Integrate new OOBE bypass (ms-cxh:localonly) in a autounattend.xml script??

jimbo45 said:

I think you guys are flogging a dead horse here. If you need to deploy Customized Windows to a load of machines there's nothing wrong with the proper recommended sysprep method.

For domestic users a lot of this "eseoteric stuff" is Way over the Top.

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That depends on what exactly it is that you want to achieve with unattended deployment, which is not clear from the OP.

hdmi said:

That depends on what exactly it is that you want to achieve with unattended deployment, which is not clear from the OP.

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Have to agree with that.

Cheers
jimbo

Hey @rafaelsouzams, I am the guy who originally found the command around 6 months ago.
To give you an understanding about how ms-cxh://localonly operates, you have to understand what it executes.

The uri is linked to a system UWP package called CloudExperienceHost. CloudExperienceHost begins to run as soon as you see the Just a Moment spinner before hitting the oobe. This means you cannot load the window during the windows boot sequence, you have to wait until the defaultuser0 user is signed in.

Maybe if you add a delay or integrate the execution as a service with delayed start you can get the outcome you are asking for.

I am interested to see how you go with this. Lmk of you want some more info.

Cheers
-thePineapple

This seems like the right place to ask this. I feel fortunate that I installed W11 about a year & a half ago & I have managed to use it successfully without having to reinstall it. I've dutifully kept Windows Update happy by always running whatever it gave me. I'm up to Windows 11 Pro 64-bit version 24H2 build 26100.4061. My problem back when I was trying to install was that it seems my ISO was missing network drivers for my network adapter. That was an item integrated on my motherboard, which was & remains an ASUS item with an Intel chipset. The absence of functioning Internet drivers was & remains a shocking failure as far as I'm concerned. Advice I found here on W11forum to use bypassnro was the only thing that got me installed, advice I will forever be grateful for. I offer this as another reason you need the function, besides not wanting your system to be enslaved to a Microsoft account, which for me offers features I have never & problably will never use.

The reason I think this is the right place to ask my question, even if it's a bit off-topic, is that my question is pretty basic. What is ms-cxh? I can't find anything called ms-cxh.exe, ms-cxh.bat, ms-cxh.cmd, ms-cxh.dll . . . In fact, there is nothing named ms-cxh* anywhere on my system. So what is it? How can it work? I've tried asking Google that question & I get a whole lot of not answers, among them this discussion, which doesn't really answer the question either. If I were to get a new W11 install ISO today, would it include this thing? I'm assuming that if I reused my old ISO, which as I recall was 23H2, bypassnro would still work like it did. I'm just speculating about the possibility of needing to do a reinstall from scratch -- may that never happen.

I'm also assuming that if I am not doing a reinstall, I don't really care about bypassnro being summarily yanked out from under our feet. Correct?

WildWilly said:

What is ms-cxh? I can't find anything called ms-cxh.exe, ms-cxh.bat, ms-cxh.cmd, ms-cxh.dll . . . In fact, there is nothing named ms-cxh* anywhere on my system. So what is it? How can it work?

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ms-cxh:// is a uri for launching instances of the Microsoft Cloud Experience Host App. This system app is used to launch the windows OOBE and certain popup menus for changing account settings.

Theoretically you can perform the start ms-cxh:localonly command on windows 10. The whole concept is just launching the window that allows you to create a local account.

Interesting . . . Thanks for that explanation. Now I have a mnemonic: cxh = Cloud Experience Host. In effect, MS has invented a new web protocol. We've got https, ftp (if anybody remembers that), nntp (if anybody remembers that), & whatever others there are or were which aren't coming to mind at the moment. Now we've got ms-cxh.

But what if, like in my case, you have no Internet connectivity because there's no compatible network driver in the install ISO? This ms-cxh protocol won't get any response. Or is it just a web-like looking thing, not an actual web access mechanism, & it just launches some code off your local disk space?

Also, one set of instructions I found said you should code:

ms-cxh:localonly

No slashes. Is that different? Or just an abbreviation that also works?

And those instructions said to launch it via Start, like this:

start ms-cxh:localonly

How significant is the asynchronous launching via Start? Does it reboot in a bit anyway so the consideration is moot?

I knew the folks here would know the answers. Thanks.

WildWilly said:

Or is it just a web-like looking thing, not an actual web access mechanism, & it just launches some code off your local disk space?

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Its that

WildWilly said:

Also, one set of instructions I found said you should code:

ms-cxh:localonly

No slashes. Is that different? Or just an abbreviation that also works?

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Its an abbreviation, but it only works with the cmd variant. Not the WinJS one (i made a post about this if you are interested).

