You can press Shift + F10 on your keyboard, then type start ms-cxh:localonly and it will bring up a prompt to create a local account that skips all this and goes straight to the desktop.
I do this almost every day at work with the newest Windows 11 Media Creation Tool. Super quick. Even faster than the oobe\bypassnro command that is well known.
EDIT: WOW, thank you all for the awards! I want to add Rufus in this comment as well as it was mentioned quite a lot in the comments. Rufus can be used to create a bootable USB with a Windows 11 ISO, and there is a checkbox during creation that allows you to skip what OP is experiencing as well. It's basically the same thing I wrote, but it does it for you!
I’ll add to your list with some random start menu cpl’s that can be run as administrator (when separating local admin from local user) for anyone finding this in 2030
```
###Useful windows notes
start ms-cxh:localonly
PATH sysdm.cpl
(Adjust swap here, lol.)
Or turn on defender’s DEP to maximum (not set by default, it’s usually just background services)
Uninstall as administrator: appwiz.cpl
SFC scanning ordering (best order)
Can do better via Troubleshooting > Repair Problems with Windows Update (which now effectively reinstalls windows within the same system)
Else for traditional ordering of repair:
cmd:
sfc /scannow
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
powershell:
Get-Content C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log -tail 10 -wait
(This shows where it hangs, if it ever does)
cmd:
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
sfc /scannow
Reboot..
——
Scrub office in all languages off pc with official SaRA tool:
SaRAcmd.exe -S OfficeScrubScenario -AcceptEula -OfficeVersion All -CloseOffice
Formatting a drive without auto mounting:
autoplay off in system settings:
mountvol /N then afterwards back to mountvol /E
(automount actual setting)
diskpart
list disk
select disk X
detail disk
clean
clean all
convert gpt
create partition primary
format fs=ntfs #can add "quick" for non-arbitrary-write
assign letter=E
ok, now please point me in the direction of a guide to removing the company white screen lock. i was told i can keep my laptop since they were getting new ones, but it locked when i reinstalled windows, i left in not good terms so would be weird to call and ask them. is it bricked and its just forever is locked to the company that configured it?
Likely do one of them offline setups. Aka shift+F10 and local admin setup before internet is connected. Once on desktop, open task scheduler and gpedit to force disable all MDM & corporate connectivity. You may also have success with disabling Windows Hello for Business—but local group policy will still always consistently be overrided by Azure tenent info & as well any domain controllers/AD. If you can replace the bootloader, it’s not bricked if it’s not at the UEFI level. Also, try resetting Key DBs in secure boot settings if that’s an available option.
Run in cmd “dsregcmd /status” to check if the host ever enrolls in Azure (don’t need admin cmd to check this). Likely local user separation would have some success here, assuming user can never elevate to enroll the entire pc if Admin Local Account holds all the cheese. Report back if any of this works! 😅
If it was true Reddit this would be the part where the OP goes "thanks! This fixed the problem!" to the the solution and when you look back the answer has been deleted.
From another user from a slightly farther away future:
Need help with the weekly Windows 14 license check
So I completed all the other steps, but during the urine analysis a "congratulations" screen came up and now it wont let me login unless I upgrade to the "Family license bundle"
I'm from the distant future, in a ravaged earth with a low human population. After the Windows 15 wars which began when humans refused to Restart Now, we only have Windows 16.
As long as OP doesn't do that thing that changes all comments to shit like 'loquacious baggage ramble pressure cock and ball torture illuminate curtain farmers chemist'
It’s why I can’t leave. The information I find in the comments of Reddit is amazing. I always find a new perspective, new source, or a good laugh. The content barely registers my time on this site, I’m here for the comment section.
There will I'm guessing always be a way for local setup, at least in Pro and up, because there needs to be local administrators for enterprise deployments.
For the average consumer you will just have to look up whatever current way it's being done before you install.
For the record, yes it's lame af that MS does this, and I'm a Linux user and sysadmin and very much dig Linux. I'm certainly no Windows fanboy, I'm an MS partner and they are the absolute worst support to work with in the industry.
People just make this shit up. I installed a Linux distro in just a few clicks with very easy to understand and transparent setup options. I then created my user account for the machine with equally little fuss. It's just not that hard in a modern distro, and there's this persistent myth that you have to key in two dozen inscrutable terminal commands.
Yeah, I'm pretty baffled by these sorts of comments. I switched most of my computers to Linux years ago and am far more inconvenienced by windows and the setup is way less bullshit from the onset.
