1

I recently bought a laptop for my child which included Windows 11 Home.

I am attempting to setup the Laptop but, while going through the OOBE setup process, I am forced to either setup or login using a Microsoft account. I prefer to use only offline accounts; how would I bypass the Microsoft Account setup?

Thank you.

@Microsoft

7 Spice ups
2

With Pro, you can choose the option “I don’t have the user’s Microsoft Account information” or something like that at which point it let’s you create a local account. I’m 95% sure you can do the same with Home. I think having the network disconnected while running the OOBE setup works as well.

3

Windows is making it harder and harder to set up a PC without an account but there are benefits of having one. However, there are guides such as this: How to set up Windows 11 without a Microsoft account | Windows Central to do what you want

4

I have had success by not connecting it to a network before getting it setup. Don’t connect to Wi-Fi or a wired network. One of the options then allows you to setup a local account. After you get logged in you can connect to whatever network you want and go from there.

5

@JTFSupport,

Thanks. Once I arrived at that step, restarting the machine did not restart the OOBE process; instead the machine booted into OOBE at that point. Is there a way to create a local user from that point? Trying to launch lusrmgr application errors out.

Thanks

6

@JTFSupport,

Thanks. Once I arrived at that step, restarting the machine did not restart the OOBE process; instead the machine booted into OOBE at that point. Is there a way to create a local user from that point? Trying to launch lusrmgr application errors out.

Thanks

7

I don’t have a machine I can try this on at the moment, but this link offers a couple things to try How to Install Windows 11 Without a Microsoft Account | Tom's Hardware.

8

You should be able to open task manager at that point and kill the oobe network assistant task. That should bypass that screen. Either that or you have to go in and type in (using shift+f10 to get to cmd) OOBE\BYPASSNRO . This works for me at least… It will require a reboot, but it will have the option for no windows user.

9

@jonathanhackett ​

Kiling the OOBE Network Assistant and running he OOBE\BYPASSNRO returns “not recognized as an internal or external command”; even when run from the System32\OOBE directory.

@ep3benpa

10

It seems a struggle for you to use Windows 11 without an account. I have found in the past that kids don’t really care if the computer they are working on is Windows 10, Windows 11, Chromebook with ChromeOS or a Linux PC - they just get on and use it. So why not install a Linux Distro such as https://linuxmint.com/ which will be fine for school work, etc, with good office Apps with no need to sign up to any online accounts and it is free. You can try it on a USB stick Ventoy .

11

@peterw2300
Thank you. It is a great suggestion. Although having a laptop with Windows 11 and Microsoft Office is what the class instructor recommended.

The class homework includes Word processing and Excel homework, which is not possible on Linux machines and OpenOffice or LibreOffice due to homework assignments with step-by-step instructions for the students.