wanted to watch, because simply, there wasn't another way to get content legally.

Now you might ask "what about rental stores, DVDs, Blu-rays?". In Croatia, rental stores closed by 2010s, there was very limited DVD section in supermarkets (few movies to choose from) and Blu-rays were never sold here.

When Netflix came here, it was revolutionary. For the first time, people could watch bunch of movies and TV shows on all of their devices. There was a catch though; interface was in English and not a single title in library had Croatian localization. It was popular only with teens and younger adults, but not with elderly as they don't understand English. In 2017. Netflix slowly started adding localization and then it barely started to catch up. Amazon Prime Video offers barely anything in Croatian.

The situation with music must be better, right? Prior to 2012., the only way to listen music legally on our PCs and phones was... FM radio. In 2012, Deezer came but it had really limited catalogue of music. In 2015, Apple Music came but it was limited to Apple devices which weren't that popular in Croatia. It was only in 2018. we got Spotify.

And the same situation wasn't only present in Croatia. It was present in entire Balkans area, even eastern Europe. If companies started offering their services, people wouldn't have to pirate content. They were very, very late to the game. By the time they got here, it was too late and the habit of piracy stuck with people. As I said, music piracy is in downfall because of various music services and YouTube. The piracy of movies, TV shows, sports is on the rise and not only here, but globally. Because there too many expensive streaming services offering "exclusive" content.

This is why piracy is justifiable. Games used to be heavily pirated here too... until Steam came and it changed everything. I don't remember last time I heard someone pirate a game here. Offer people everything on all platforms, for affordable price, and people will stop pirating the content. As long as companies are greedy, have exclusive content on that one platform, and raise prices on monthly basis people will pirate and they won't be able to stop it.

 

[Digmor Crusher]

Did you know that prior to 2016. when Netflix came to Croatia, we didn't have any legal way of watching movies and TV shows on our PCs and phones? That's right. We pirated every single movie/TV show we wanted to watch, because simply, there wasn't another way to get content legally.

Now you might ask "what about rental stores, DVDs, Blu-rays?". In Croatia, rental stores closed by 2010s, there was very limited DVD section in supermarkets (few movies to choose from) and Blu-rays were never sold here.

When Netflix came here, it was revolutionary. For the first time, people could watch bunch of movies and TV shows on all of their devices. There was a catch though; interface was in English and not a single title in library had Croatian localization. It was popular only with teens and younger adults, but not with elderly as they don't understand English. In 2017. Netflix slowly started adding localization and then it barely started to catch up. Amazon Prime Video offers barely anything in Croatian.

The situation with music must be better, right? Prior to 2012., the only way to listen music legally on our PCs and phones was... FM radio. In 2012, Deezer came but it had really limited catalogue of music. In 2015, Apple Music came but it was limited to Apple devices which weren't that popular in Croatia. It was only in 2018. we got Spotify.

And the same situation wasn't only present in Croatia. It was present in entire Balkans area, even eastern Europe. If companies started offering their services, people wouldn't have to pirate content. They were very, very late to the game. By the time they got here, it was too late and the habit of piracy stuck with people. As I said, music piracy is in downfall because of various music services and YouTube. The piracy of movies, TV shows, sports is on the rise and not only here, but globally. Because there too many expensive streaming services offering "exclusive" content.

This is why piracy is justifiable. Games used to be heavily pirated here too... until Steam came and it changed everything. I don't remember last time I heard someone pirate a game here. Offer people everything on all platforms, for affordable price, and people will stop pirating the content. As long as companies are greedy, have exclusive content on that one platform, and raise prices on monthly basis people will pirate and they won't be able to stop it.

Well I still disagree, your saying that because something is not available or you can't afford it then its ok to pirate(steal) it? That's the same as a homeless person going into a grocery store and stealing food because they can't afford it. And you can call it pirating all you want but its still stealing. Maybe if people stopped doing that the streamers wouldn't have to raise prices so much, and I for one, don't appreciate having to subsidize people who don't want to pay.

 

[Marko :)]

Well I still disagree, your saying that because something is not available or you can't afford it then its ok to pirate(steal) it? That's the same as a homeless person going into a grocery store and stealing food because they can't afford it. And you can call it pirating all you want but its still stealing. Maybe if people stopped doing that the streamers wouldn't have to raise prices so much, and I for one, don't appreciate having to subsidize people who don't want to pay.

