Using Windows with a local account is a very weird experience. On the one hand, most of the adware and other nonsense is turned off. On the other hand, virtually nothing seems to have been tested against local accounts.

If I want to update my controller firmware, for example, I have to use the Xbox Accessories app, and it will try to open one or two Microsoft login windows on basically every click. They seem to take about 10 seconds to appear and load, during which time the app seems stuck. It actually works fine with a local account, but you're going to see about a dozen, slow-to-load login prompts, accompanying every step of getting your controller firmware updated. It's an insane experience. I can't imagine it's intentional, I assume the app is just desperately trying to connect to some Xbox overlay which presumes a Microsoft account and was never tested without one.

It just seems like it's part and parcel of Windows' generally abysmal software quality.

I’ve never used an online account on windows and I’ve never noticed any issues that I could chalk to using a local account.