SSH into Microsoft Linked Windows 11 account not working

Question

Is it possible to SSH into a Windows 11 machine that is linked to a Microsoft account? If yes, thoughts on what I am doing wrong? If it isn't possible, is there a work-around?

I carefully (I think) followed the following instructions and meet all the listed prerequisites: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/openssh/openssh_install_firstuse?tabs=gui

I am using the Windows build-in OpenSSH server "optional feature". Setup looked like it worked, but I get "Permission denied, please try again" when I attempt to log in. The command I am using to attempt login is "ssh userid@IP" where userid is the name that is returned when I enter the following in Powershell:

$env:USERNAME

and the IP address is the string returned when I enter

ipconfig | select-string  ('(\s)+IPv4.+\s(?<IP>(\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}))(\s)\*') -AllMatches | %{ $\_.Matches } | % { $\_.Groups["IP"]} | %{ $\_.Value }

Thanks

Answer 1

Hello,

Connecting to a Windows 11 system that is linked to a Microsoft account using SSH is not possible natively. The SSH server available in Windows 11, OpenSSH-Server, is not intended to work with Microsoft accounts. It only supports local accounts or Active Directory accounts.

To authenticate through SSH, you will need to establish a local account-based SSH server on the Windows 11 system. Afterward, you can connect to it using the local user account credentials rather than the Microsoft account.
See link below.
https://learn.microsoft.com/windows-server/admi...

Best regards

Zunhui

Answer 2

what a gigantic piece of sh*t this OS is..