Tested Local Account / Cloud Integration, UAC On / Off

[NoelC]

I have VMware workstation and the ability to create virtual machines, so I test Win 10 virtually.  This has the advantage of my being able to continue to use my workstation with the OS I have now (8.1) and be able to test when it's convenient.  It also allows me to throw away or revert an installation in an eyeblink.

 

With the release of build 10074 things got interesting.

 

--

 

Initially I installed Windows 10 build 10074 afresh with a local account.  The ability to do so is there, but all but hidden in plain sight and behind misleading nomenclature.

 

First I tested with a local account and UAC enabled (but turned all the way down via the UI).  I was able to verify that all the software development and other tools I use are available to me, and it actually seems to be quite possible to make the desktop into something usable.  There are ongoing niggling irritations with UAC, and you occasionally have to dodge "convert to a Microsoft account" prompts and find the "log this application in only" type capabilities.

 

Summary:  Irritating ongoing UAC prompts that can't be averted, some things that ought to be direct need UAC workarounds, but all in all it's usable.  No problems running Modern Apps, signing in as necessary.

 

--

 

Then I continued testing with the local account and UAC fully disabled (i.e., with EnableLUA set to 0 in the registry).  That had the obvious effect of disallowing the running of Modern Apps, and had the upside that it really does give you admin privileges full time - but it also came with a few quirks, such a bit longer bootup/login time (I suspect something couldn't run and the system had to time out waiting for it), as well as some things that ought to work (e.g., a direct link to Windows Update) not actually working.  But I *could* get to the Modern control panel replacement, and the system was usable, especially for someone who's used Windows 8.1 that way up to now (as I have been doing).

 

Summary:  No UAC irritation, No Modern Apps, minimal amount of processes running.

 

--

 

Finally, I re-enabled UAC, booted up, and went through the "Convert to a Microsoft Account" process, which was utterly painless (I guess that shouldn't be surprising - it's what Microsoft has no doubt tested the most).  Everything I had already set up just continued to work.  Not terribly different than the first case, above, except that to use the Feedback App or whatever App I don't need to separately log in.  In this mode I tried out Cortana (which unfortunately I had neglected to do in step 1 above), and found it to be just about as disappointing as I thought it would be.  There's simply nothing I can't do with Google in an IE window.

 

Summary:  UAC irritations return, Modern Apps work more seamlessly, but not practically better than using a local account for the minimal amount of App running I need.  There's no going back to a local account once this step has been taken, though!

 

--

 

The plan for my main workstation, knowing what I know now and if not much changes in Windows 10

 

Since I have yet to find a Modern App that does anything for me that I really need, I think once Win 10 is released and if it proves to be stable I'll do a fresh, clean install and set up with a local account, then immediately switch off UAC. 

 

This is the least irritating to use, and will minimize the influences of both the Modern side - even though running Apps in windows is a step in the right direction there's still no Apps worth running - and it will also avoid the potential downsides of full cloud integration.  If I want to see how the state of the art in Modern Apps looks from time to time I'll be able to run a virtual machine (as I do now with VMware) and check there.  Should anything show up that becomes a "must have", I can either switch UAC back on (keeping the local account) and try to get used to my system second guessing me, or ultimately switch to a cloud account.

 

I was rather happy to find that all the software I need works fine in all three of these scenarios.

 

-Noel

[JorgeA]

Thanks for running these trials and reporting them, NoelC -- this knowledge could come in very handy for anybody who dislikes Windows 10 but needs to switch to it for business or other reasons.

 

Just one question: in the paragraph reporting on running Win10 with local account and UAC enabled, what do you mean when you speak of

 

the "log this application in only" type capabilities

 

Please forgive my ignorance.

 

Thanks!

 

--JorgeA

 

P.S. I've been experimenting with turning off various connections to Microsoft in the Windows Firewall, but have yet to identify the ones that add Web search to the Search function (Start Menu and/or taskbar search icon), including the one(s) that put news headlines in the Search pop-up. That would be one way to restore local-only Search. Will keep looking.

