A new way to create a local user account - better than oobe\bypassnro

hsehestedt · Mar 31, 2025

Since the ability to use oobe\bypassnro is going away in 2025, here is a new way to create a local user account. This is even easier than oobe\bypassnro.

At the point in setup where you would run oobe\bypassnro, from a command prompt run:

start ms-cxh:localonly

Love this method. Best method yet.

Credit to Chris Titus Tech:

Brink · Mar 31, 2025

Using step 15 below for this method during a clean install is indeed a great way to set up with a local account.

Clean Install Windows 11

This tutorial will show you step by step on how to clean install Windows 11 at boot on your PC with or without an Internet connection and setup with a local account or Microsoft account. Windows 11 has all the power and security of Windows 10 with a redesigned and refreshed look. It also comes...

www.elevenforum.com

antspants · Mar 31, 2025

Bahaha Chris Titus also reads Brinks Tutorials

XxXxX · Mar 31, 2025

Brink's tutorial from 2021. well done Brink.
best of luck, Steve ..

garlin · Mar 31, 2025

You know this vicious cycle is just gonna make MS remove the legacy JS code...

dacrone · Mar 31, 2025

they wont

DennyZenny · Mar 31, 2025

I thought it was unlikely as I believed bypassnro was an official workaround but considering its being restricted now, I would not be suprised if they got rid of the legacy and leftover oobe code from Windows 10, and disable the JS dev window.

gunrunnerjohn · Mar 31, 2025

garlin said:
You know this vicious cycle is just gonna make MS remove the legacy JS code...

There are cases where you can't have an MS account, so I doubt that will happen.

hsehestedt · Mar 31, 2025

Brink said:
Using step 15 below for this method during a clean install is indeed a great way to set up with a local account.

Clean Install Windows 11

This tutorial will show you step by step on how to clean install Windows 11 at boot on your PC with or without an Internet connection and setup with a local account or Microsoft account. Windows 11 has all the power and security of Windows 10 with a redesigned and refreshed look. It also comes...

www.elevenforum.com

Apologies. Had no idea that you already had this documented. It was completely new to me.

Brink · Mar 31, 2025

hsehestedt said:
Apologies. Had no idea that you already had this documented. It was completely new to me.

No worries. :shawn:

garlin · Mar 31, 2025

gunrunnerjohn said:
There are cases where you can't have an MS account, so I doubt that will happen.

Those situations are provided in OOBE for AD & AAD domain users. For professional setups, every IT pro knows about unattended mode.

So no, in their mind they've provided for other scenarios. What everyone is missing is the real reason behind requiring MSA: paid online services. When everyone has a MSA, then it's much easier to upsell you OneDrive, O365/M365 and Copilot subscriptions. That's the real $$ on retail Windows.

DennyZenny · Mar 31, 2025

I actually like this workaround alot better than bypassNRO. The command is much easier for me to remember, and I don't have to worry about mixing backslashes and forward slashes.

garlin · Mar 31, 2025

DennyZenny said:
I thought it was unlikely as I believed bypassnro was an official workaround but considering its being restricted now, I would not be suprised if they got rid of the legacy and leftover oobe code from Windows 10, and disable the JS dev window.

They can drop in the \Windows\Setup\Scripts\DisableCmdRequest.tag file, and block F10 in OOBE today if they wanted.

It's trivial.

glasskuter · Mar 31, 2025

I totally agree with @garlin. Ever since MS took the straightforward way of creating a local account out of the install or oobe process, my gut feeling is that using a MS account will become mandatory and they will stop all methods of creating a local account. This may not happen in PRO but for Home users it will. I don't think these users will be able to change a MS account to a local account anymore either. I believe local account will be entirely removed from the code in Home.

While it probably won't happen at the same time since MS always does stuff gradually, I'll go one step further and say MS will eventually figure out a way to force the same thing for single users using PRO while setting up some way for enterprise users to handle it differently. Maybe by entering a special code or something. You IT guys would know more about ways that could be done than I do. Whatever, it could be done.

