- Elon Musk shared an X post explaining how he was having trouble setting up a new Windows 11 laptop.
- Musk dismissed help from Community Notes and pinged Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to resolve the setup process woes.
- The issue was resolved when he found that he was connected to an open Wi-Fi network and had to simply disconnect.
Elon Musk, the famous billionaire who holds several prestigious titles under his name including the founder of Tesla, SpaceX, and Starlink, and the CEO of the social media platform Twitter, which he recently acquired and renamed X, recently stumbled upon a challenging task that even he couldn’t figure out easily: setting up his new Windows laptop.
Yes, you read it right. Even billionaires have tech support issues as Elon Musk shared a post on X on Sunday that he couldn’t set up his new Windows laptop without having to make a Microsoft account, which would give their AI access to his computer (in his own words). He couldn’t even find the option to skip it, which used to be there previously.
Guess what? It is still there and the Community Notes (volunteer-based fact-checking service on X) soon pointed it out on the post. But Musk was not having any part of it, going as far as to say that the “Community Notes is failing here.” Yes, you read it right again, he wasn’t ready to believe the volunteers of his platform.
The Community Note contributors don’t take their job lightly and decided to help the guy out once again, swooping in with another response explaining that the option is still there, but it requires a workaround that is not easy for everyone to figure out.
One user even wrote down how he can bypass this whole process with the “Shift + F10” method. But Musk replied, “Doesn’t work. That just reboots the computer and takes me back to the “Signup for Microsoft to continue” screen.” Someone even suggested calling Satya Nadella the CEO of Microsoft for technical support to which Musk said, “I just sent him a text.”
After hours of back and forth and several memes later, Elon Musk figured out that his laptop was connected to an open Wi-Fi network and all he had to do was disconnect from it. This is what allowed him to skip the Microsoft setup screen. Yep, that was the issue.
This ordeal goes to show that even the most brilliant and influential person in the world can also be troubled by simple tech-related issues.
Later that day, Satya Nadella shared an X post announcing a multi-year partnership with Mistral AI. Elon Musk, possibly not hearing back on text from Mr. Nadella, sought this opportunity and replied, “Satya, I don’t mean to be a pest, but please allow people setting up a new Windows PC to skip creating a Microsoft account.”
As funny as it was, this entire situation sheds light on how restricting the Windows setup process and Microsoft’s account requirement can be for the average Joe. The good thing is that if you ever come across such an issue then you don’t have to ping Satya Nadella, just use our guide to create a local Windows account if you don’t want to create or sign in with a Microsoft account.
