Microsoft Shifts All Activations To Online Accounts

ReclaimTheNet.com ^ | January 6, 2026 2:07 PM ET | Rick Findlay

[E. Pluribus Unum]

A simple software setup has become another checkpoint in Microsoft’s expanding web of identity and control.

Microsoft’s removal of phone activation for Windows and Office is another signal that the company is locking users into a fully connected, account-bound environment where privacy and ownership steadily fade.

In the past, activating Windows could be done privately without linking the computer to any online profile. Users could install the system, call an automated number, and receive a confirmation code. No internet, no account, no tracking.

That layer of independence is gone. Today, activation demands a Microsoft account and an active connection to the company’s servers.

The change surfaced when YouTuber Ben Kleinberg tried to activate Windows 7 and Office 2010 with an OEM key.

Expecting the old process, he found that the phone number now plays a recorded message telling callers that “support for product activation has moved online.”

A follow-up text message pointed him to the Microsoft Product Activation Portal, where sign-in is mandatory.

It is easy to miss what has been lost here. Phone activation might have been old-fashioned, but it was more private.

You could install software without revealing your identity or linking it to a broader ecosystem. The new system transforms that private transaction into an interaction within Microsoft’s cloud, where every activation, every license, and every key is associated with an online identity.

This is not isolated. In recent versions of Windows, Microsoft has made it increasingly difficult to create local accounts or complete setup without going online.

Now, even activating a legitimate copy of the operating system has become part of the same pattern: tie every function to a Microsoft account, require internet access, and collect the corresponding data.

That approach quietly redefines what ownership means in the digital age. Buying a license no longer guarantees control over your software; it...

[doorgunner69]

Legacy software and familiarity.

[Tell It Right]

I read once a few decades ago that Windows 95 sold like 4 licenses in China in a quarter in the late 90’s.

Thanks for the reminder that China has done tons of pirating of Microsoft products over the years. It's why I can't really blame Microsoft for trying anything to make sure that the people using their products actually paid for them. Did China have a workaround for the old call activation?

[libh8er]

Apple does the same too and has for a long time. MS just copies Apple.

[Gideon7]

I was able to activate Windows without a Microsoft Account using the standard slmgr command line utility:

slmgr -ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
slmgr -ato

-ipk means Install Product Key

-ato means Activate Online

This has worked since Windows XP.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Thanks for the information. Hope I can remember it next time I need it.

The last time I installed Windows 11 I had my key when I installed it then I just went to System > Activation and clicked on Activation State and activated it there.

[The Duke]

Using Linux Mint here as well. I can’t imagine using Windows any longer. I particularly love the multi-desktop and “hot corners” controls for switching between desktops and apps.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

For home users, Linux is ready for prime time.

The only reason more people don’t use it is that most people don’t even understand what an operating system is, which is fine. A computer is just another appliance to most people.

[dennisw]

“I have been using Linux Mint more and more. The telemetry on Windows 11 is particularly worrisome. It is literally spying on everything you do. Linux has zero to very limited telemetry depending on the distribution.”

With Mint your browsers are still sending the same amount of telemetry as they do Windoze 11. Brave sends the least but for me is memory hog compared with Chrome.

[dennisw]

“For home users, Linux is ready for prime time.”

Mint has a brightness control for monitors hooking into desktops. Windoze 11 does not, though it does have for it laptop displays (monitors)

I also like Mint because it has a built in low Blue light control, that other Linux flavors might not have. I use the windoze 11 low blue light control all the time. Like right now!

[109ACS]

meh- don’t activate it- .....

I can confirm that you don't need to activate Windows 11. You just lose the ability to personalize it with custom wallpapers, etc.

If you're concerned about using a Microsoft account, just create a new one and don't use it for anything else. I don't use Outlook and Onedrive, so no biggie.

I have dual monitors also, no problem. The only reason I went with Windows 11 is because I use Autodesk's Fusion 360 for 3d designs I create for my 3d printer. Fusion 360 will no longer work with Windows 10.

[daniel1212]

. The telemetry on Windows 11 is particularly worrisome

But have you searched Supplemental: Disable telemetry and always-online features https://geckro.github.io/html/articles/windows11.html

how to turn off all windows 11 telemetry

how to prevent certain Windows Updates

how to permanently turn off prevent disable windows updates [not recommend)

how to Completely Uninstall OneDrive

Meanwhile, to customize a Linus distro the way I can rather easily (mostly, and includes saving certain .reg file hacks) - if possible, has never warranted the time and energy (and I have tried all major and most leading minor distros.

