Windows 11 without a Microsoft account?

[fincoder]

Windows 11 PRO

With 11 Pro you simply choose "Set up for work or school" instead of personal, then choose Other Ways, then Domain. It then asks for a local account name.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Here are screen shots of another (of many this week)...brand new, Windows 11 Pro laptops we've unbuckled out of the box.
*Remove from box, put on bench
*Plug in power, plug in ethernet cable...yes...it works FINE with internet connected
*Power on



Look for "Sign-In Options"...click that. I bet 99% of people miss this..thus..they think you need a MS account

Now...look for "Domain Join Instead"...click that.


Now enjoy creating your local user account.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Yep! Go Pro or go home!

 

[britechguy]

Yep! Go Pro or go home!

But as you well know, that's a choice that those of us serving the residential market have no control over.

There are lots of us. (And we "Go Home" time and again, whether we wish to, or not!)

 

[timeshifter]

Make sure you don't hook it up to internet.

This method still works. The only difference now is you cannot hook up to the Internet before running this command.

Can confirm if you connect to the Internet at any point you're screwed. Setting one up today, I thought she was using a Microsoft Account on old PC and clicked on through. Then realized she wasn't so was going to do a Local Account. After the Shift F10 and oobe\bypassnro it would reboot, not offer to skip a network connection and went right through to forcing me to use Microsoft Account. If she had been in a private residence I could have maybe turned off the WiFi but since she's using a community connection I had no way to turn it off.

 

[thecomputerguy]

Can confirm if you connect to the Internet at any point you're screwed. Setting one up today, I thought she was using a Microsoft Account on old PC and clicked on through. Then realized she wasn't so was going to do a Local Account. After the Shift F10 and oobe\bypassnro it would reboot, not offer to skip a network connection and went right through to forcing me to use Microsoft Account. If she had been in a private residence I could have maybe turned off the WiFi but since she's using a community connection I had no way to turn it off.

I have screwed this up before and have gone as far as turning off the router to get around it.

 

[Blues]

I have screwed this up before and have gone as far as turning off the router to get around it.

I have opened up systems and removed antenna and/or WiFi cards to disable WiFi when other options won't work for reasons.

 

[sapphirescales]

Can confirm if you connect to the Internet at any point you're screwed. Setting one up today, I thought she was using a Microsoft Account on old PC and clicked on through. Then realized she wasn't so was going to do a Local Account. After the Shift F10 and oobe\bypassnro it would reboot, not offer to skip a network connection and went right through to forcing me to use Microsoft Account. If she had been in a private residence I could have maybe turned off the WiFi but since she's using a community connection I had no way to turn it off.

This is why I don't bother using the official Windows 11 Media Creation tool anymore. Just use Rufus and select the option to bypass a Microsoft account and create a local account called "My Computer" (or whatever name you want) by default. You can also turn off automatic drive encryption (which is coming to Windows 11 HOME in 24H2), and bypass the CPU/TPM requirements (if you want). It will still work on normal computers that are fully supported on Windows 11. Microsoft will never patch this as Rufus uses the official script that large companies use to automate the OOBE in Windows.

 

[britechguy]

This is why I don't bother using the official Windows 11 Media Creation tool anymore.

I use it only to create a fresh copy of the ISO file, rather than taking the one that Microsoft has that may be "not so fresh."

I then do exactly as you do, create the actual install media using Rufus, tweaking whatever I want to tweak "this time around."

 

[Rigo]

Can confirm if you connect to the Internet at any point you're screwed. Setting one up today, I thought she was using a Microsoft Account on old PC and clicked on through. Then realized she wasn't so was going to do a Local Account. After the Shift F10 and oobe\bypassnro it would reboot, not offer to skip a network connection and went right through to forcing me to use Microsoft Account. If she had been in a private residence I could have maybe turned off the WiFi but since she's using a community connection I had no way to turn it off.

The only I found to get around that is by manually creating the local user account.
The rest of the installation accepts it and carries on.
Even in a private situation turning off the gateway may not be ideal.

 

[timeshifter]

The only I found to get around that is by manually creating the local user account.
The rest of the installation accepts it and carries on.
Even in a private situation turning off the gateway may not be ideal.

How do you manually create a local user account when you’re going through the OOBE?

 

[Rigo]

How do you manually create a local user account when you’re going through the OOBE?

I picked this one up from a link to a discussion where the moderator suggested another way around:

"Press Shift + F10. The command prompt opens

net.exe user "User Name" /add

net.exe localgroup "Administrators" "User Name" /add

cd OOBE

msoobe.exe && shutdown.exe -r

Windows will now restart and start with the other settings until Windows 11 is installed correctly with a local account.

When logging in, "The user name or password is incorrect" now appears.

Simply press OK and select the right account at the bottom left of screen. You should have one for Administrator and one for whatever name you used as "User Name" above."

I've used it when I add mistakenly connected to the internet and getting the run-around afterwards