Taking a Walk on the Wild Side (Premium)

Over a year ago, I warned that Microsoft was silently enabling OneDrive Folder backup after it had asked me to enable this feature and I had declined the offer multiple times. This claim was met by disbelief. Microsoft would never do something that nefarious, I was told. Perhaps it was something I had done. Maybe I had inadvertently enabled this functionality without realizing it. Most likely, I was just wrong. Or even making it up. After all, no one else was seeing this behavior.

Today, things are different. And as the original canary in this particular coal mine, I'm fascinated by how others react to this issue and the other escalating bad behaviors in Windows 11 (and in Microsoft 365, which escalates the OneDrive nagging even further). It's fair to say there's a spectrum of responses that range from indifference to outrage. And that those leaning towards the former are simply OK with using Windows 11 in a Microsoft-recommended configuration. And that those leaning towards the latter are not.

Whatever. As with my partial shift to more Apple consumer products and services this past summer, the enshittification of Windows 11 has triggered a paradox in my brain, forcing me to make choices I never expected to be confronted with. It's reminiscent of the explanation Arthur C. Clarke gave for HAL 9000's behavior in 2001, but belatedly in 2010: Forced to implement two contrary commands, HAL went haywire--insane, essentially--endangering the human crew of the ship.

My little version of these events is less dramatic. I've been seeking ways to fix or at least workaround the problems I see in Windows 11, and I've had some success. But I keep coming back to one idea I'm loath to try, let along recommend: Because most of the bad behaviors are tied directly to our use of a Microsoft account (MSA), perhaps the solution--or, more accurately, the workaround--is to not use an MSA. And the reason I'm reluctant to try this is that while Microsoft has some selfish reasons for forcing this on users, it really is better that most do so. When you sign in with a Microsoft account, you get automatic disk encryption, two-step verification protections, account and PC recovery capabilities, settings sync, and other advantages. For most, using an MSA isn't just smart, it's the only choice.

For most. But we're not "most," now, are we?

That said, it's easy to get caught in that trap of thinking you know best, and that (in this case) you can thus handle the security implementations of not using an MSA sign-in with Windows 11. I've seen this happen to many people in many situations, and I don't want to make bad decisions for myself. But more importantly, I don't want you to make bad decisions. So this is a strategy I've mostly ignored.

But it's been gnawing at me. I've been wondering what it would look like to sign-in to Windows 11 with a local account and try and protect the sign-in and the PC properly. To use a non-subscription version of Office, perhaps...