From PC World: Did you know that it’s entirely possible to use Windows 11 with a local-only account, the way it worked way back when computers still used floppy drives?
You’d be forgiven for not knowing, because it seems like Microsoft is going out of its way to hide this option from you, hoping to push you onto a connected Microsoft Account instead. In fact, they’re straight-up erasing information that might tell you otherwise.
Microsoft keeps a pretty sizable collection of short, to-the-point guides for some of the most frequently searched functions on Windows. For example, this page tells you how to move from a local-only, non-connected user account to a full-on Microsoft Account.
But that page used to say a lot more. Tom’s Hardware discovered that the most recent version of the page has deleted information on how to go in reverse, to transition from a Microsoft Account to a local account. The change was made last week, just as the newest Surface devices hit the market. The original version of the page is still visible via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
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