Microsoft has announced that it's tripling down on blocking users from bypassing signing in with a Microsoft account on Windows 11 when setting up a PC for the first time. The company believes that a Microsoft account and internet connection are non-negotiable when progressing through the out of box experience (OOBE.)
Confirmed in the latest Windows 11 preview builds, Microsoft has removed multiple ways that users had found that allowed them to bypass the Microsoft Account setup page:
"We are removing known mechanisms for creating a local account in the Windows Setup experience (OOBE). While these mechanisms were often used to bypass Microsoft account setup, they also inadvertently skip critical setup screens, potentially causing users to exit OOBE with a device that is not fully configured for use. Users will need to complete OOBE with internet and a Microsoft account, to ensure device is setup correctly."
This means that going forward, known commands like start ms-cxh:localonly will no longer work on the latest versions of Windows 11. Microsoft already doubled down and removed bypasses that users had discovered previously, such as the popular oobe/bypassnro command which was removed from the OS months ago. Attempting the start ms-cxh:localonly command now will no longer show you a local account creation screen.
Microsoft is clear that all Windows 11 users will need to complete setup with a Microsoft account and internet connection, and is ensuring that all methods that made it easy to avoid this are blocked. Bypasses still exist but will require editing the Windows image directly before installation, which involves setting up an unattended install with a local account attached, which is a lot more complicated for most users.
It's likely that easier bypasses will be discovered in due time, but for now the most known and easiest Microsoft account bypasses have all been patched by Microsoft as of the latest Windows 11 preview builds. As these are still in preview, it'll likely be a number of weeks yet before these bypasses stop working on production versions of Windows 11.
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