How you (and Elon Musk) can set up Windows 11 without a Microsoft account
You're not the only one having trouble with installing Windows 11, so did tech billionaire Elon Musk.
When most people want to talk to the manager, they may or may not get anywhere. But when tech billionaire Elon Musk grumbles, it's a little different.
Elon complained on X that he'd, "Just bought a new PC laptop, and it won't let me use it unless I create a Microsoft account, which also means giving their AI access to my computer! This is messed up."
Also: Microsoft releases its internal generative AI red teaming tool to the public
So, what's a tech billionaire to do? Well, once upon a time, he could have asked Twitter's tech support staff -- but they seem to be missing in action these days.
Musk's objection to the signup issue is that he doesn't want Microsoft's AI program, Copilot, on his personal Windows 11 machine. He's not the only one who feels that way. As one Windows user loudly complained: "SHAME on Microsoft! Copilot should be OPTIONAL!!!!"
In fact, Copilot used to be optional, but it's not anymore. Starting with Windows 11 version 22H2 KB5030310 Build 22621.2361 from September 26, 2023, Copilot is baked in.
You can turn Copilot off by pressing the Windows key + i to open Settings > go to Personalization > Taskbar > Toggle off "Copilot (preview)". But even if you take these steps, Copilot is still there.
Also: How renaissance technologists are connecting the dots between AI and business
To permanently disable Copilot, you'll need to take your computer's life into your own hands via the Group Policy or Registry Editor.
To remove Copilot's functionality, you need to press the Windows key + R to open the Run dialog box, then type gpedit.msc and press OK to open Local Group Policy Editor.
Go to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Copilot. Expand the Windows Copilot folder, and from the right panel, double-click Turn off Windows Copilot. In the next window, check the Enabled option, and then click Apply > OK to save the changes.
Following those steps is a bit of challenge and can be dangerous if you're a computer butterfingers.
It's probably easier, even though it wasn't for Musk, to just not add a Microsoft account. Musk, as one person on X suggested, decided to ask Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella for tech support. Fortunately, Musk has Nadella's direct number: "I just sent him a text."
Also: Want to work in AI? How to pivot your career in 5 steps
As an alternative, he could have asked ZDNET's own Windows expert, Ed Bott, who's already dealt with this signup issue.
As Bott said: "You can work around this restriction by entering the address no@thankyou.com as your Microsoft account. When you're asked for a password, enter anything. Windows will inform you that the account has been locked because of too many incorrect password attempts (you're not the first person to do this, after all), and you'll be given the option to create a local account instead."
Also: How tech professionals can survive and thrive at work in the time of AI
However, as Bott also pointed out, if you set your computer up with a local account, your system's drive will not be automatically encrypted.
So, what you're left with is a tradeoff. Would you rather have a Microsoft AI program on your machine, but have your data protected by encryption? Or would you rather avoid Copilot and have an unprotected drive? Of course, in the latter case, you can always add encryption by using BitLocker or another encryption program after installation.
But what about if you already have Windows 11 with a Microsoft account, and you don't want a Microsoft AI program potentially looking over your shoulder?
You can go local, Bott explained, by converting into a local account. After signing in for the first time, go to Settings > Accounts > Your Info. Under the Account Settings heading, choose Sign In With A Local Account Instead, and follow the prompts.
Also: Microsoft's big bet on AI seems to be paying off
If you really don't trust Windows and Microsoft AI, I have another suggestion: Desktop Linux. After all, X, SpaceX, Tesla, and pretty much all of Musk's companies rely on Linux already, so why not his desktop as well?
I should offer Musk a fair warning, though -- Linus Torvalds doesn't take well to end-users calling him up with tech support questions. Just saying.
Windows 11
'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean?
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The best E Ink tablet I've tested is not by ReMarkable or Kindle
ZDNET's key takeaways
- The Onyx Boox Note Air 3 C is a color e-ink tablet built for note-taking that costs $500.
- The tablet is packed with templates and productivity features while offering an impressive pen-to-paper experience.
- It's a little lacking for video or browsing the web, and the library of e-Books is not very extensive.
