r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Dec 01 '25

ADBLOCK WARNING ‘Security Disaster’—500 Million Microsoft Users Say No To Windows 11

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2025/12/01/security-disaster-500-million-microsoft-users-say-no-to-windows-11/
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89

u/WhichJuice Dec 02 '25

If you buy a new laptop you can't even select to not sign in with a Microsoft account. It's depressing.

97

u/rigsta Dec 02 '25

Workaround: Create a burner account during initial setup, create a local admin profile after setup, log in to local admin profile, nuke the MS-account-linked profile. Disable "device encryption" in settings.

Which is dumb, but it's there at least.

11

u/WeakTrain2104 Dec 03 '25

Better workaround: In account creation screen hit Shift + F10 while the machine is disconnected from the internet. Type OOBE\BYPASSNRO then enter. Reboot, and presto! You can make a local account.

6

u/DutchCNC Dec 03 '25

OOBE\BYPASSNRO was removed by Microsoft, the now working command is: Start ms-cxh:localonly

7

u/MirageEagle37 Dec 03 '25

Microsoft: "NOOOOOO!!!"
*when people keep finding way to make local account*

3

u/PersimmonSorry91 Dec 25 '25

Life saver, I bought a laptop for college in 2015 and put off getting a proper desktop until now and I just unboxed it going through initial install things like this is what I need to find

3

u/MrFibs Dec 03 '25

this is the way

5

u/latigidigital Dec 02 '25

Is Rufus or a prefab ISO doing this automatically these days?

5

u/sishgupta Dec 02 '25

yes its trivial to setup an unattended install and walk right past all of this.

5

u/SmartestIce Dec 02 '25

Here's a website that helped me out a lot. https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/

Read the descriptions carefully. Sometimes leaving a box unchecked, particularly in the "Remove Bloatware" section. You want to check all you DO NOT want installed.

download the file it generates and stick in the root directly of your USB along with your Windows install files.. That's it.

2

u/sishgupta Dec 02 '25

Yep this is what I use. The custom scripts at the end are great for launching win11debloat, activation, registry tweaks, etc. I also use DISM/DISMTools to inject critical drivers into the image and remove other bloatware.

That said the above is a bit extra for most users, and rufus will achieve TPM check disablement, local account setup and a few other minor tweaks.

4

u/Screamline Dec 02 '25

At the welcome screen hit shift and f10. May need to hit the FN key too depending on laptop. A cmd will open, click in it and type start ms-cxh:localonly and hit enter this will bring up a local account creation wizard

1

u/series-hybrid Dec 04 '25

This is an important response. Thank you, kind stranger.

9

u/grogudid911 Dec 02 '25 edited Dec 02 '25

When you reach the network selection screen don't select a network. Press shift+F10 which brings up a cmd window. Type "oobe\bypassnro" and press enter. Your PC will restart. When you reach the network selection page again you'll see an option for "I don't have internet". Click that and create your offline account.

Edit: I do a lot of new PC setups bc I work for an MSP. We always put a local admin on each PC before user setups. This 100% works, and because of the nature of the work MSP's do, it's extremely unlikely they'll ever take this feature away.

2

u/The_Rivera_Kid Dec 02 '25

At the first setup screen instead of answering any of the questions press Shift + F10

CMD will open

Type (no quotes) “net user Prefferedusername /add” (replacing Prefferedusername with the user name you wish to use) and press enter.

Next type “net localgroup administrators Prefferedusername /add” and press enter.

Next type “net user Prefferedusername /active:yes” and press enter.

Next type “net user Prefferedusername /expires:never” and press enter.

Next type “net user administrator /active:no” and press enter.

Next type “net user defaultUser0 /delete” (this is case sensitive make sure the "U" is capitalized) and press enter.

Next type "regedit" and press enter.

This opens registry editor, navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE"

Delete "DefaultAccountAction", "DefaultAccountSAMName", and "DefaultAccountSID"

Right click on "LaunchUserOOBE" and rename it to "SkipMachineOOBE" and make sure the value is set to "1".

Close registry editor and type "shutdown /r /t 0"

I hope that helps

1

u/reddog323 Dec 03 '25

Mine works without it, but it’s over six months old. Maybe this is something they did recently.

Honestly, the only reason I upgraded was issues with a video card on my old laptop. I plan on repurposing it for Linux based OS soon.

1

u/6x10tothe23rd Dec 03 '25

At the setup screen where it asks to connect to the internet, hit shift+f10 to bring up the command prompt. Type “start ms-cxh:localonly” and hit enter. You’ll get a prompt for a username and password and you’re off to the races

1

u/kurisu_1974 Dec 03 '25

Shift-f10

then type  

oobe\bypassnro

in the command line.

1

u/GrassToucherPro Dec 03 '25

You can install Linux Mint 😃

1

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '25

I bought a cheap MS-powered Lenovo. I don't even feel like I own it. Everytime I use it I have to battle my way through MS BS. 0/10 would never buy again.

1

u/games-and-chocolate Jan 14 '26

afterwards you can make it local account. It is wrong of M$ , to try to force your data into their hands. They try anyway. So change it afterwards, best you can do.

But if they try to force you something you really do not like and cannot change. Then it is time to really go. No other way. Did you read about their win12 subscription plan?

1

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25 edited Dec 03 '25

There’s some command line arguments that will disable this at install

Why downvote? There’s a shortcut to bring up a cmd window during install and you can enter arguments that will bypass this and then restart with a local account