One of Windows 11’s more contentious changes is that, by default, both the Home and Pro editions of the operating system require users to sign in with a Microsoft account during setup.
Using Windows with a traditional local account is still extremely possible, but it does require a small amount of know-how beyond just clicking the right buttons.
On the know-how front, Microsoft has taken one more minor, but nevertheless irritating, step away from allowing users to sign in with local accounts.
The easiest way to do it on a PC you just took out of the box is to press Shift+F10 during the setup process to bring up a command prompt window, typing OOBE\BYPASSNRO, rebooting, and then clicking the “I don’t have Internet” button when asked to connect to a Wi-Fi network.
There is one workaround that has allegedly stopped working—it used to be that trying to “sign in” with a nonexistent email account would get you a local sign-in option.
Google will allow you to use Chromebooks in guest mode, and Android phones and tablets are still usable without signing in (though this does make it more difficult to find and install apps).
The original article contains 550 words, the summary contains 195 words. Saved 65%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
To add to this, if you’ve already connected to internet, you can disconnect with the same shift + F10 trick to get the command prompt open and type “ipconfig /release” to get rid of your connection.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
One of Windows 11’s more contentious changes is that, by default, both the Home and Pro editions of the operating system require users to sign in with a Microsoft account during setup.
Using Windows with a traditional local account is still extremely possible, but it does require a small amount of know-how beyond just clicking the right buttons.
On the know-how front, Microsoft has taken one more minor, but nevertheless irritating, step away from allowing users to sign in with local accounts.
The easiest way to do it on a PC you just took out of the box is to press Shift+F10 during the setup process to bring up a command prompt window, typing OOBE\BYPASSNRO, rebooting, and then clicking the “I don’t have Internet” button when asked to connect to a Wi-Fi network.
There is one workaround that has allegedly stopped working—it used to be that trying to “sign in” with a nonexistent email account would get you a local sign-in option.
Google will allow you to use Chromebooks in guest mode, and Android phones and tablets are still usable without signing in (though this does make it more difficult to find and install apps).
The original article contains 550 words, the summary contains 195 words. Saved 65%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
To add to this, if you’ve already connected to internet, you can disconnect with the same shift + F10 trick to get the command prompt open and type “ipconfig /release” to get rid of your connection.