[German]Microsoft seems to have started blocking the solutions for creating a local user account during setup. The option of simply entering an invalid e-mail address in the step to set up a Microsoft account and thus accessing the mask to create a local user account no longer works in new Windows 11 builds. Fortunately, there are still ways to force a local user account during the Windows 11 setup.
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Microsoft account to be enforced
It's always the same game: many users want to set up their Windows client with a local user account and do without Microsoft online accounts. Since Windows 10, Microsoft has been forcing people to use a Microsoft account when setting up Windows. In the latest builds of Windows 11, users noticed that a Microsoft account had to be created during setup. You simply couldn't get past the relevant setup pages and there was no option to set up a local user account.
Previously, however, it was possible to override this requirement to create a Microsoft account when setting up Windows 11. It was sufficient to enter an invalid e-mail address and password in the input fields on the user account setup page. Setup noticed this, complained that the email address was incorrect and offered to set up a local user account instead.
Elon Musk, the mastermind behind Tesla, SpaceX and X, was so annoyed by the MS account requirement that he even attacked Microsoft boss Satya Nadella on X (see Elon Musk and the forced Windows Microsoft account). Musk now even recommends switching to Linux.
Microsoft doesn't seem to be contesting anything, because in the above tweet Zack Bowden shows in a short video that the trick to get around the MS account lockdown by entering an invalid e-mail address no longer works under the new Windows 11 build. The setup discards the entry and returns to the previous step. This bypass solution has obviously been fixed by the Microsoft developers.
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There are MS account bypass solutions
The simplest solution for not using a Microsoft account during Windows 11 setup is still to do without an online connection. Setup recognizes the missing online connection and allows you to force a local user account instead.
To do this, press the key combination Shift+F10 to open a command prompt window. Enter the command oobe \bypassnro and press Enter. Setup will then restart and Windows 11 will now offer the option I have no Internet. A local user account can be set up.
It's also possible in Windows 11 Pro to try a domain join to a non existent domain, to bypass the Microsoft account creation and establish a local account. And you can use an unattend.xml install file (or probably Rufus), to create a local account.
The other solution is to have a Microsoft account created during setup in order to subsequently create another local administrator account. If you log in to this administrator account, the Microsoft account can be deleted again. But the bottom line is that it's quite a lot of fiddling by Microsoft – who wants to do that to themselves?
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