Visual Studio 2017 - Use it without logging into MS Account?

Purchased a copy of Visual Studio 2017.

Unfortunately, due to hacking and surveillance concerns I don't want my coding work stolen or publicized before it's done and releasable.

Is there a way to use VS 2017 without needing to log into my Microsoft Account all the time? I'm concerned if the computer is connected to the internet then my work will be remotely downloaded/copied/resold/whatever without my consent.

Thanks for your help.

Superfly said:

I have never logged in to MSA via VS... it's just for online Team stuff and remote access, I think.

I was under the impression it requires regular logins for account and purchase verification. Have you tried running it offline for extended periods of time?

Superfly said:

Sorry, I should have mentioned I have always been key activated... not sure how the MSA purchases work...maybe you are right that it requires verification - then I would rather go with community edition?

Community Edition gives 90 days of use with account creation and verification required after the first 30 days.

bro67; said:

If you do not share your work with others, no one can have any access to it. You are overthinking security and asking multiple questions about the same thing, which is dealing with securing the system and network. Do not know what you are looking for, other than if you do not create a public share, your computer will show up on a network, but no one can access it. Same as when you see network shares on your computer from others, it does not mean that someone is going to just get on your network and attempt to connect with your computer, when you do not allow them access.

I've had network intrusions in the past and loss of work. This is despite a fully updated system running antivirus and firewall. I may have someone in my local area or picked up a persistent 'spy' or 'hacker' somewhere along the way. That's the reason I'm very concerned with security. Local law enforcement either aren't interested or don't know what to do.

bro67 said:

Unless you publicly announce what wifi hotspot is yours, no one is going to take the time to look in billions of IP's to find out which one yours is. Everyone's network gets pinged by foreign IP's to try and find a way in. It is the same thing with a building. Unless you announce which IP is yours, use out of the box Passphrase or a weak passphrase, there are very limited ways into a network.

I have yet to see anyone try to break into my network, let alone why they would, when there is nothing out there for them to go after.

Law Enforcement is not going to do anything, since it is a waste of their time if they responded to everyone crying that someone from Russia is trying to find a weakness on someone's network.

I live in a densely populated urban area. I have over 10 WiFi networks visible to my machine at any one time. My neighbor (who I share a wall with) was renting to a guy from Russia, as well as a bunch of other students. Students like free WiFi. Students like gossip. Students don't like very high rents. The rent in my area is very high.

Does anyone have any constructive advice on securing a network? If there's a high-risk group for network hacking I'm in the high-range of high-risk for home-networks.

Please only provide constructive advice in these threads. Attacking the validity of the initial questions wastes everybody's time, including those who come looking for assistance from other people's questions. That's a good way to spot a good thread or a good forum from a bad one: the initial poster, if clearly not a troll, doesn't have their thread topic attacked but instead has genuine attempts at answering the original question...

I've had all my emails deleted from my email account, I've had a PC that appears to run some form of cmd-prompt program immediately after OS login, everyone in my local area jokes about my internet usage (I'm really close to Google's offices) security is of absolutely paramount concern to myself, especially privacy.

Incidentally, Google won't even let me inside their building. So I guess I really am the bad guy and all you guys care about is knowing what each other are doing all the time, even though that's not why everyone uses a computer.