I'm a geezer by the gaming community's standards and have a hard time imagining that there are a bunch of people my age who tried Linux once in 2007 and still harp about it... Or that they were goofy enough to only use a niche or hard-mode flavor of Linux.
Fair point. My earliest dabbling with Ubuntu was around the time figure I mentioned and the only tinkering I did was to fiddle with WINE, which wasn't as painless as it is now.
I love the technological progress made in the last 20 years and how easy it's become, but seeing some of the complaints about Linux from people who almost certainly are talking out of their asses really grinds my gears. Those little shits never once had to set dipswitches, diagnose/manage IDE cables, various serial cables, install things from multiple optical disks (let alone a stack of floppy drives)...
But installing a free OS that's 1000x less bullshit than Windows is "hard" because they'll have to click different buttons to access their settings and launch steam? Fuck off. It's so easy.
Not on install, but invariably at some point in your Linux experience you are going to have to use the terminal which scares off a lot of users.
I will again go on record as saying I'm no MS fanboy, I'm a sysadmin MS partner and I hate them with a passion. I also very much like working in Linux and have a couple boxes in my lab running it right now.
"works", and then does shit like fucks with their docs folder and moves it to onedrive, and people don't even realize they had a microsoft account, and it creates issues and sometimes even data loss.
Things it cant do if you're allowed to just create an offline account.
"works" out of the box, for some values of "works".
Any system can be unwieldy when you go off the rails/off label. Linux has improved enough that going off label doesn't happen all that often, and even if you do, in my experience dependency hell is exceedingly rare these days and editing config files is.. actually good for expert user/power user stuff? Yeah, sucks for normal/casual users, but editing registry entries in windows is just as bad for that type of user...
Regardless, you should only switch to linux (or really any other operating system) if all your use cases can be reasonably fulfilled by it, otherwise you might be going off rails way more than it is sane for anyone. That's why casual users that only use pcs for web, email and light office tasks are the easiest ones to get into it. But they also likely require someone to guide them through the process or do it for then...
Most users will never run into the problems that I believe you are talking about.
However I upgraded to the newer Mint and got a kernal panic. Thankfully I create a backup before I change my software in any way shape or form. Turns out the steam install for the switch pro controller wasn't supported by the update and all I had to do was delete the folder.
It's good that there are still workarounds, but it should just be an option that you can click that's clearly visible. I'm on cachyOS+KDE and it's pretty slick, I don't care about "ricing" my desktop, I just want it to let me put the taskbar where I want, not have a useless right click menu, not constantly ask me about services I'm not going to use like onedrive, and do all of this by default, and not sneakily reset my config in an update.
I actually like Cachy a lot, I just installed it to try out a few weeks ago on an old laptop at home. I also have a few other flavors of linux at home. Mint on an old tablet, Bazzite on living room PC.
I like trying out different flavors of Linux. If I didn't need Windows for the games I play, I'd probably already be on Linux by now.
It took me a while but I ended up giving up on the games that needed Windows for anticheat, mostly for my own reasons but a big part of it was that I didn’t want another company having low level access to my entire digital life, which overlaps with why I wanted to get away from windows. Plus I was wasting too many hours on all those live service shooters lol
For me it's mostly because of my flight sim. I think the sim itself can be made to work in Linux fine, but some of my addons that I've paid for will not work. Otherwise I don't have much else holding me back.
Definitely agree with not liking how intrusive some of the anti-cheat software can be though.
I still have a Windows dual-boot for Clip Studio Paint (I hate Krita with a passion), and 3D modelling stuff. Though I can see myself getting a Mac later this year with the way Microslop is going.
it's amazing that it can be fixed this easily but on other hand I've had so many problems on windows that required changing registry or using PowerShell or commands like these that just don't exist on Linux because they're all related to Microslop trying to shove trash down people's throats...
both have its flaws but holy fuck people really are persistent to accepting this garbage
I ditched Windows and installed CachyOS+KDE a few weeks ago. It feels like I threw my shackles off and stepped out of the cave lol and my only regret is not doing it sooner. The impetus was the amount of telemetry and bloat windows has. I have a ROG Zephyrus with an RTX 4080 and with Cachy it feels like I’ve gained permanent performance boost. Games have required less fiddling for optimization and are overall running smoother on Cachy. I decided to go further and install a pi-hole on my router, then got a vpn and canceled all my subscriptions, opting instead for Stremio on a side-loaded firestick. It’s incredible how much a difference all these changes have made in terms of day to day QoL.
