![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
computer setup and windows 11
Friday, April 7th, 2023 02:28 amOver the last few weeks, I've managed to get my new work laptop set up almost completely like the old one was. They are both running Windows 10. All my customizations, shortcuts, utilities, etc., are set up the way I like. I'm almost ready to mail the old one back.
I had worried the new laptop might have the same network connectivity problem as the old one and that all the effort setting it up might be for naught. The new screen doesn't adjust as bright as the old one, which makes a difference when using it outside, so I might be even worse off than before. But so far, other than one small hiccup which hopefully was a fluke, it has been running fine.
..
On the personal computer front, I'm still setting up my "new" (4-months old) Windows 11 laptop.
I now keep finding myself aggravated to discover that things I thought were already set up on it, aren't. It was the new work laptop I set them up on, not this one.
Today I discovered that I'm missing the "Pictures" folder. Then I discovered that most of the Shell Folders in the registry are pointing to a non-existent user path. Argh.
Let me backtrack a bit.
When I turned the laptop on the first time and started setting up Windows 11 Pro, I discovered there was no way to set it up without a Microsoft account. (There is a way that might work, but not an officially supported method. Most of the ways that are mentioned online were disabled in more recent versions of Windows 11 like mine.) I read that installing apps from the Microsoft app store would require a Microsoft account, and I *might* someday want to install such an app. So I set the laptop up with a Microsoft account, with the intention of setting up a local user account later, and using that one most of the time.
I found a way to create a new Microsoft account without providing or linking it to my real name and identity. Doing so was tricky and might not have been possible if I hadn't already had an anonymous hotmail account I'd created in the past. When setting up a new MS account now, you have to give it either a phone number or an existing email address. (It seems like all free email accounts are like that now?) I was able to use my old anonymous hotmail account as the backup email for the new account. As the old hotmail account was then also requiring me to enter a backup email for it (which it hadn't required in the past), I entered the new account as its backup. Hah.
Anyway, after that was all done, I created the local account. But I did it wrong. I should have added it via "Family & Other Users" as shown on this page:
https://nerdschalk.com/using-windows-11-without-microsoft-account-everything-you-need-to-know/
Instead, I selected the "Sign in with a local account instead" option. It asked me "Are you sure you want to switch to a local account?", and I confirmed it by clicking Next. Then I discovered that the Microsoft account I had so painfully set up on the laptop was GONE (from the laptop). Now only the local account was shown. That's what I had originally wanted, but......
That was two and a half months ago. Now I discover Windows didn't do the switch to the local account right. The shell folders are still pointing to the path of the old user account which is no longer there. Who knows what else might be borked up too. I'm tempted to see if I can reset everything and start over from scratch again.
Update, 2023/04/17:
Reading back through my laptop notes, I realize I did some additional things which may have contributed to that account's folder paths getting borked up:
Before switching to the local account, I unlinked OneDrive.
After switching to the local account, I updated my User Profile folder name.
Anyway, I've now created a new local user account (without OneDrive, and with a nice User Profile name to begin with) and will eventually delete the other one.
I had worried the new laptop might have the same network connectivity problem as the old one and that all the effort setting it up might be for naught. The new screen doesn't adjust as bright as the old one, which makes a difference when using it outside, so I might be even worse off than before. But so far, other than one small hiccup which hopefully was a fluke, it has been running fine.
..
On the personal computer front, I'm still setting up my "new" (4-months old) Windows 11 laptop.
I now keep finding myself aggravated to discover that things I thought were already set up on it, aren't. It was the new work laptop I set them up on, not this one.
Today I discovered that I'm missing the "Pictures" folder. Then I discovered that most of the Shell Folders in the registry are pointing to a non-existent user path. Argh.
Let me backtrack a bit.
When I turned the laptop on the first time and started setting up Windows 11 Pro, I discovered there was no way to set it up without a Microsoft account. (There is a way that might work, but not an officially supported method. Most of the ways that are mentioned online were disabled in more recent versions of Windows 11 like mine.) I read that installing apps from the Microsoft app store would require a Microsoft account, and I *might* someday want to install such an app. So I set the laptop up with a Microsoft account, with the intention of setting up a local user account later, and using that one most of the time.
I found a way to create a new Microsoft account without providing or linking it to my real name and identity. Doing so was tricky and might not have been possible if I hadn't already had an anonymous hotmail account I'd created in the past. When setting up a new MS account now, you have to give it either a phone number or an existing email address. (It seems like all free email accounts are like that now?) I was able to use my old anonymous hotmail account as the backup email for the new account. As the old hotmail account was then also requiring me to enter a backup email for it (which it hadn't required in the past), I entered the new account as its backup. Hah.
Anyway, after that was all done, I created the local account. But I did it wrong. I should have added it via "Family & Other Users" as shown on this page:
https://nerdschalk.com/using-windows-11-without-microsoft-account-everything-you-need-to-know/
Instead, I selected the "Sign in with a local account instead" option. It asked me "Are you sure you want to switch to a local account?", and I confirmed it by clicking Next. Then I discovered that the Microsoft account I had so painfully set up on the laptop was GONE (from the laptop). Now only the local account was shown. That's what I had originally wanted, but......
That was two and a half months ago. Now I discover Windows didn't do the switch to the local account right. The shell folders are still pointing to the path of the old user account which is no longer there. Who knows what else might be borked up too. I'm tempted to see if I can reset everything and start over from scratch again.
Update, 2023/04/17:
Reading back through my laptop notes, I realize I did some additional things which may have contributed to that account's folder paths getting borked up:
Before switching to the local account, I unlinked OneDrive.
After switching to the local account, I updated my User Profile folder name.
Anyway, I've now created a new local user account (without OneDrive, and with a nice User Profile name to begin with) and will eventually delete the other one.