Except, piracy isn't stealing. Stealing is when homeless person goes to grocery store, and steals Coca-Cola bottle. If he somehow cloned the bottle, it isn't stealing because the original bottle is still on the shelf. This is why piracy can't be theft.

And you're not subsidizing pirates with your payment for service. You'd be paying for the service no matter if their product was pirated or not. Companies are here to make money, they won't offer free services or discounted services because all of you are paying. And no, the real reason why companies are raising prices isn't piracy, it's greed. Music and games business is great example.

Also, a fun fact: pirating content for personal use is completely legal in Europe. You can download movies, music, anything as long as you're not sharing or selling the content. In Croatia, we pay copyright tax with every storage media bought which goes to copyright owners. Pirating over torrent protocol is illegal everywhere, because while downloading (legal), you're also sharing content (illegal), but prosecution is not enforced because it would be hard and ineffective. I think Germany is the only country which punishes pirating content over torrent, though it's not authorities that are doing so, but movie studios through local law offices representing them. In Germany they can get user data pretty easily, in the rest of Europe not so much.

 

[Digmor Crusher]

Well we'll just have to agree to disagree.

 

[bazang]

How did you come up with $40 billion in lost revenue due to Windows piracy? The last time Microsoft published data on loss of revenue was in 2006, when they said it was $14 billion, and that included Windows, Office and all other products. This was at the time Microsoft products were heavily pirated and couldn't be used unactivated. No way that number is way higher today when Windows isn't limited as much as it was before.

$14 billion in 2006 is now $24 billion just adjusted for inflation. The world population has grown from 6.6 billion to 8.1 billion over the same amount of time. There is a corresponding, well documented increase in Windows and Office piracy. Today's Windows and Office piracy is at the highest levels ever. It is false to state that the most Windows and Office piracy took place back in the 2000 era. In fact, the greatest amount of Windows and other Microsoft software piracy is today.

Read Microsoft's analysis of lost revenues due to piracy. It is at least $40 billion. Some of the big Microsoft investors want Microsoft to crack down more on the tremendous amount of software thievery.

Except, piracy isn't stealing.

Software piracy is stealing. It deprives the product owner the revenue that the software copyright violator or copier or cracker inflicts upon the software owner. That is theft of revenue and is codified as such in every modern nation within their criminal codes.

Furthermore, software piracy - just like all intellectual property infringements - harm society. An example from the UK alone:

The analysis reveals that trade in piracy, copyright and other infringement of UK software IP rights, estimated at GBP 12.1 billion, resulted in 1.4% of forgone UK sales, 20 000 job losses, and 0.23% of lost public revenue in the United Kingdom.

Per one part of the UK criminal code "Because a software pirate does not have proper permission from the software owner to take or use the software in question, and the pirate will not pay for the use of the software, software piracy deprives the product owner revenue and is the equivalent of theft and is, therefore, a crime."

Every nation needs to prosecute software pirates and all other copyright and intellectual property violators. These pirates and fraudsters are all criminals doing stuff that results in hundreds of billions of Euros in lost revenue, employment income, and tax loses.

And you're not subsidizing pirates with your payment for service. You'd be paying for the service no matter if their product was pirated or not.

You are daft. Companies pass on lost revenue to consumers. That passed-on cost for piracy created lost revenue means each of us pay a higher price per unit for every unit that software pirates steal. That is the very definition of subsidizing the pirates, freeloaders, and criminals.

Microsoft will gladly allow half the world to pirate Windows, and at the same time charge every paying subscriber 33% more or higher to compensate or at least offset at least a significant amount of the lost revenue resulting from the piracy that it ignores. Again, that is the very definition of subsidizing the pirates, freeloaders, and criminals.

Also, a fun fact: pirating content for personal use is completely legal in Europe. You can download movies, music, anything as long as you're not sharing or selling the content.

Absolutely not true at all. The EU has some of the most strict software piracy and copyright/intellectual piracy laws in the world. In fact, there is an entire division of Interpol devoted to tracking down software pirates and other copyright infringers.