 

[NoelC]

What I meant was that with a local account, I was still able to use such Apps as Feedback by starting them, then responding to the "you need to log in" by carefully following the prompts and logging in to my Microsoft account only for the duration of that application.  You have to be careful not to follow the path of "convert my account to a Microsoft account", which will change the local login to a cloud account.  This is doable but you have to learn the terms.

 

Oh, and I misspoke a bit...  I've just learned, by testing, that you CAN use System Restore to return your system to a local account after having converted, BUT...  They don't make a restore point for you automatically before the account conversion (nice, eh?).  You have to do so yourself, or be lucky to have installed a desktop application that caused one to be created, or have a nightly backup process that makes one.

 

-Noel

Edited May 18, 2015 by NoelC

[RandPC]

Not sure if it's been removed in Win10, knowing Microsoft it probably has but at least in Win8 you could convert from a Microsoft account to a local account from the Metro Settings app> Change PC Settings > Accounts > Your Account > Disconnect under your account name. It would then give the usual warnings about how your a horrible evil person and deserve to die for not embracing Metro but it was there.

Edited May 21, 2015 by RandPC

[NoelC]

Thanks for that info - yes, "Disconnect my Microsoft account" does indeed seem to be there.  I have some other things to do first but I'll certainly give that a try.

 

-Noel

[jaclaz]

The procedure is described step by step (for Windows 8.1) here:

http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-switch-your-windows-8-1-log-in-to-a-local-account/

 

I looked for that to see what was the actual text nicely described as:

 

 

... the usual warnings about how your a horrible evil person and deserve to die for not embracing Metro but it was there.

 

And I happened to find this other (older) one:

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/windows-and-office/quick-tip-change-microsoft-live-to-a-local-account-in-windows-81/

 

And - OT - something struck me as "odd"

 

A simple disconnect

The first thing you have to do is get to the Your Account screen. The easiest way to do that is to open the Start Screen and type "your," which should perform a search to find an entry for Your Account as shown in Figure A.

 

 

and then it finally dawned on me. 

 

Instinctively I would look for my account on my computer, not for a "your" one.

 

I have been used for years to see on my computer elements created by by the good MS guys with a caption of "My Computer",  "My Documents" (and "My Network Places", "My Music", "My Pictures", etc.).

 

I understand how later they started to take some distance, becoming more "neutral" re-tagging more or less the same items as "Computer", "Documents", "Network" etc. 

but the switch to "your" is possibly a linguistic Freudian slip proof that my computer (as well as my account) is not anymore mine , at least in their perverted minds .

 

jaclaz

 

 

[Tripredacus]

Instinctively I would look for my account on my computer, not for a "your" one.

Maybe it is to right the "wrong" of previously having icons or folders in the past prefixed with "My" such as My Computer and My Documents. Anyone who has ever done tech support over the phone may run into people who simply did not understand directions.

When you say "Open My Computer" they would say "Your Computer?" in a serious manner.

Discounting the prank, where you could rename your icons to say "Your Computer" you could turn the tables on the helpful person on the phone... Where they would say "Open My Computer" you could say "Your Computer? I don't have a My Computer, I have a Your Computer" in a serious manner.

Maybe they are attempting to right another wrong of Windows 6.x where the personalization of folders was removed entirely, having no My Computer and only Computer.

[NoelC]

I'm with Jaclaz.  Clearly they're transitioning, over multiple versions, the subtle lingo and feel of the OS.

 

There are clearly people who have a "brand plan" that spans multiple major versions.  They have been executing to this plan for a long time (hence the My Computer -> Computer -> Your Computer subtleties).

 

Somewhere someone (correctly) observed that to take the dehumanizing process further, to where we're all just goo attached to the tech, they would need to make us start to feel that the system is not OURs but THEIRs (which, since we just license it, really has always been true).

 

I'm fresh-installing a build 10122 Win 10 Pro system on a VM right now.  The option to sign in with a non-Microsoft account has either been hidden even better, or it's actually removed this time.  They also gather your birthday info and telephone number now as well.

