“Microsoft is continuing its struggle against local accounts” I had the opposite thought.

The last few times I’ve done a fresh install (all in VMs) I noticed that you had to jump through some extraordinary hoops before you were allowed to create an offline account. Basically it involved creating a fake account and then Microsoft would allow you to go offline.

With this OOBE it at least seems that offline account is front-and-center. I’m wondering if Microsoft had a sudden flurry of garbage accounts being created at their various free sites only to end up having them be abandoned. Perhaps it’s less painful to allow people to have their offline accounts if they wish them.

I see no point in having an online account with my Windows computers, of course, I’m now spending 3/4 of my time on a Chromebook and, of the 1/4 of the time I spend on Windows 4/5 of that time is _also_ spent in Chrome.

Microsoft really is losing the war for the hearts and minds of end users. Windows is merely another way to run Chrome with some specialty items thrown in for good measure if you really need them (and, the more time passes, the more Windows is really a PITA OS for me… if I need developer tools I’d rather use Linux and otherwise pretty much everything else is mediated through Chrome).