It is illegal across the EU to download copyrighted material without consent and without paying for it, despite there is not enough law enforcement to chase all of you pirates down and prosecute you. Pirates are just getting away with it, which does not make it legal or make it ethical or moral.

At this point, nobody here can take you seriously because you spout a lot of nonsense. You think you know the law, but you do not.

Every nation should crackdown hard on software piracy, game module piracy, torrenting, software cracking, etc. The fines alone would fund many social welfare programs.

Put software pirates into prison? I think that is a completely fair solution. Afterall, software pirates are criminals. They are thieves.

If an ISP detects a person downloading copyrighted material without paying for it (using torrents), then they should be required to report it to the police. Then the police can sent a 1000 Euro fine/ticket for a first time offense. If the pirate does not pay the fine, then prosecute them further and put them into prison. Better yet, force them to perform hard labor at the end of an AK-47 with a bayonet attached. Then make them pay even more fines.

 

[TairikuOkami]

For every Windows pirate, Microsoft charges a fee (%) to those who legitimately pay for Windows. So the paying Windows license buyers subsidize all the freeloaders and criminals.

Well I pay for Netflix and I still have to pirate Netflix movies, because most of the content is not available here. I have just watched Kraven.

 

[Marko :)]

$14 billion in 2006 is now $24 billion just adjusted for inflation. The world population has grown from 6.6 billion to 8.1 billion over the same amount of time. There is a corresponding, well documented increase in Windows and Office piracy. Today's Windows and Office piracy is at the highest levels ever. It is false to state that the most Windows and Office piracy took place back in the 2000 era. In fact, the greatest amount of Windows and other Microsoft software piracy is today.

Read Microsoft's analysis of lost revenues due to piracy. It is at least $40 billion. Some of the big Microsoft investors want Microsoft to crack down more on the tremendous amount of software thievery.

So this is just you assumption and nothing more. You can't use your assumption as a source. Please give the source, and Microsoft analysis of lost revenue. Unfortunately, I don't have access to it as I'm not in financial department of Microsoft.

Software piracy is stealing. It deprives the product owner the revenue that the software copyright violator or copier or cracker inflicts upon the software owner. That is theft of revenue and is codified as such in every modern nation within their criminal codes.

Furthermore, software piracy - just like all intellectual property infringements - harm society. An example from the UK alone:

The analysis reveals that trade in piracy, copyright and other infringement of UK software IP rights, estimated at GBP 12.1 billion, resulted in 1.4% of forgone UK sales, 20 000 job losses, and 0.23% of lost public revenue in the United Kingdom.

Per one part of the UK criminal code "Because a software pirate does not have proper permission from the software owner to take or use the software in question, and the pirate will not pay for the use of the software, software piracy deprives the product owner revenue and is the equivalent of theft and is, therefore, a crime."

Every nation needs to prosecute software pirates and all other copyright and intellectual property violators. These pirates and fraudsters are all criminals doing stuff that results in hundreds of billions of Euros in lost revenue, employment income, and tax loses.

I just can't agree with you. Software companies always have right to deny the usage of their software. There are software that can't be pirated at all, like VPNs. It's just companies refuse to implement those strict measures. Software piracy can easily be combated, movies, TV shows and sports can't.

By your logic, ad blocking is also theft. Why? You're stealing revenue from Google, their employees and their families. You're stealing from content creators as well. Then why are you using one? You're literally watching videos illegally due to blocking ads which should be watched as well.

You are daft. Companies pass on lost revenue to consumers. That passed-on cost for piracy created lost revenue means each of us pay a higher price per unit for every unit that software pirates steal. That is the very definition of subsidizing the pirates, freeloaders, and criminals.

Microsoft will gladly allow half the world to pirate Windows, and at the same time charge every paying subscriber 33% more or higher to compensate or at least offset at least a significant amount of the lost revenue resulting from the piracy that it ignores. Again, that is the very definition of subsidizing the pirates, freeloaders, and criminals.

Are you sure?

Spotify had it's first price raise ever in April 2021. Was there no piracy before that date or?
YouTube's first price increase was in October 2022. Probably because that's the month when users started ad blockers, which were the very new concept at the time.

