New Local Account Method (Access Unused Setup Screen, S Mode Supported)

hsehestedt · Oct 26, 2024

I think that I better make coffee. Been up all night and clearly I am not firing on all cylinders.

hsehestedt · Oct 26, 2024

thepineapple said:
Us minds think alike lmao

Great minds think alike, and so do we

cereberus · Oct 27, 2024

Just installed Home S with local account in a vm.

Oddly the onscreen keyboard did not work but the main laptop keyboard did.

This is great for me as I am getting a cheap S laptop for an elderly person with poor eyesight and cannot read her mobile when shopping and all she needs is browsing and email. As S is more locked down, less risk of malware. I will even only give her access to a standard account.

cereberus · Oct 27, 2024

If you are installing iso in Hyper-V, I have found a great solution that avoids manually typing WinJS.Application.restart("ms-cxh://LOCALONLY") every time.

Just type that command into a text file, save it for future use (great with new notepad), and copy line to clipboad.

Then have Hyper-V in a windows (not full screen), select clipboard option and type clipboard text, an line is filled in at the ctrl+shift+J entry line (>). Then just press enter and carry on as nomal.

As an aside, I only have just noticed this clipboard option - previously you could only paste from clipboard when in enhanced mode.

spapakons · Oct 27, 2024

I don't know about Hyper-V, but in VMWare copy-paste between the host and the guest doesn't work until you install VMWare tools.

thepineapple · Oct 27, 2024

If you do it enough times. It you can eventually do it off memory, but I do understand its not the easiest to learn.

Also I am going to try and get this onto other forums over the next few days as It will definitely help in situations like @cereberus said with elderly. Microsoft accounts in S mode is just not necessary in those circumstances.

spapakons · Oct 27, 2024

Let alone the elderly can barely use their computer and asking them to create a Microsoft account is like asking them to hack the bank! I wouldn't like to torture them unnecessarily.

cereberus · Oct 27, 2024

spapakons said:
I don't know about Hyper-V, but in VMWare copy-paste between the host and the guest doesn't work until you install VMWare tools.

I do not recollect seeing this new clipboard setting before but just looked at 23H2.
So obviously been there for a while - mind you I normally run Hyper-V full screen.

It was not on Windows 10, so was introduced at some point in Windows 11.

It is part of the default settings of Hyper-V - no additional tools required.

Just goes to show why updating to Windows 11 is a good idea - Windows 10 is fundamentally stagnant.

cereberus · Oct 27, 2024

thepineapple said:
If you do it enough times. It you can eventually do it off memory, but I do understand its not the easiest to learn.

Also I am going to try and get this onto other forums over the next few days as It will definitely help in situations like @cereberus said with elderly. Microsoft accounts in S mode is just not necessary in those circumstances.

Nearly all my installs are in Hyper-V, so the clipboard method is great for me. If I dual boot, I native boot a vhdx created first in Hyper-V so it has its own efi partition - that way I can native boot on host by adding a boot entry, or in a Hyper-V vm.

I have yet to find a way to use clipboard from a standard winpe installation but I rarely install this way anyway.

hsehestedt · Oct 27, 2024

Just my own opinion: I still find the use of a very simple cut-down answer file to be the easiest way to create a local user account, especially if you are going to create the same user account name on multiple machines. All you have to do is drop the file on your installation media and then install the same way you always do. The only difference you will see during installation is that there will be no request to create an account during setup. It just does it automatically. Otherwise, setup is the same as always and it could care less whether you have networking enabled or not.

You create this file once and then you never ever have to change it. I have been using the exact same file for years now.

Also, that method will never be blocked by Microsoft unless they completely fundamentally change the architecture.

EDIT: Another thing I like about this method: If you are installing on a VM, you don't even have to modify your existing ISO image at all. Simply attach a second ISO image that contains nothing but the answer file and it will find it during setup and create the local user account. 100% transparent during the installation with zero action needed by the user other than to create a 2nd CD drive for that VM which takes 10 seconds max.

cereberus · Oct 27, 2024

hsehestedt said:
Just my own opinion: I still find the use of a very simple cut-down answer file to be the easiest way to create a local user account, especially if you are going to create the same user account name on multiple machines. All you have to do is drop the file on your installation media and then install the same way you always do. The only difference you will see during installation is that there will be no request to create an account during setup. It just does it automatically. Otherwise, setup is the same as always and it could care less whether you have networking enabled or not.

You create this file once and then you never ever have to change it. I have been using the exact same file for years now.

Also, that method will never be blocked by Microsoft unless they completely fundamentally change the architecture.

EDIT: Another thing I like about this method: If you are installing on a VM, you don't even have to modify your existing ISO image at all. Simply attach a second ISO image that contains nothing but the answer file and it will find it during setup and create the local user account. 100% transparent during the installation with zero action needed by the user other than to create a 2nd CD drive for that VM which takes 10 seconds max.

Sure but don't you need adk to set up answer files?

If so, probably beyond average user skill set.

thepineapple · Oct 27, 2024

cereberus said:
Sure but don't you need adk to set up answer files?

If so, probably beyond average user skill set.

Nope. Best bet is use a website like this. It supports downloading as iso too so you can download and mount straight to your vm.

Just select your options for creating a local account. Scroll to the very bottom and download as an ISO

simrick · Jan 5, 2025

thepineapple said:
Hey everyone,

I have recently put together a brand new method that can be used to bypass the Microsoft Account requirement for the Windows 11 setup. The benefit of this new method is that it can get through setup faster than the well-known OOBE\BYPASSNRO method. Additionally, devices shipped with S Mode DO NOT need to disable the restrictions or leave S mode to perform this method.

I discovered this by digging through the Windows 11 Setup Source Code, revealing this functional screen that was left behind from development. This utilises the Developer Console hidden in the setup that YouTuber Enderman discovered earlier this year (source). I have uploaded full documentation to my Github Repo

How it works:

You access the Developer Console during the setup process.

Enter a short command to reveal the hidden local account screen.

Complete the setup with a local account and set privacy preferences.

That's it: no Command Prompt, no need to wait for reboots when using BYPASSNRO, and no WiFi workarounds.

This method has been tested and works with all Windows 11 editions and versions, including 24H2 and Insider.

Feel free to ask questions or share your experience with this method!

Thank you for this! I just successfully used it on a W11S a few days ago.

New Local Account Method (Access Unused Setup Screen, S Mode Supported)

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