[daniel1212]

, to customize a Linus distro the way I can rather easily (mostly, and includes saving certain .reg file hacks) - if possible, has never warranted the time and energy (and I have installed all major and most leading minor distros.

Show me your "Start menu" equivalent, your taskbar, your equivalent to Device manager, Control Panel, etc. Note: I customize Windows, and most Windows users do not even know about the level of safe and free enhancements available, which they should find improve Windows despite MS upgrades which overall are negative as regards efficient functionality.

Like Open Shell, download Open Shell (click on Releases>Latest on middle right side) to replace the mobile device W/11 start menu, and there is Explorer Patcher (see under Assets here, install, and r. click on TB and hit Properties to see options) that restores the Windows 11 taskbar to be exactly like Windows 10, while Windows 7+ Taskbar Tweaker (I am using the beta ver.) provides more customization.

Then there are the over 200 tweaks available in Ultimate Windows Tweaker 4 and now there is Ultimate Windows Tweaker 5 for Windows 11 from the Windows club.

Add to this the many Winaero features of the Winaero Tweaker and is Right-Click Extender (add items to many right click menus)

[daniel1212]

Also:

Disable BitLocker Automatic Drive Encryption in Windows 11 Starting with Windows 11 24H2, when you perform a clean install or reinstall the OS on a device with a TPM chip and Secure Boot enabled, all drive partitions are automatically encrypted.

[Red Badger]

What if you don’t have internet and don’t need it or can’t afford it?..............

[Bob434]

Great idea- That way they won’t be able to track anything through the fake account. Thanks for the suggestion. I actually have another account I don’t use already except to spammy stuff from hitting my main account-

I’m running into things that don’t work in windows 10 too- or soon won’t work- I dual boot- linux main os which i use 99.7536934% of the time, but need windows once in awhile to work on photos- I have it set to not go online, work offline only most of the time unless i need a specific update for a program, then i hope i get the update fast enough that MS windows doesn’t update-

wish though that there was a way to access the itnernet in windows without windows detectign that it is connected to the itnernet so that it doesn’t update and break things—

[Bob434]

[Reeses]

Today, Microsoft has 92% PC operating system market share in communist China, about half on chatty spyware Windows 11. There are more active Windows users in China now than there are people in America. Deep state peeping toms looking through Windows in China might be the reason Trump is now furiously preparing for war against the CCP.

[Fresh Wind]

My problem is this...I was forced to buy a cheap home version windows 11 PC so I could file my 2024 taxes. Support for earlier windows versions ended about 2 weeks before the April 15 deadline which really pissed me off. No way that could have been a coincidence, more likely Microslop forced it.

So, I filed successfully, and basically shut of the Win 11 box until recently. With the available tax software packages, Linux isn’t an option at all, and only TurboTax supports Mac OS.

Now I’m forcing myself to deal with the disaster that everyone says Windows 11 is.

Everyone says that a local Windows account is the way to go, with everything associated with the cloud, Recall, One Drive, Windows Hello, Copilot and all the other crapware that came with the computer turned off and preferably uninstalled. My computer doesn’t, apparently, have any AI hardware, only the TPM 2.0. I don’t use any of the standard Windows programs (browser, email, text editor, etc).

It appears that I now have both a local account and a Microslop account.

The password I use to log in is one that I established in the beginning and use every time I start the computer, the Microslop account has a totally different password. As long as I don’t log in to Microslop, it shows “local account” on the screen, and none of the invasive telemetry crap appears to be running.

Is that true? And what about the rumors that Microslop is going to do away with local accounts? And when the inevitable updates occur, will I have to go back over the entire system looking for unexpected crap that is installed without my knowledge and approval?

Sorry for the long post. I have never hated Microslop in the past, but I sure do now.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

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[MayflowerMadam]

Another thing that Microsoft did in December was cut the connection between Windows Media Player and MusicMatch. Now when you put a CD in the drive, album information doesn’t automatically populate in WMP. Every single character has to be typed in manually. Album art has to be copied from m something like Discogs and then posted in to WMP.

You’d think they would be customer friendly and automatically direct the rip prices to a substitute for MusicMatch. (But when has Microsoft EVER been customer friendly?) There are a lot of angry people online. The Reddit people are very pissed off and outspoken.