Sure, companies raise prices due to inflation, but they also raise prices when they want to earn more. In Croatia, the ISPs implemented index clause, allowing them to raise prices yearly according to inflation statistic released by national statistic bureau. Every single ISP claimed it's because of the inflation and how their operating costs skyrocketed, yet, national regulator released report claiming they have highest profit margins than ever before. Is it possible for companies to be unethical and just want to earn more? I'd have nothing against if employees were actually given bonuses and better salaries, but the fact is they are often not.

Absolutely not true at all. The EU has some of the most strict software piracy and copyright/intellectual piracy laws in the world. In fact, there is an entire division of Interpol devoted to tracking down software pirates and other copyright infringers.

It is illegal across the EU to download copyrighted material without consent and without paying for it, despite there is not enough law enforcement to chase all of you pirates down and prosecute you. Pirates are just getting away with it, which does not make it legal or make it ethical or moral.

At this point, nobody here can take you seriously because you spout a lot of nonsense. You think you know the law, but you do not.

Every nation should crackdown hard on software piracy, game module piracy, torrenting, software cracking, etc. The fines alone would fund many social welfare programs.

Put software pirates into prison? I think that is a completely fair solution. Afterall, software pirates are criminals. They are thieves.

If an ISP detects a person downloading copyrighted material without paying for it (using torrents), then they should be required to report it to the police. Then the police can sent a 1000 Euro fine/ticket for a first time offense. If the pirate does not pay the fine, then prosecute them further and put them into prison. Better yet, force them to perform hard labor at the end of an AK-47 with a bayonet attached. Then make them pay even more fines.

Here we have a case of person living outside of the EU, claiming to know situation and EU law better than the person living in the EU.

It's completely legal to pirate content for personal use. Especially if you're paying a fee for copyright owners. No one was ever prosecuted for downloading or owning illegal content in the EU. In Croatia, there was one pirate streaming site that was shut down for piracy more than decade ago, and the owners were arrested. Their wrongdoing? Not paying tax on revenue from ads and hacking neighbors Wi-Fi. That was the only case of someone being arrested for piracy in Croatia with hundreds of sites still operating. There was another action, last year; it wasn't action from our police but Europol for pirate IPTV service.

You're forgetting that EU has strong privacy laws which actually prevent on ISPs from snooping on traffic and users. And it's not ISPs job to police users what sites can people use and what can't. Croatia is one of the countries which couldn't care less about piracy. The only websites blocked here are betting and casino sites that aren't registered to work here, all pirate sites are accessible. You don't even need a VPN to download torrents, our ISPs just send abuse letters to spam. That's the beauty of living in Europe.

Well I pay for Netflix and I still have to pirate Netflix movies, because most of the content is not available here. I have just watched Kraven.

@bazang will now tell you, you're not supposed to watch it if it's not available to you.

View attachment 287893

 

[Sorrento]

Pirating music or software IMO is simple thieving, I've spend a lot of my income over the last 50 years on music & software, the bottom line is if everyone stole music, films or software it would cease to exist - I'm not here to subside those who obviously on this thread alone have zero intention of paying, where they come from is irrelevant, we have a conscience or at least should have? - No one yet has died yet through not watching a film, playing a game or not hearing some to music, it is thieving plain & simple, if you think it's OK reevaluate your position.

 

[Marko :)]

Pirating music or software IMO is simple thieving, I've spend a lot of my income over the last 50 years on music & software, the bottom line is if everyone stole music, films or software it would cease to exist - I'm not here to subside those who obviously on this thread alone have zero intention of paying, where they come from is irrelevant, we have a conscience or at least should have? - No one yet has died yet through not watching a film, playing a game or not hearing some to music, it is thieving plain & simple, if you think it's OK reevaluate your position.

I simply get what all of you are saying, we just have different views on the topic. My view is that companies should do more to protect themselves if they think piracy is the problem. Software companies can always put stronger measures in place which would prevent piracy. There is a lot of software which literally can't be pirated or found on the web. Company has every right to protect their products; it's just for some reason, they don't want to fight piracy hard. I think it's because of marketshare; as everyone wants their software to be used. So it appears like they fight piracy, but in the reality they are just glad their software is used.

