Solved Microsoft Account required during OOBE

Why is Microsoft requiring internet connection and Microsoft Account during OOBE? It will soon be required for Windows 11 Pro in future versions. When setting up device with Microsoft Account it will set the local profile to the first five characters of the email address? If Windows 11 is unable to load network drivers on Z690 chipset I would not be able to proceed and would need to another PC to get the inf version of the network drivers and then use Shift-F10 and then add that driver using pnputil or I would have to use audit mode to install the network driver.

This happened to me on my new laptop. Windows created a username with the start of my email address and it annoyed the hell out of me. However, you can change the username after the fact and 99% of stuff will pretend it never happened, but some things will still use the old info (which will work).

Follow the directions here to change your user profile name after the fact: Change Name of User Profile Folder in Windows 11 Tutorial
Make sure to read the additional comments if you have trouble since they solve a permissions issue that some users got.

Why will Microsoft also require internet connection and Microsoft Account when setting up Windows 11 Pro for personal use?

Keith Weisshar said:

Why will Microsoft also require internet connection and Microsoft Account when setting up Windows 11 Pro for personal use?

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Big Brother...! it's been a long time coming and will only get worse ...but fear not, the anti-establishment brigade are on guard We are heading to a Franken-build install .. hope not!

With this new requirement people could end up creating dummy accounts just to get past the OOBE. What if want to do a temporary install to a virtual machine in VirtualBox locally to test unfamiliar software that may not clean up after uninstall and then simply power off VirtualBox and then delete that virtual machine when done. Many software do not uninstall cleanly and leaves traces after uninstall and the only way out is roll back to the previous image based backup to remove all traces which can take a long time when restoring the entire image file. Every time I restore the image file it reduces the life of the SSD by a small amount.

Keith Weisshar said:

With this new requirement people could end up creating dummy accounts just to get past the OOBE. What if want to do a temporary install to a virtual machine in VirtualBox to install unfamiliar software that may not clean up after uninstall and then simply power off VirtualBox and then delete that virtual machine when done. Many software do not uninstall cleanly and leaves traces after uninstall and the only way out is roll back to the previous image based backup to remove all traces which can take a long time when restoring the entire image file. Every time I restore the image file it reduces the life of the SSD by a small amount.

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WAAS (Windows as a service) it's why Win 10/11 are free upgrades.

Keith Weisshar said:

Why will Microsoft also require internet connection and Microsoft Account when setting up Windows 11 Pro for personal use?

Click to expand...

Hi,
Yeah they say it's for best driver compatibility to be installed lol

Keith Weisshar said:

Why will Microsoft also require internet connection and Microsoft Account when setting up Windows 11 Pro for personal use?

Click to expand...

I can understand the Internet requirement if setting up a Microsoft Account during setup.

I can also understand the Microsoft account requirement if for a WIP (Insider) build.

We'll have to wait and see if the workarounds in step 21 below will still work to set up a local account during setup for non WIP builds.

@Keith Weisshar

It's relatively easy to avoid all those evil Microsoft demands. Just do a clean install of Windows 10, get it set up how you like it, then do an In-Place Upgrade to Windows 11.


In-Place Upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11...




Here is the short version of the In-place upgrade tutorial...

DISABLE non-Microsoft:
a) antivirus software
b) firewall software
c) drive encryption software

Make a full OS backup with a program like Macrium Reflect (free)
Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free

Go here and get the Windows 11 ISO (use the 3rd option), and save the ISO to your desktop.
Download Windows 11







Right click the ISO image and choose: MOUNT
Open File Explorer and you will see a new drive letter. It will "look" like a DVD optical drive.
Double click the new drive letter to open it.
Find setup.exe and double click it to start the in-place upgrade.

Choose the Keep personal files and apps option.

After it's all done... to UNmount the ISO image, right click the new drive letter and choose: EJECT.


The ONLY thing you will lose is some of your personalizations. Your programs and data will be intact.

Hi,
Just use a gmail email lol

Also why do I get very slow download speeds when downloading the ISO directly from Microsoft's website?

Keith Weisshar said:

Also why do I get very slow download speeds when downloading the ISO directly from Microsoft's website?

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LOL the OP going OT? ... Just joking, no my MS downloads are on point...

Hi there
just give dummy email address as anything with a North Korean domain.
e.g start with a thing that rhymes with duck.you.kp

problem solved and you might get a nice offer of a well paid gig from the USA's NSA for hacking N.Korea too. !!!

Cheers
jimbo

Keith Weisshar said:

Also why do I get very slow download speeds when downloading the ISO directly from Microsoft's website?

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Hi,
MS servers are always pretty slow
Pretty much why most people clean install without internet so they don't have to deal with them and install goes a lot faster.
\
@jimbo45 not sure what the .kp is though lol

You only need to disable your Internet access during setup and it will allow you to create a Local account and proceed.

Unplug your router during the install. Once the local account has been created then plug your router back in. I just setup a new Windows 11 install a few days ago and it still works just fine doing it that way.

Archigos said:

This happened to me on my new laptop. Windows created a username with the start of my email address and it annoyed the hell out of me. However, you can change the username after the fact and 99% of stuff will pretend it never happened, but some things will still use the old info (which will work).

Follow the directions here to change your user profile name after the fact: Change Name of User Profile Folder in Windows 11 Tutorial
Make sure to read the additional comments if you have trouble since they solve a permissions issue that some users got.

Click to expand...

It is much easier to just use the Microsoft Account to install and login the first time, then create your separate local account for real use. After you are logged into your local account, you can delete the initial Microsoft Account from the computer.

AdvancedSetup said:

You only need to disable your Internet access during setup and it will allow you to create a Local account and proceed.

Unplug your router during the install. Once the local account has been created then plug your router back in. I just setup a new Windows 11 install a few days ago and it still works just fine doing it that way.

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This will no longer work in future. The current Dev version will not allow a clean install without connecting to internet.

The only way round it will be fake email method but eventually MS may close that loophole as well.

What can you say? It's been a long ride with Microsoft but all good things do come to an end at some point. I'll ride it out with Windows 10 for now and if Microsoft has to really push that nonsense then I guess I'll give up Adobe Photoshop and move over to Linux. I won't be moving over to the Cloud by choice.

Speaking only for myself, if MS does decide to go this route, please give us the option to choose our username and stop using the first five characters of our email. MS, is that too much to ask?

Then remove the name too. It will no longer be PC (Personal Computer) - it will be more like MCC (Microsoft Controlled Computer)