As a writer, it's always a concern when you fall into a productivity or creativity slump, and it's even worse when both occur at once. I recently found myself in this situation and in a desperate attempt to organize my life and get my creative spark back, bought two paperback notebooks. I carried these around for while, opening them a handful of times but ultimately they didn't do much to jumpstart my inner muse. Then, I tried the Onyx Boox Note Air 3 C.
Also: The best note-taking tablets you can buy
This color e-ink tablet finally revitalized my productivity with its array of note-taking templates. I found my creativity creeping back by using the stylus, which has virtually no lag and feels as smooth as your favorite ballpoint pen on a smooth pad of paper. The screen has a color 1240 x 930 (150 PPI) resolution and a 2480 x 1860 (300 PPI—the same as the Kindle Scribe) resolution in black and white.
ZDNET RECOMMENDS
Onyx Boox Note Air 3 C
This color e-ink tablet comes with a smooth stylus pen and a note-taking experience that has the potential to keep your thoughts and to-dos more organized than ever before.
While it doesn't have as crisp a color display as a traditional tablet like an iPad, this tablet's purpose is for note-taking, and it does an excellent job. Forget fancy note-taking apps; the Onyx Boox Note Air 3 C has all the best features of the best apps, like templates, audio recording, color-coding, inserting links and attachments to notes, and more. Plus, built-in artificial intelligence allows for text recognition, shape perfection, and a strikethrough erase feature that makes erasing much easier.
From organizing to-do lists to drafting daily planners to just acting as a space for journaling my thoughts, this tablet replaced all my bulky notebooks into one slim design (it weighs less than a pound). And, I still got the satisfaction of writing things down on paper. I even downloaded a coloring app from the Google Play store (you can download almost any app to your heart's desire) that replaced my daily scrolling habit for a much more mindful experience.
The tablet has several features that make it a productivity machine. For example, there is a split-screen feature that allows you to switch between two different apps. This came in handy when planning my garden bed layout: on one screen, I was able to draw out what herbs I would plant where, while on the other screen, I was looking up on the web which herbs grow best together and which herbs to avoid growing near each other.
Also: The best drawing tablets of 2024: Expert recommended
In addition, if you need to use this tablet for work or school, you can easily send files to the tablet from your computer or smartphone using BOOXdrop. It takes mere seconds, and you can annotate PDFs and other Word documents with ease. I found it extremely useful for editing stories and planning content for my daily work.
While you could use the Note Air 3 C as an e-reader, Boox's library of available books is greatly lacking. Luckily, you can download the Kindle app, which allows you to access more titles and color highlights within your books. Since it's a color e-ink screen, I found it great for reading magazines. Just remember you won't be able to use features like handwritten notes or adjust the page appearance in the Kindle app (and most third-party apps).
Also: The best reading tablets
As with all e-ink displays, you sometimes get a ghosting effect due to a refresh lag. I noticed this only in certain apps, especially third-party ones. Browsing the web works well enough, but again, it's an e-ink tablet. There's a built-in speaker that was helpful for watching a YouTube video about growing rosemary, although the sound was a little harsh and provided little bass.
ZDNET's buying advice
If you're looking for a note-taking tablet to get your groove back, I couldn't recommend the Onyx Boox Note Air 3 C more. Its color e-ink screen puts it ahead of the Kindle Scribe and the reMarkable tablets, and the writing experience and availability of templates make it easy to organize your thoughts.
Featured reviews
5 Linux commands you need to know to troubleshoot problems
Table of Contents
Much to the chagrin of those who'd like to malign the Linux operating system, it's actually quite easy to use. Thanks to modern GUI desktop environments and applications, anyone could jump into the fray and know what they're doing.
But on the rare occasion in which trouble arises, you might want to know a few commands to help you out. The problem is that there are so many commands available to you within the realm of Linux, which makes it challenging to know which commands are the best options.
Also: The first 5 Linux commands every new user should learn
Sure, you could learn any of the commands that display system information (such as top, free, iostat, htop, vmstat, or iftop), but those tools will only get you so far. What is more valuable is skipping to the command that can really help you if something goes wrong.