Microsoft is perfect example for this. There is a tool which activates their products, using their own activation system. It's completely open source, hosted on their own platform Github. What Microsoft does to combat piracy? Nothing! They themselves use the tool. Remember how previous versions of Windows were aggressive towards piracy? They would literally make your PC unusable if you didn't activate Windows. Microsoft has every right to disable the tool and restrict Windows again; they don't want to. This yells to me "pirate as much as you want, we're okay with this".

Microsoft support 'cracks' Windows for customer after activation fails

In an unexpected twist, a Microsoft support engineer resorted to running an unofficial 'crack' on a customer's Windows PC after a genuine copy of the operating system failed to activate normally. It seems, this isn't the first time either that a Microsoft support professional has employed such...

www.bleepingcomputer.com

If company refuses to implement piracy measures, then for me, it simply isn't piracy. And they obviously encourage it. Do you get what I'm saying? If I was a software dev, and piracy bothered me; I'd make my products "unpiratable" and patch any holes that enable piracy as quickly as possible.

Now, regarding music and entertainment industry in general. This is an area where piracy will never be stopped and simply cannot be stopped. But there is a thing what they can do to minimize revenue lost to piracy. Why is music piracy globally on downfall? Why is gaming piracy on the downfall? Because they enable all the content and for cheap price; people simply don't have any reason to pirate anymore.

When Netflix came to the US, piracy was in a downfall because it offered a convenient way to watch the content and it stayed low until recently. What happened when every film studio started their own streaming service and offered only their own content? Piracy started to rise again. Do you see the problem? People don't want to pay their monthly salary just so they can watch a movie they want. And as long as new streaming services will keep popping up, piracy will be on the rise. Not to mention, inability to watch older content. If piracy didn't exist, all those old movies would be lost forever.

Imagine if Spotify had only music from SME, Tidal from WMG, Qobuz from UMG and Deezer from BMG. What happens when I want to listen to two different artists from two different record labels? I'd have to subscribe to two different music services and couldn't manage my playlists. This is exactly how you make piracy skyrocket.

It's not that people don't want to pay. People want to pay, but they expect service on higher level. You have to provide better service to pirates in order to get them to stop pirating content. Gabe Newell understood this very well and said:

“We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24/7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate’s service is more valuable.”

 

[Sorrento]

It is simply if I don't get what I want at the price I'm willing to pay in the way I want then I will take it anyway as it should be cheaper or convenient for me..
Latest movie at the cinema you want to see, its not get available to stream anywhere so you go in the cinema without paying & watch it anyway, there are spare seats so its not cost anyone anything, do you think the answer is the cinema ought to charge less to get in & charge a reasonable price for coke & popcorn, perhaps, but would that excuse someone going in & watching a movie anyway. How would another person in there react who did pay when 10 people walk in & watch for free? I would help to evict those people in a heartbeat. There is no difference.

 

[pxxb1]

I downloaded an ISO to fresh install some days ago, not only was the bypass option during install gone, but also the ability to open CMD.

 

[Marko :)]

It is simply if I don't get what I want at the price I'm willing to pay in the way I want then I will take it anyway as it should be cheaper or convenient for me..
Latest movie at the cinema you want to see, its not get available to stream anywhere so you go in the cinema without paying & watch it anyway, there are spare seats so its not cost anyone anything, do you think the answer is the cinema ought to charge less to get in & charge a reasonable price for coke & popcorn, perhaps, but would that excuse someone going in & watching a movie anyway. How would another person in there react who did pay when 10 people walk in & watch for free? I would help to evict those people in a heartbeat. There is no difference.

You're forgetting one thing. Companies produce content for us; they are here to serve us. We aren't here for the companies. Hence why companies should adjust to people, not people to the companies. If you want your service to be used legally, make it great so that people would actually want to subscribe and use it.

If users don't like something, it's on company to change it otherwise people will seek an alternative. And it's exactly what is happening with piracy. Companies refused to make good service, so people found the better service—piracy.

Remember when Microsoft announced Recall feature and the massive backlash it got? Microsoft has every right to add it in their OS. However, you can always tell them it's wrong, you don't like the feature and have right to ditch Windows if you want. But that doesn't give you right to remove Recall using various ways if Microsoft doesn't allow you to do it officially. In fact, all the modifications to the OS using 3rd party tools violate their terms of use (like disabling telemetry for example).