While I'm on a roll here, I think all this is a predecessor of things to come....Windows becoming a subscription service and I think it will happen sooner than we think. It just makes sense how it would all be connected.

garlin · Mar 31, 2025

F10 was provided in the past as a troubleshooting "back door" for Windows admins. Now it's openly advertised (a bit too loudly) on tech sites and YouTube videos. There's always been a way to disable for F10 for security purposes to prevent tampering with a long Windows install script. It's not done to prevent you the Retail user from bypassing Windows, but to protect system security in a corporate environment.

Turning that feature on in 25H2 could as easy as adding one zero length file into the ISO.

You could defeat it using an unattended file. Which I've pointed out before, because MS needs to keep corporate IT happy, it will never block that approach since it doesn't know who is installing Windows (a person or a company).

cereberus · Mar 31, 2025

hsehestedt said:
Since the ability to use oobe\bypassnro is going away in 2025, here is a new way to create a local user account. This is even easier than oobe\bypassnro.

At the point in setup where you would run oobe\bypassnro, from a command prompt run:

start ms-cxh:localonly

Love this method. Best method yet.

Credit to Chris Titus Tech:

Super.

cereberus · Apr 1, 2025

Thought it worth mentioning that best time to press shift+f10 is after second oobe screen has been answered i.e at 3rd screen asking if you want a second keyboard (assuming you do not).

I found command always works there but if you do it on later screens, it does not always seem to function as intended.

XxXxX · Apr 1, 2025

glasskuter said:
I totally agree with @garlin. Ever since MS took the straightforward way of creating a local account out of the install or oobe process, my gut feeling is that using a MS account will become mandatory and they will stop all methods of creating a local account. This may not happen in PRO but for Home users it will. I don't think these users will be able to change a MS account to a local account anymore either. I believe local account will be entirely removed from the code in Home.

While it probably won't happen at the same time since MS always does stuff gradually, I'll go one step further and say MS will eventually figure out a way to force the same thing for single users using PRO while setting up some way for enterprise users to handle it differently. Maybe by entering a special code or something. You IT guys would know more about ways that could be done than I do. Whatever, it could be done.

While I'm on a roll here, I think all this is a predecessor of things to come....Windows becoming a subscription service and I think it will happen sooner than we think. It just makes sense how it would all be connected.

Office 365 is the MS test bench for on line subscription, they are testing the waters and it looks like the waters for MS are feeling just fine.
all these data centres going in worldwide are not just for AI or Office 365. i believe that they are forward planning for Windows 365.

if the computer cant get online then it will be a 'limited' system available to the user until they get online much like google chrome/android with only the software available from the MS store unless you sideload software just like chrome or android. everything will be interconnected. the future whether you like it or not is already on the way.

these are my thoughts on the matter and only time will tell if they are correct.
best of luck, Steve ..

hsehestedt · Apr 1, 2025

cereberus said:
Thought it worth mentioning that best time to press shift+f10 is after second oobe screen has been answered i.e at 3rd screen asking if you want a second keyboard (assuming you do not).

I found command always works there but if you do it on later screens, it does not always seem to function as intended.

I always do it on the first OOBE screen. At least for oobe\bypassnro, those screens will be presented again anyway after the reboot so I see no point in going through those screens more than once, but with start ms-cxh:localonly this is not the case. It skips all the screens after you enter the command (which I like!).

Wolfzz · Apr 1, 2025

Yet another bypass for the Windows 11 OOBE Microsoft Account screen

Shift + F10 --> regedit

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE

HideOnlineAccountScreens --> 1

Works on both Windows 11 Home & Pro

Microsoft's own official documentation explains how this works. The company notes that by default, the HideOnlineAccountScreens value is set to "false" such that the sign-in page appears during the OOBE. So for the bypass to work, one has to change it to "true". Microsoft notes that this is "primarily for enterprises" for running unattended installs, but it should work for all users.
We also noticed that there is also an option to hide the wireless network setup option too using HideWirelessSetupInOOBE. Again, the default value is "false" so that this page appears, but users can flip it to "true".

A new way to create a local user account - better than oobe\bypassnro

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