My computer has accumulated some cruft that’s making it hard to manage, and resetting the PC seems like the most straightforward way to deal with it. I already have all my important files saved elsewhere. I also wanted to see if I could kill two birds with one stone and rid myself of the dependence on an MS account. I’ve seen there’s some terminal stuff you can do when installing Windows fresh that bypasses the mandatory account creation, but does that still work when resetting? Especially when resetting from the cloud?

And because someone is going to say “Just use Linux”, believe me, I’d love to, but the user experience sucks for literally anyone who isn’t a software developer and the accessibility has actually gotten worse over the 15 years I’ve tried to use it.

  • kernelle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    121·
    20 hours ago

    BypassNRO was removed from system files in 25H2 last year, unless you happened to be served an old ISO this won’t work anymore.

    This is what I’ve been using since:

    • Complete the initial Windows 11 install and restart your PC.
    • When you reach the Secondary Keyboard Layout screen (before the Microsoft Account sign-up stage), press Shift + F10
    • In the console, type the command: start ms-cxh:localonly
    • Hit Enter, then press Escape to close the console.

    You can also use Rufus to make a setup drive which preconfigures the local account. This method and others are described in this article.

    PS: It still works if you copy the BypassNRO.cmd file from an old system to a new one when you’re in OOBE mode (Ctrl+Shift+F3) during setup. It’s just a powershell command that sets a registery key and reboots.

    • some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world
      1·
      18 minutes ago

      This is odd because just yesterday I used it to reluctantly install Win11 as a quarantined VM for my lovely but stubbornly insistent wife. It was a tiny11 iso, though, so maybe it gets added back during image creation?

    • phanto@lemmy.ca
      2·
      19 hours ago

      Huh, that’s weird that I’ve been able to use the bypass NRO trick pretty consistently at work and at home… I should have mentioned the Rufus thing too, but he was doing this as a reset, not as a new install, so I didn’t.

        • phanto@lemmy.ca
          2·
          5 hours ago

          I just got top work and asked a senior tech: 24H2 + a 25H2 enablement package to make bypassnro still work for us. Geez.

          • kernelle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            1·
            5 hours ago

            Honestly I have no idea how they keep getting away with adding more and more hurdles for local account creation. Literally no other OS for mobile or PC has this.

            I’ve seen anything from devices with a local account automatically enabling bitlocker with no way of recovering if bitlocker trips to devices with an MS account tripping bitlocker only to find out the recovery keys are not saved to the MS account, absolutely bonkers.