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[–] 64 points 7 months ago (14 children)

Reset, once it's done downloading (if you go cloud), pull your network cable. When it gets to "let's get you online" hit shift f-10 which pulls up the terminal window. Type oobe\bypassnro and hit enter. Stay offline, and get back to the same spot in the install process but this time you'll have a "I don't have internet" link as an option. It'll protest, but you can then move forward with a local account. I literally did it yesterday.

Once you have a local account built, Windows will give you "sign in" alerts in settings and in security.

Just for the record, I use Linux. I do however work in a Windows shop and understand that "just use Linux" isn't at all helpful when someone asks a Windows question.

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  • [–] 15 points 7 months ago* (5 children)

    BypassNRO was removed from system files in 25H2 last year, unless you happened to be served an old ISO this won't work anymore.

    This is what I've been using since:

    • Complete the initial Windows 11 install and restart your PC.
    • When you reach the Secondary Keyboard Layout screen (before the Microsoft Account sign-up stage), press Shift + F10
    • In the console, type the command: start ms-cxh:localonly
    • Hit Enter, then press Escape to close the console.

    You can also use Rufus to make a setup drive which preconfigures the local account. This method and others are described in this article.

    PS: It still works if you copy the BypassNRO.cmd file from an old system to a new one when you're in OOBE mode (Ctrl+Shift+F3) during setup. It's just a powershell command that sets a registery key and reboots.

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    Huh, that's weird that I've been able to use the bypass NRO trick pretty consistently at work and at home... I should have mentioned the Rufus thing too, but he was doing this as a reset, not as a new install, so I didn't.

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    Yeah check which version of windows it installs, it'll be 22H2 or 24H2.

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    I just got top work and asked a senior tech: 24H2 + a 25H2 enablement package to make bypassnro still work for us. Geez.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago

    Honestly I have no idea how they keep getting away with adding more and more hurdles for local account creation. Literally no other OS for mobile or PC has this.

    I've seen anything from devices with a local account automatically enabling bitlocker with no way of recovering if bitlocker trips to devices with an MS account tripping bitlocker only to find out the recovery keys are not saved to the MS account, absolutely bonkers.

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  • [+] 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)
  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    Hehe... Try installing VMware Player or Genshin Impact in Fedora! (Those are my two most recent headaches.) Any OS can be a pain, it just seems like Linux is getting friendlier every year and Microsoft becomes more overtly the enemy.

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  • [+] [S] 3 points 7 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] 6 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    I want to reiterate the importance of the "pull the network cable" part. If you fail to unplug the cable before the setup wizard detects that there is the possibility of a network connection, on some systems it will actually prevent you from making a local account altogether, as it will force you to connect to a network which will skip the shift-f10 step.

    We had this issue setting up demo models on laptops for awhile, if you didn't disable the wifi adapter before it saw there was networks available(even if they were password protected) it would require a second factory reset to even get to the point where it would let you setup a local account.

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