14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 10 version 1909, or November 2019 Update, isn’t necessarily a major release, as the number of improvements that it brings is substantially smaller when comparing this feature update with its predecessors.
But in addition to the changes that everybody already knows, there are some more subtle tweaks in other parts of the OS, including when it comes to the Out of Box Experience, also known as OOBE.
Microsoft has made it harder for users who clean-install Windows 10 to set up a local account, insisting for the creation (or configuration if it already exists) of a Microsoft account.
Paul Thurrott has discovered that a similar approach is being used for both Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Home.
For example, while Windows 10 Pro does come with options to sign in with a Microsoft account and create an “Offline account,” the latter pushes users to what Microsoft describes as “Limited experience.”
Missing local account option
On Windows 10 Home, the offline account option is no longer displayed if you previously connected to the Internet during the Windows 10 setup – the option to connect to a network is displayed before configuring user accounts.
This is a change that was discovered earlier this year when Windows 10 version 1909 was still in the Windows Insider program, and it turns out that Microsoft has implemented it into the final build of the feature update as well.
The only way to go in this case if you really want to use Windows 10 Home with an offline account is not to connect to a network before reaching the user configuration screen. In this case, the offline account does show up, letting you set up Windows 10 without the need for a Microsoft account.
However, if you create an offline account, once the Windows 10 installation is complete, you log in to the desktop, and connect to a network, Windows 10 displays a message to “finish setting up your device” and complete the steps that you previously missed because of the local account.