New Local Account Method (Access Unused Setup Screen, S Mode Supported)

thepineapple · Oct 26, 2024

Hey everyone,

I have recently put together a brand new method that can be used to bypass the Microsoft Account requirement for the Windows 11 setup. The benefit of this new method is that it can get through setup faster than the well-known OOBE\BYPASSNRO method. Additionally, devices shipped with S Mode DO NOT need to disable the restrictions or leave S mode to perform this method.

I discovered this by digging through the Windows 11 Setup Source Code, revealing this functional screen that was left behind from development. This utilises the Developer Console hidden in the setup that YouTuber Enderman discovered earlier this year (source). I have uploaded full documentation to my Github Repo

How it works:

You access the Developer Console during the setup process.
Enter a short command to reveal the hidden local account screen.
Complete the setup with a local account and set privacy preferences.
That's it: no Command Prompt, no need to wait for reboots when using BYPASSNRO, and no WiFi workarounds.

This method has been tested and works with all Windows 11 editions and versions, including 24H2 and Insider.

Feel free to ask questions or share your experience with this method!

cereberus · Oct 26, 2024

@thepineapple

This fails miserably on 24H2 (even using previous setup link).

I get to the Developer Console but it comes up with an error message saying the winJS application is not defined.

Edit - I got it to work - I had made an error not capitalising initial W as per later posts.

I also had to have capslock on when pressing ctrl-shift-J (without it I was probably pressing ctrl+shift+j - j in lower case). I cannot say if that applies to all devices.

Frankly, I still find this a bit more complicated than the oobe\bypassnro method as just typing in the command requires effort and not as simple as bypassnro method where you can do the commands from memory as below.

I accept it could be useful on an S machine IF IT worked on 24H2.

shift+f10
cd oobe
bypassnro

thepineapple · Oct 26, 2024

@cereberus the command is case sensitive. You have to type it as WinJS.Application.restart. This is due to the command being Javascript. I apologise for not saying that in the video but that is how it needs to be done.

I have however mentioned this in the github repo already

Bree · Oct 26, 2024

thepineapple said:
devices shipped with S Mode DO NOT need to disable the restrictions or leave S mode to perform this method

I would imagine S Mode with a local account is very limited. There's little you could do without signing into the Store.

spapakons · Oct 26, 2024

Bree said:
I would imagine S Mode with a local account is very limited. There's little you could do without signing into the Store.

You can sign in to the Windows Store without converting the local account to Microsoft account.

cereberus · Oct 26, 2024

thepineapple said:
@cereberus the command is case sensitive. You have to type it as WinJS.Application.restart. This is due to the command being Javascript. I apologise for not saying that in the video but that is how it needs to be done.

I have however mentioned this in the github repo already

Yes - my mistake. I had put everything in upper case except the initial W (not so obvious that is upper case).

I could not get ctrl+shift+J to work until I realised it is upper case J and I had to press caps lock on so I was doing ctrl+shift+J with J in upper case.

You might want to add a note in Github to say it may be necessary to have caps lock on when pressing ctrl+shift+J. I do not know if this true for all devices.

Thereafter it worked fine.

I still standby this is a little more complicated by oobe, but it is a good solution.

I have edited original post as well.

jimbo45 · Oct 26, 2024

I still think for W11 Pro and above just use School or Work at "Is computer a home computer etc" and select domain join at logon method. For W10 / other W11 editions e.g home then OK.

Still works - simple -- and you don't need to actually have or join a domain.

Cheers
jimbo

cereberus · Oct 26, 2024

cereberus said:
Yes - my mistake. I had put everything in upper case except the initial W (not so obvious that is upper case).

I could not get ctrl+shift+J to work until I realised it is upper case J and I had to press caps lock on so I was doing ctrl+shift+J with J in upper case.

You might want to add a note in Github to say it may be necessary to have caps lock on when pressing ctrl+shift+J. I do not know if this true for all devices.

Thereafter it worked fine.

I still standby this is a little more complicated by oobe, but it is a good solution.

I have edited original post as well.