We should really stop playing moral vertical because neither people are moral, neither are companies. And we should stop sorrowing for companies, because the solution exist, they are just playing dumb and refuse to see it. The amount of people cheering for companies is crazy.

I downloaded an ISO to fresh install some days ago, not only was the bypass option during install gone, but also the ability to open CMD.

No need for CMD and bypassnro, or even disconnecting from the internet. When asked, select Work or school account, then select Sign-in options and choose Domain-join instead. It will automatically take you to part for creating a local account.

 

[pxxb1]

You're forgetting one thing. Companies produce content for us; they are here to serve us. We aren't here for the companies. Hence why companies should adjust to people, not people to the companies. If you want your service to be used legally, make it great so that people would actually want to subscribe and use it.

If users don't like something, it's on company to change it otherwise people will seek an alternative. And it's exactly what is happening with piracy. Companies refusing to make good service, so people found the better service—piracy.

Remember when Microsoft announced Recall feature and the massive backlash it got? Microsoft has every right to add it in their OS. However, you can always tell them it's wrong, you don't like the service and have right to ditch Windows if you want. But that doesn't give you right to remove Recall on various ways if Microsoft doesn't allow it officially.

No need for CMD and bypassnro, or even disconnecting from the internet. When asked, select Work or school account, then select Sign-in options and choose Domain-join instead. It will automatically take you to part for creating a local account.

I managed to go through with the install with local, but not due to any "asking" of account, because there where none.

 

[TairikuOkami]

For the record 11 actually forced a local account on me twice! I logged into my MSA and while proceeding with the setup, AMD drivers started to install and the screen blinked.
11 was like, something went wrong and it logged me into a local account, I actually had to reinstall, because I did not want a local account, it messed up my overall settings.

 

[Sunshine-boy]

For every Windows pirate, Microsoft charges a fee (%) to those who legitimately pay for Windows. So the paying Windows license buyers subsidize all the freeloaders and criminals. India and countries like it are notorious for that crap.

Piracy doesn’t control pricing, The cost of Windows isn’t simply based on how many pirated copies exist. Microsoft sets prices based on factors like development expenses, market trends, and competition. Thinking that piracy alone drives up costs for paying users makes things sound more straightforward than they really are.

Piracy isn’t the same as lost sales: Not everyone using a pirated copy would have bought the software if piracy wasn’t an option. Sometimes, people choose piracy because they can’t afford to pay, so it's not fair to count all those users as "potential customers" or lost income.

 

[Sunshine-boy]

Well I still disagree, your saying that because something is not available or you can't afford it then its ok to pirate(steal) it? That's the same as a homeless person going into a grocery store and stealing food because they can't afford it. And you can call it pirating all you want but its still stealing. Maybe if people stopped doing that the streamers wouldn't have to raise prices so much, and I for one, don't appreciate having to subsidize people who don't want to pay.

Stealing a loaf of bread leaves the bakery with one less loaf—poof, gone. Piracy, though? It’s like cloning that loaf 100 times and still leaving the bakery’s bread rack intact.

Now, about affordability: Imagine trying to learn coding in a developing country, but software like Windows feels like buying gold with pocket change. Piracy might seem like the shortcut to bridging that gap—like borrowing Wi-Fi from your neighbor accidentally for five years. Not great, but you can kinda see how people get there. And hey, companies like Microsoft aren’t blind to this game. They’ve leaned into it, offering free or discounted software in some areas to turn pirates into paying customers. It’s like saying, Alright, let’s be friends and you can stop sneaking in through the window.

Also, blaming piracy for price hikes? That’s like blaming ice cream sales for summer heat. Price changes come from operational costs, market battles, inflation—the usual suspects. Even Disney+ couldn’t resist raising prices, despite keeping their pirate ship (mostly) locked down.

For those who pay, don’t feel like you’re footing the bill for pirates. Your cash funds updates, security, and the cool stuff that keeps your software running smoothly—not some secret “piracy tax.”

 

[Marko :)]

Finally someone gets it! For the record, most popular artists today got their careers started using pirated FL Studio. Some of them even admitted it.

 

[Digmor Crusher]

This will be my last word on this:

Its still stealing no matter how hard people try to justify it. If you can't afford it then don't steal it, I would like a Ferrari but am not going to steal one.