Three Doors, Three Walls — A Solo Developer's Feedback to Microsoft

Feedback to Microsoft — Three Doors, Three Walls

A solo developer's feedback: obtaining a basic OAuth client ID for FSD Launcher should not require a credit card.

Submitted by: Mr FSD, solo developer — FSD ETC, Sylhet, Bangladesh
Date: 19 October 2026
Channels: Microsoft Q&A (Microsoft Entra ID), Azure Feedback, Feedback Hub
Account involved: a personal Microsoft (Outlook) account — the address is withheld from this public report for privacy and can be provided to Microsoft support on request

Summary

I am an independent developer building an open-source Android app, FSD Launcher. The app signs users in with their Microsoft accounts (device code flow), so it needs one basic thing: an Application (client) ID from a Microsoft Entra app registration. A client ID is a public identifier — it is printed inside every distributed app. I was not asking for Azure resources, a subscription, or any paid service.

Over one night I tried every route Microsoft offers, and every route ended in a wall:

1. A personal Microsoft account cannot register an app (no directory), and the portal error that explains this appears in a modal loop that makes the suggested remedy impossible to operate.
2. The Microsoft 365 Developer Program accepted my signup and then refused to provision a sandbox tenant, with no reason and no path forward: “You don't currently qualify for a Microsoft 365 Developer Program sandbox subscription.”
3. The Microsoft 365 Business trial did create my tenant and admin account — then locked them until I enter a credit card. Without a completed order, sign-in to the tenant I own is denied, so the tenant is unusable for the one thing I need it for.

I do not have an international credit card. In Bangladesh, as in many developing regions, independent developers commonly have no card that can pay in USD. The result: there is currently no route at all for a solo developer in my position to obtain a basic OAuth client ID. My project is parked indefinitely because of this — not because of any technical problem in the app, which builds and runs.

Obstacle 1 of 3

1 Personal Outlook account & the directory mismatch (Azure portal)

• Signing in to portal.azure.com with my personal Microsoft account works perfectly — including Microsoft Authenticator number-matching approval, every time. Authentication is not the problem.
• Opening App registrations → New registration shows no form at all, only this message:
  Exact message shown“The ability to create applications outside of a directory has been deprecated. You may get a new directory by joining the M365 Developer Program or signing up for Azure.”
• The account belongs to no directory (“No directories found”), yet the portal continuously raises an “Interaction required” modal:
  Exact error“AADSTS16000: User account from identity provider 'live.com' does not exist in tenant 'Microsoft Services' (9188040d-6c67-4c5b-b112-36a304b66dad) and cannot access the application in that tenant. The account needs to be added as an external user in the tenant first.”
• This modal reappears within seconds of every dismissal and covers the entire page. Multi-step flows — including the tenant-creation wizard that is supposed to be the remedy — cannot be operated, because every control is blocked by the modal faster than the flow can be completed. The recommended fix exists in the UI but is unreachable in practice.

Obstacle 2 of 3

2 Microsoft 365 Developer Program rejection

• I joined the Developer Program with the same account (profile completed: company “FSD ETC”, country Bangladesh, interests including the Microsoft identity platform) and solved the verification challenge.
• The dashboard then stated, in full:
  Exact message shown“Thank you for joining. You don't currently qualify for a Microsoft 365 Developer Program sandbox subscription.”
• No sandbox tenant was provisioned. No qualifying criteria were shown, no explanation was given, and no appeal or alternative step was offered. A solo developer is filtered out by an opaque rule, silently.

Obstacle 3 of 3

3 The financial & credit-card barrier (Microsoft 365 Business Basic trial)

• I then followed the Business trial route. The signup verified my email, accepted my details, and successfully provisioned the tenant fsdetc.onmicrosoft.com and the admin account admin@fsdetc.onmicrosoft.com — before any payment.
• The final step, “Add payment, confirm & complete order,” then mandates a payment card: $0.00 due today, $84.00/year after the trial unless cancelled by November 18, 2026. There is no way to proceed without entering card details.
• I stopped there, as planned — I have no card to give. But the consequence is worse than “no trial”: although the tenant and admin exist, signing in to entra.microsoft.com as my own admin is denied:
  Exact error“AADSTS5000228: Access to '632b47a6-338f-41c7-88d5-5eac963bae15' tenant is denied.”
  (Trace IDs: 25951e6f-e2cf-49e7-bfbe-64c2894ee500, 56323752-1b59-4f7d-b66b-7ca5237ba000)
• So the tenant is created in my name but is completely unusable until a paid order is completed. The one free action I needed — registering an app — is held behind a credit-card form.

The root problem

The root problem

Each system behaves “as designed” in isolation, but together they compose into a total dead end for the smallest developers:

• The personal-account route points to the Developer Program.
• The Developer Program silently refuses solo developers.
• The business route creates the tenant, then demands an international credit card to let you use it.

The end result is that a free, public, zero-cost identifier (an OAuth client ID) is effectively gated behind a credit card — and credit cards are precisely what independent developers in developing regions often do not have. Bangladeshi debit cards generally cannot even make USD payments without a special foreign-currency endorsement on a passport. This is not a pricing complaint; it is an access wall at the very first step of building anything with Microsoft identity.

Impact

Impact

FSD Launcher is an open-source Android launcher whose core design is premium-only Microsoft sign-in. Its first build succeeded and the app runs; the only missing piece is the client ID. Because no route exists for me to obtain one, development of the project's central feature is halted and the project is parked indefinitely. This outcome is entirely a product of account and payment policy, not of technology.

Requests to Microsoft

Requests to Microsoft

1. Remove the credit-card requirement from basic app registration and client ID generation. App registrations need a directory — so provide a free, card-less way to obtain a personal developer directory (as other major platforms do), or allow personal accounts to hold app registrations again.
2. Make Microsoft 365 Developer Program qualification transparent and attainable for solo developers. If a developer does not qualify, say why, and provide a path (verification, waiting period, limited tenant) instead of a silent dead end.
3. Replace opaque error codes with clear diagnostics and a working remedy. AADSTS16000 / AADSTS5000228 tell a user nothing actionable, and the “Interaction required” modal loop makes the portal's own suggested fix impossible to complete. Error states should explain, in plain language, what is missing and link directly to a remedy flow that actually works for personal accounts.

I am happy to provide session logs, timestamps, and trace IDs, and to test any fixed flow. I want to build on Microsoft identity — at the moment, developers like me simply cannot start.

— Mr FSD, FSD ETC, Sylhet, Bangladesh