Holy Moly - I just tried this in a Hyper-V VM as well and it worked as well

I had to turn on the onscreen virtual keyboard at the secondary keyboard stage (pressing keys on host did not work) and then pressed ctrl+shif+J (bizzarely it did not work with capslock on but did without it on) and carried on as normal.

The Bypassnro trick does not work when installing to a vm as you cannot get to the command prompt even with the virtual keyboard.

cereberus · Oct 26, 2024

jimbo45 said:
I still think for W11 Pro and above just use School or Work at "Is computer a home computer etc" and select domain join at logon method. For W10 / other W11 editions e.g home then OK.

Still works - simple -- and you don't need to actually have or join a domain.

Cheers
jimbo

Sigh - this thread is about an an alternative method that works on all 24H2 pcs!

Nobody was disputing there are other solutions that may be better BUT not for ALL pcs!

thepineapple · Oct 26, 2024

jimbo45 said:
I still think for W11 Pro and above just use School or Work at "Is computer a home computer etc" and select domain join at logon method.

That is true. But at the end of the day, Microsoft may even patch that out at some point. Even if this screen gets patched out, we can still find other loopholes as long as we have access to the developer console.

thepineapple · Oct 26, 2024

cereberus said:
The Bypassnro trick does not work when installing to a vm as you cannot get to the command prompt even with the virtual keyboard.

This may be a regional keyboard issue, i have had no problems with this in VMs in the past.

I am glad this method does work for you though.

spapakons · Oct 26, 2024

Another method: At first OOBE screen (what is your country), press CTRL+SHIFT+F3 to enter Audit mode. This logins with the build-in Administrator account and let's you install drivers or applications and make changes to Windows before creating an account. If you manually add a local administrator account, Windows might think it is an upgrade from an earlier version and skip creating a new account. I haven't tried it, but it might work. So enter Audit mode, create a new local user and restart back to OOBE. It should skip creating a user account and use the new local account instead. If anyone tries it, please let us know if it works.

hsehestedt · Oct 26, 2024

It's nice to know that there are still something like 4 or 5 methods that are working. It never hurts to have options!'

Time to update my documentation by adding this method.

Thanks, @thepineapple for sharing this and welcome to ElevenForum

thepineapple · Oct 26, 2024

@hsehestedt Thanks mate, that means alot.

I initially tried to get this somewhere more public on r/Windows11. Sadly it was removed as it was classified as Tech support

. Glad I was able to get attention here though.

thepineapple · Oct 26, 2024

By the way incase anyone is interested. You dont need to press the key combination at the keyboard screen to get the console. It can be done from most screens except the WiFi connection screen and some microsoft account login screens.

You can even do this from the first screen, saves some time if you use the default region and keyboard settings for your install.

hsehestedt · Oct 26, 2024

I did some testing with this and I can save you even a little bit more time:

1) First, there is no need to get all the way to the screen that asks if you want a second keyboard layout. Instead, you can open the Java console at the very first static screen after the reboot. This is the screen that says "Is this the right country or region?" I suppose that if you had to choose something other than defaults, then you might have to go further.

Note that this also applies to the "oobe\bypassnro". For some reason everyone always wants to go several screens further but that is completely unnecessary.

2) When entering your user name, I like to leave the password blank. This prevents you from having to select security questions and supplying answers. You can simply change the password once at the desktop. That will also save a bit more time and bypass the stupid (in my opinion) security questions.

thepineapple · Oct 26, 2024

@hsehestedt thats exactly how I use this method personally.

I just added the extra steps in my guide just to ensure users have the correct keyboard layout applied if they don't already.

Thanks for sharing this though

hsehestedt · Oct 26, 2024

thepineapple said:
By the way incase anyone is interested. You dont need to press the key combination at the keyboard screen to get the console. It can be done from most screens except the WiFi connection screen and some microsoft account login screens.

You can even do this from the first screen, saves some time if you use the default region and keyboard settings for your install.

LOL, you beat me to it. You must have posted while I was typing my response. Sorry for the duplication of info

hsehestedt · Oct 26, 2024

Doh! It happened again. Maybe I should just stop for this morning

thepineapple · Oct 26, 2024

Us minds think alike lmao

New Local Account Method (Access Unused Setup Screen, S Mode Supported)

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