Microsoft has blocked the bypass that allowed you to create a local account during Windows 11 setup by typing in a blocked email address
a@a.com is redundant but Shift + F10 OOBE/BYPASSNRO comes to the rescue.
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Can you still skip connecting to internet?
Don't connect to internet, Shift f10 to bring up command prompt, oobe/bypassnro, wait for restart, click I don't have internet, make local account. Did it today.
The fact this is even necessary makes me want to shit a brick.
"Do you want to make an online account?" No. "Okay, please set up your local account."
That should be it. And honestly, even that's egregious to me. Signing into online bullshit should be opt-in, not opt-out. Thank goodness I don't use Windows anymore, finally wiped the last Windows machine in my house this past week.
Microsoft's insidious insistence on online accounts is the main reason I stopped using Windows. Even with a local Windows account, one time I accidentally opened Edge, and it started automatically importing browser info from Firefox and then syncing it to the Microsoft account that I was using for MS Office. From my point of view, that was some extreme bullshit. Too much to tolerate. I didn't want Edge to import anything from anywhere - no matter how 'convenient and easy' it is. and I certainly didn't want it to upload anything - no matter what assurances of 'privacy and security' are claimed. And until that point, I thought accounts for individual apps could be keep isolated to just that app.
They have to go through all these gymnastics because otherwise, there is no compelling reason for any given user to create a Microsoft account just to use their damn computer. So they resort to trickery, nagging, and now tacitly trying to force the issue. Most users don't know any better so they'll just click "ok" on whatever pops up in their faces when they first power on their new PC and take the first thing that's offered, which in this case is to sign up for a Microsoft account and tie your entire identity to it. Non-nerds don't know the difference between that and a local account, and that's dangerous.
It's become normalized that in order to use any given device or software you're expected to set up Yet Another Online Account, and that normalization is dangerous, too. I actively try to avoid such things but it's becoming harder and harder as time goes on.
Damn windows seems really complicated.
TBH I'm not going to install Windows 11, but back in Windows 10 you didn't even have to open the command prompt.
You can also just select the "for work or school" option, then it lets you make a local account because it assumes you will domain join it later, which you dont need to do.
Last time I tried this it immediately demanded I enter my domain credentials (which I don't have, because I don't run an Active Directory domain at home) and wouldn't proceed without any. So I had to fall back on the disconnect-from-the-internet song and dance.
Just a couple weeks ago I installed it for a friend and there was a domain join later button
