Not sure all of your examples are analogies.

It’s a lot easier to pick up the desktop and make away with it than worry about local password. Easy to read Ntfs using almost any other OS.

I use an OS password but I know many whom don’t! And don’t encrypt as it’s a desktop!!

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

Little in life is certain but it's sensible to tip the odds in your favour as far as is possible.

As Damon Runyan wrote many years ago, "The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that's the way to bet."

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

A password not stored locally is a good deterrant. It wouldn't stop someone who is really determined for ever, but casual hackers will just move on to an easier target.

It's like locking your house or your car. It doesn't prevent a determined intruder but, unless there is something special about your house or car, why should they bother when there are easier pickings.

An OS password will not stop people getting into my computer if they do it via the net connection. An OS password only stop people who are in front of the computer,

The password will still be stored locally - it gets cached locally so you can still log in if the Internet connection is lost. One of the main ways hackers get at passwords on corporate networks is by hacking the local password cache of end user devices - much easier than trying to hack into the servers themselves which are probably better secured.

Cached credentials can be deleted.

On a corporate network you would set a group policy to prevent local caching of domain passwords.

Edited by TinyMongomery (Mon 21-Feb-22 18:00:33)

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

On a corporate network you would set a group policy to prevent local caching of domain passwords.

You can with ADDS but I've not seen that with AzureAD which everyone is moving to.

User accounts and passwords are a fairly (benign?) natural part of computing, generally speaking.

Early computer (and certainly the unix-based beasts that I learnt most from), were all shared platforms. A 'big' box in the basement and loads of 'cheap' VT or maybe later graphical Xterminals all hosted off the one box. The only way to harmoniously and securely organise and partition compute resources, and storage was...user accounts and passwords.

Perhaps if you've come primarily from a background of single use, personal computing, then the concept of user accounts and passwords and especially 'online' accounts may appear big brother-ish.

However another way of looking at this is simply a logical progression / the matured version of Microsoft (and Netware etc) "roaming profiles" from the 90's. Just that the "profiles" now can be accessed anywhere, rather than across the office LAN

I find the Microsoft account incredibly useful in syncing applications across various devices.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

User accounts and passwords are a fairly (benign?) natural part of computing, generally speaking.

Early computer (and certainly the unix-based beasts that I learnt most from), were all shared platforms. A 'big' box in the basement and loads of 'cheap' VT or maybe later graphical Xterminals all hosted off the one box. The only way to harmoniously and securely organise and partition compute resources, and storage was...user accounts and passwords.

Perhaps if you've come primarily from a background of single use, personal computing, then the concept of user accounts and passwords and especially 'online' accounts may appear big brother-ish.

However another way of looking at this is simply a logical progression / the matured version of Microsoft (and Netware etc) "roaming profiles" from the 90's. Just that the "profiles" now can be accessed anywhere, rather than across the office LAN

i find passwords on computer s a pain to be honest, certainly if it's not required, like it is not as if my cat is going to come up here, turn the computer on and the use it.

I use passwords at work to access their computers, well it is a shared username with a colleague as my decided to stop working a couple of years ago, it only accesses the desktop anyway and maybe some local files, I need to use a browser to access Microsoft 365 and have my own username and password for that, that is to get info, print out reports and waste sheets as well as do training, also need it to access Yammer and teams, neither I use as I have no interest in using them
But to access my own computer at home, I see no need for a password.
The same with a MS account, I have no need for one, I really am getting fed with being told what to do by companies and our government.

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

I find the Microsoft account incredibly useful in syncing applications across various devices.

That is fine, I set one of my brothers up with Ms account or what ever it used to be called a few years ago as he wanted to get some files from his desktop to his laptop and the way he did things, it made sense to use a Ms account and one drive.
I have no need for it, I only have one Windows based computer working, the laptop uses Linux, which is why I went for dropbox, not that I use the laptop that often anyway these days.

I do not take too kindly with being pushed or forced into things, and I fight back anyway I can.