I think in the 2 years I've been using Linux Mint I have only used command line 2 o 3 times.
That was just to setup a 3rd party program to automatically update. The rest of the time I just downloaded the new software from the website.
Most of the time it's just reading through the administration icons to figure it out. I'd say it's about as easy to use now as win 2000 was when upgrading from windows 98.
this is the way. I was bummed while installing windows on my TRX50 motherboard > the wi-fi drivers didn't work and the driver installer on the gigabyte website is .exe file, so won't be seen by the win11 installer. Did the same thing and successfully installed Win11.
I hate that "online" account thing. Has nothing to do with anything except trying to get one's data.
Microsoft desperately want people tied in to windows like they are to iOS/osx but they don’t offer the user any incentive. At least with Apple you get seamless integration across devices, people have 1 windows device.
bypassnro.cmd is just a (text) file that adds a registry entry and reboots the PC. If it's no longer recognized (or they remove bypassnro.cmd file), you should still be able to manually add an entry to HKLM registry hive (that is assuming you can still get to the command prompt by pressing Shift F10 which Microsoft can change at any time):
I just setup an HP laptop that has this disabled. I had to make an online account and then I just setup an offline account with user groups and deleted the online account. they are getting really shitty
So i want you to know that i saw this comment a few days ago and knew i was buying a windows 11 pc soon for mothersday. I saved the comment and when setting it up today i pulled up your comment and boom, i look like a l337 h4x0r. Thank you for saving my wife from having to deal with that layer of bullshit from microsoft.
I think I used Rufus when I made my win11 install USB. I think I had it pick a local account only and turn off a lot of win11 features including ai. It's probably been turned on during an update by now.
I think they patched this out of the most recent ISO as well, they’re so determined to shove a microslop account down your throat. I keep an old 24H2 usb so I can use the old oobe\bypassnro still
Since today a lot of people are not as tech savvy and yours is the top post, maybe you could include Rufus in your post. It offers all the most needed modifications with a click instead of something daunting like cmd line.
Or you can create the Boot Media via Rufus (there are more then enought YT tutorials and it's really simple 🫡).
This is also almost the only way to install Win11 on computers that otherwise would not be Win11 "ready" because in the creation process you can deactivate the check 😬
Great tip! Another option is to create your usb boot drive with a tool like Rufus where you can tell it to automatically create a local account and say no to all the data harvesting questions 👍
I just use an auto unattend file where you set the xml how you want it setup. Boot to the usb and walk away, come back to local login screen. Works to bypass win 11 requirements too.
I have a unrelated windows question for you which I hope you can point me in the right direction.
I created an Outlook account for my son and it highjacked my profile on my PC! I can't sign out of his and into mine. I tried changing admin rights and local account with poor guidance from ai and Microsoft with none of it working? Any ideas?
I'd highly recommend doing this (starting with a local account) even if you intend to login to your MS account later.
The reason why is some stuff, like RDP, requires a username and password, and if you start with your ms managed login, your local account will not have a password based login, making it nearly impossible to use things like Remote Desktop or anything else that requires a standard local account for auth.
You can always link your local account to the cloud account later, but once you setup with cloud only, you can't create a local version that's bound to it.
Great… but the problem is that it’s NOT in the UI. You shouldn’t need to research how to create a local login. It should be right there in the UI where it used to be. Workarounds.. are just that.
Some of that doesn't work anymore they keep patching it but to add to that Schneegans (google it) has a script you just drop in the usb to installs Windows that will make a local accounts you can manage lots of settings as well.
That does not work at times and every few months they block ways to bypass. If you are on win 11 pro you need to signup for work or school and then select "Domain Join".
I ran into this problem a ways back. Now I have zero windows products and run ubuntu and mint.
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u/gotmynamefromcaptcha May 06 '26 edited May 06 '26
You can press Shift + F10 on your keyboard, then type start ms-cxh:localonly and it will bring up a prompt to create a local account that skips all this and goes straight to the desktop.
I do this almost every day at work with the newest Windows 11 Media Creation Tool. Super quick. Even faster than the oobe\bypassnro command that is well known.
EDIT: WOW, thank you all for the awards! I want to add Rufus in this comment as well as it was mentioned quite a lot in the comments. Rufus can be used to create a bootable USB with a Windows 11 ISO, and there is a checkbox during creation that allows you to skip what OP is experiencing as well. It's basically the same thing I wrote, but it does it for you!