And with that introduction out of the way, let's get to the commands.
1. dmesg
Back when I first started using Linux, dmesg was my best friend. Essentially, dmesg is used to examine all messages that are created after the bootloader phase of the kernel. In other words, you might find a clue for anything you could possibly troubleshoot right here.
Unlike the dmesg of old, you now have to run the command with sudo privileges, so:
sudo dmesg
This will print quite a bit of output you can scroll through, making it a bit challenging to find what you're looking for, and much of what you read will most likely seem like gibberish. The good news is that errors print out in red, so you can quickly scroll to find anything that might be wrong.
Also: Why I use the Linux tree command daily - and what it can do for you
There's a way to make this even easier. Let's say you're experiencing an error, and you want to see if it is logged via dmesg as it happens. To do that, issue the command:
dmesg -w
This will display the output from dmesg as it happens, so when an error occurs, you'll see it written in the terminal window and can troubleshoot from there.
The dmesg command is a great place to start troubleshooting in Linux.
2. tail
Speaking of following output, the tail command allows you to follow the output written to any log file. Let's say you're having issues with your Samba share and want to see what's happening in real time. The first thing you'd want to do is find out which log file to read. In that case, you could issue the command:
ls /var/log/samba
In that folder you'll find a number of log files (for the Samba server and any/all machines connected to the share). Let's say I want to view the content of the Samba daemon log. For that, I would issue the command:
tail -f /var/log/samba/log.smbd
As the errors happen, they'll be printed in the terminal. As you can see, I have an unknown parameter in my smb.conf file, named share modes. I can open that file, remove the parameter, restart Samba, and the error is no more.
Tail is a great way to view information written to a log in real time.
Remember, to get out of the tail command, you have to use the Ctrl+c keyboard combination.
3. ps
For me, ps is a gateway to other commands. The ps command displays a snapshot of any given current process. You could use ps to list every running process or feed it to grep to list only specific processes.
But what's it good for?
Also: Two tricks that make using the Linux command line a lot easier
Let's say you have an application that has crashed and won't close. You click that little X in the upper right (or left) corner of the window, but it just won't go away. The first thing you need to do is find the PID of that process so you can then take care of the problem. That's where ps comes in handy. But ps by itself isn't very helpful. Why? If you just run ps it will only list the processes associated with the terminal you're using. Instead, you need to use some specific options, which are:
ps aux
- a - all processes
- u - processes owned by the user running ps
- x - prints applications that have not been started from the terminal
The ps command is essential for finding information about applications that may not be behaving as they should.
This command prints out a lot of information, all of it in columns. You'll see several columns, but the ones you'll want to pay attention to are PID and COMMAND. With the information from those two columns, you can locate the process's ID causing you problems. Once you've found that process, you can then kill it.
If the output of ps aux is overwhelming, you can pipe that output to grep and list only certain processes. Let's say LibreOffice is causing you problems. You can list only those processes associated with LibreOffice like this:
ps aux | grep libreoffice
4. kill
The kill command is very powerful. When you have a stubborn application that has crashed and won't close (or hasn't crashed but is consuming too much memory), the kill command will force that application to close.
Also: The best Linux laptops of 2024: Expert tested and reviewed
But to use the kill command, you must first have the PID of the application in question (which you locate with the ps aux command). Let's say the PID of a wayward LibreOffice application is 604187. To kill that process, the command would be:
kill 604187
The app should close, and you're good to go.
5. systemctl
The systemctl command is not only good for starting and stoping applications, it can also help you troubleshoot. Let's say Samba isn't working as expected. Issue the command:
systemctl status smbd
The above command will list whether the service is running, its PID, the number of associated tasks, how much memory and CPU it's using, and the CGroups to which it belongs. Even better, if there are any issues with the process, systemctl will give you the information you need to troubleshoot the problem further(usually with the help of journalctl).
There you have it. These five commands will serve as a great place to start with your Linux troubleshooting. Yes, there are quite a few more tools that are available, but for those just starting with Linux, you might want to know these commands first.