 

Edit:  I had to log in with my Microsoft account, then it rebooted, I had to enter a lot of stuff again, including logging in with my Microsoft account AND entering local account info, and now I'm in my first login with my local account.  I can't really yet see the logic in what they're doing.

 

-Noel

Edited May 22, 2015 by NoelC

[JorgeA]

^^ WHAT??!!!??? Birthday and telephone number???

 

If that's the case, and there's no way to run the OS without providing that information, I just may be done with Windows 10. It's none of their g*d*mned business.

 

--JorgeA

[NoelC]

^^ WHAT??!!!??? Birthday and telephone number???

 

Here are the screens.  I could not find a way through without entering them.  This screen grab sequence illustrates...

 

 

 

 

 

The weird thing is that after having gone through all of the above, the system rebooted and I had to go through some parts of the install again where it asked for not only my Microsoft account info, but also had me enter local account info.  Once the dust settled from THAT, and the system finished installing, amazingly, I'm logged in with local account info - which was my intent all along.

 

Microsoft has published that we should not expect to see big things in the remaining builds, but rather should expect stabilization and tidying up (no surprise with a summer release approaching).

 

However...  I don't sense a lot of tidying up in this!

 

-Noel

[jaclaz]

Well, for the record, that happened on XP only in English (and maybe in some other languages).

 

In Italian - as an example - "My Computer" is "Risorse del computer" and "My Network Places" are "Risorse di rete", and as well "My Documents" are "Documenti", etc. and they remained unchanged since NT/9x times:

Still in Windows 8 the "Your Account" is actually "Il tuo account", which adds another linguistic issue as "tuo" implies a form of familiarity that may sound inappropriate to anyone older than - say - 25 years.

jaclaz

Edited May 22, 2015 by jaclaz

[NoelC]

Well, almost certainly the Marketeers are headquartered in Redmond, and I'd guess their primary language is English.  Probably there are some good people in the language translation corps who are either excluded from the Secret Plan of Domination, or who simply didn't want to subject the rest of the world to the subtle mind games.  You lot outside the USA borders usually don't stand for as much subtle abuse as we have to endure.

 

-Noel

[jaclaz]

You lot outside the USA borders usually don't stand for as much subtle abuse as we have to endure.

Sure , the abuses we are subjected to are far less subtle (and BTW - generically speaking - we have not a Declaration of Independence and a Constitution as liberal - in theory - as the US one), I would say that we have a greater number of what one could perceive as abuses that are not at all abuses (as a matter of fact they are perfectly legal).

 

But on the other hand English (and this most probably is part of the reasons why it became an "interchange language") lacks the subtleties other languages have, the "you" as "singular informal" thou and the "you" as plural/courtesy ye are the same, while we have a rather neat distinction:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T–V_distinction

 

jaclaz

[JorgeA]

 

You lot outside the USA borders usually don't stand for as much subtle abuse as we have to endure.

Sure , the abuses we are subjected to are far less subtle (and BTW - generically speaking - we have not a Declaration of Independence and a Constitution as liberal - in theory - as the US one), I would say that we have a greater number of what one could perceive as abuses that are not at all abuses (as a matter of fact they are perfectly legal).

 

But on the other hand English (and this most probably is part of the reasons why it became an "interchange language") lacks the subtleties other languages have, the "you" as "singular informal" thou and the "you" as plural/courtesy ye are the same, while we have a rather neat distinction:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T–V_distinction

 

jaclaz

 

 

Yeah, English currently lacks a proper second-person plural.

 

--JorgeA

[NoelC]

English seems to have enough depth to discuss the Royal We (or is that wee wee)...

 

In any case, We can see that Microsoft has a long-term plan to become more predatory, which apparently is what a company must do if they're going to give away software and still make money with it.  This isn't speculation.  There is simply no evidence We can find to counter this claim, with plenty to support it.

 

We doesn't likes it.  Not one bit, my precious.

 

-Noel