WildWilly said:

And those instructions said to launch it via Start, like this:

start ms-cxh:localonly

How significant is the asynchronous launching via Start? Does it reboot in a bit anyway so the consideration is moot?

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Start is literally the command to execute as if it was put into Run. In this case entering the ms-cxh command tells cmd to run Cloud experience host for the reason localonly. Thats the best way i can put it

You mean this?


I think that doesn't apply to me. S mode means secure, yes? I turned that off as almost the first thing I did after I got this system running. I am not restricting myself to the Microsoft store as my sole source for software. I'm just an ordinary private home user. Besides, I'm not expecting to do a reinstall in the foreseeable or even unforeseeable future. If my hardware gets so out of date I need a new computer, I'll have to do whatever is current then. My previous computer (W7) served me well for about a decade. I'm expecting at least as much from this one, which I built myself & then installed W11 from scratch, not an upgrade, an install onto an empty machine. I expect to go through the same rigamarole well on down the road, so all of what we're babbling on about now will probably no longer be useful or relevant. If I understand things correctly, Windows will now simply evolve, no more explicit versions. Windows Update will just move us to the next big thing in one of those big 2xH2 updates. Or who knows, maybe a 3xH2 update.

So Start is basically optional. Must have been a bit of a frill my other source was offering.

I think I've hijacked this thread quite enough. Thanks for the help. I'll recede into the weeds again now . . .

WildWilly said:

But what if, like in my case, you have no Internet connectivity because there's no compatible network driver in the install ISO?

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First, bear in mind that there is simply no way that Microsoft can include every driver from every manufacturer with Windows.

But if you need to add the driver there are several ways to do it:

1) On the screen during installation where you select the disk to which Windows will be installed there is an option to load a driver(s). You can load drivers other than just disk drivers here.

2) You can create a folder named $WinPeDriver$ and drop the driver(s) into that folder. Windows Setup will detect and load these drivers automatically. The $WinPeDriver$ folder should be placed i the root of your Windows installation media.

3) You can inject the drivers into Windows setup (the boot.wim file, index #2).

In each instance above the driver needs to be extracted so that the .inf file(s) are available. Yu cannot simply use a .exe, .cab, etc. file.

I have several machines for which drivers are needed during setup, and I use these methods for a painless installation.

If you need any details, please do let me know and I would be happy to help.

Thanks for your post, @hsehestedt but I needed that advice a year & a half ago. It's actually no help now since I've had a functioning W11 comfortably installed & working just fine for the past year & a half. At the time a year & a half ago, I had the necessary network driver sitting on a HDD waiting for W11 to boot to the desktop so I could install it. But I couldn't get that far because the W11 install, in a completely unacceptable fit of stupidity, requires a network connection to get installed. There is no possible justification for insisting on a network connection to get an operating system installed. Network activity is something for later, after the operating system is installed. There is no possible justification for forcing a user to connect to the Internet during installation. This is the issue, not the absence of the right network driver from the installation media, but the insistence on making a network connection as a prerequisite to a successful install. Sure, there's lot's of sarcastic justifications having to do with Microsoft's megalomania. They are all unacceptable. Fortunately, at the time, I still had my W7 computer functioning & I was able to visit this web site where I found the Easter Egg of Shift+F10 & bypassnro. That allowed me to follow the correct path of installing W11 without a network connection. Once I finally got to my W11 desktop, I did install that network driver & then I did have network connectivity.

I repeat, the issue is that you should be able to install an operating system without the need for a network connection. All of the sound & fury that has appeared in this forum on this subject would be totally unnecessary if Microsoft would simply stop insisting on connecting to the Internet before permitting a successful install of their operating system. It is a sad commentary that it is still necessary to rely on Easter Eggs to install Windows without a network connection. There should be no "Let's get you connected to the Internet." You should not have to click any button to say you don't have an Internet connection. The installation should simply proceed to the desktop without a single byte being transmitted over your network adapter. Once you have a functioning desktop, that would be the time for suggesting, "Let's get you connected to the Internet." At which point, I would have dismissed that prompt & proceeded with the installation of the network driver that I had already collected on my W7 system ahead of time & relocated to a HDD that I attached to my W11 system after it successfully booted. For one thing, you need an Internet connection to register your operating system. Fine. Let's not complicate the installation with that. Do the registration AFTER the successful install. Sadly, software engineers are not running the show over there. The marketing department is. That's backwards.

Anyway, we're not helping our buddy @rafaelsouzams with automating the Easter Egg process by digressing here. That was, after all, the original topic of this thread. I jumped in here because people who seemed to know a lot were posting here & I had a somewhat tangential question I figured they could answer. That happened. Let's not hijack this thread any further.