The first method (the one I am familiar with) involves booting with the media and choosing Advanced and getting to a command prompt. There will be a utility available (I think it's a script in the oobe directory). Have ethernet unplugged and/or don't configure a wifi connection. Type the following command:
This will reboot the PC and resume where you left off and you can create a normal account.
Alternatively, even easier is to simply enter an invalid local account name and password and the setup dialog will fall back to the local user creation interface. I wouldn't expect that one to work for long though.
Re: Set up Windows 11 with a local account
Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2024 9:44 pm
by Michael_horatio
Grogan wrote: Mon Feb 26, 2024 11:46 pm
The first method (the one I am familiar with) involves booting with the media and choosing Advanced and getting to a command prompt. There will be a utility available (I think it's a script in the oobe directory). Have ethernet unplugged and/or don't configure a wifi connection. Type the following command:
This will reboot the PC and resume where you left off and you can create a normal account.
Alternatively, even easier is to simply enter an invalid local account name and password and the setup dialog will fall back to the local user creation interface. I wouldn't expect that one to work for long though.
did a clean install of 11 pro earlier and the oobe bypass method still works fine, but invalid local account method is gone, at least I couldn't make it work.
Re: Set up Windows 11 with a local account
Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2024 10:30 pm
by Grogan
Good, I'm glad to hear that still works. They'd pretty much have to have something for people with no network access (e.g. chicken before egg if Windows can't program your network device)
Re: Set up Windows 11 with a local account
Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2024 10:47 pm
by Michael_horatio
and Rufus is still the best way (I've found) to remove the secure boot and TPM 2.0 requirements on older hardware
Re: Set up Windows 11 with a local account
Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2025 9:34 am
by Zema Bus
A previously unknown trick lets you easily bypass using a Microsoft Account in Windows 11, just as Microsoft tries to make it harder to use local accounts.
Since the release of Windows 11, Microsoft has been increasingly closing loopholes and making it harder to use a local account in the operating system.
Instead, the company wants you to use a Microsoft Account, as many operating system features rely on cloud-based services.
Last week, Microsoft removed the 'BypassNRO.cmd' script from Windows 11 preview builds, which allowed users to bypass the Microsoft Account requirement when installing the operating system.
While the Registry commands used by the script still worked, it became less easy to add them, requiring users to type them out or manually edit the Registry.
On Saturday, X user "Wither OrNot" shared a much easier way to bypass Windows 11's Microsoft Account requirement, which BleepingComputer has confirmed to work.
When installing Windows 11 and you reach the screen asking, "Let's connect you to a network," you can use the Shift+F10 keyboard combination to open a Windows command prompt.
At this prompt, type start ms-cxh:localonly and press Enter on your keyboard to open a "Microsoft account" window where you can create a new local user for the Windows 11 install.
After filling in the information and clicking the Next button, the Windows 11 setup will continue. However, now it will continue using your created local account and will not prompt you to use a Microsoft Account.
They just want to have total control of your computer. There's no way I would be using a Microsoft account. Moreover, I don't want that shit on my network (cloud storage i/o etc.)
That wasn't a loophole, the BypassNRO, that was a legitimate way for administrators to get the system up in the absence of a network. What the fuck, does Microsoft think "oh too bad for you" when it doesn't have network drivers for your hardware? NO, they can't have drivers for "everything" because they wouldn't even know about everything, present and future.