Could they do it? Deactivate Windows licenses, block Cloud services, access to Office 365 and whatnot?

  • stoy@lemmy.zip
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    17 days ago

    Now with 365, they can ban you from your own computer by simply flipping a variable from 0 to 1.

    And it wouldn’t matter if you tried to reinstall the machine, as long as the HW identifiers on the machine are the same the ban will stop the machine from be used after being connected to the internet.

    • pivot_root@lemmy.world
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      17 days ago

      Source? That would be useful for helping convince friends/family to switch to Linux and LibreOffice.

      • stoy@lemmy.zip
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        17 days ago

        I have no explicit source for this scenario, but I am a 365 admin and extrapolated from my knowledge of Intune.

        The way I see it, there is nothing actually preventing Microsoft from blocking computers from using personal 365.

        Just look at the autopilot service in intune, you add a machine to it using either a machine ID or a serial number, then it is locked to that tenant and can’t be used outside of that with windows.

        There is no checking of actual ownership of the device, and once a device is added to autopilot, it will prompt for a tenant logon even after a complete reinstall.

        This means that MS will check any computer that checks in with their servers for their ID and s/n, and against a blocklist.