Question How to Bypass Windows 11 account creation sign in?

[very_452001]

Hi,

Bought Brand New Windows 11 Gaming desktop PC from the store costing like $1000, it has a built in pci wifi 6 card. When I turned on this PC for the 1st time I completed the usual steps like what country, language, agree to license agreement etc, then next screen ask to connect to my wifi in which I did then next screen saying checking for updates then I get a screen saying sign into microsoft account that I cannot skip. Even when I press Shift + F10 now nothing happens. I press power button on PC to turn it off then I turn it on again and this time the wifi is already connected because it didn't ask to connect to a wifi network again and I still get that dreaded sign into microsoft account screen that I cannot skip.

How do I use this PC without signing into my Microsoft account?

Cheers,

 

[kerberos_20]

How do I use this PC without signing into my Microsoft account?

you do realise that without online account, you wont have access to bitlocker recovery keys? that means if your windows breaks, and you will need to reinstall it, your data are toast as you dont have recovery key

just finish online account, then create local administrative account from control panel and then just delete online account later, before deleting it, make sure recovery keys got uploaded and are visible from microsoft account website

 

[USAFRet]

Do what I do.

First log in and setup, MS account. Get the thing all set up and activated.
After that, create 2x Local accounts.
1 Admin user, 1 Standard user.

The "MS account" is only used in the incredibly rare instance of needing something from the MS store, or something to do with the licensing.

The Standard user is my every day thing.
The Admin user/password is only for installing something.

On this current PC, I've logged into the MS account maybe 3 times in the last year.

 

[very_452001]

you do realise that without online account, you wont have access to bitlocker recovery keys? that means if your windows breaks, and you will need to reinstall it, your data are toast as you dont have recovery key

just finish online account, then create local administrative account from control panel and then just delete online account later, before deleting it, make sure recovery keys got uploaded and are visible from microsoft account website

So you need to sign into a MS account to use Bitlocker? I might not use Bitlocker and use a alternative instead. Its Windows 11 home, do I even have Bitlocker?

Do you require sign into MS account to use the MS store too? On windows 10 theres no sign into MS required.

What else can I do with a signed in MS account on a Win 11 OS? Theres vids of youtube saying MS gathers more of your data personally once signed into a OS.

So to clarify its impossible to bypass MS account sign in during 1st time initial setup of Win 11?

 

[very_452001]

Do what I do.

First log in and setup, MS account. Get the thing all set up and activated.
After that, create 2x Local accounts.
1 Admin user, 1 Standard user.

The "MS account" is only used in the incredibly rare instance of needing something from the MS store, or something to do with the licensing.

The Standard user is my every day thing.
The Admin user/password is only for installing something.

On this current PC, I've logged into the MS account maybe 3 times in the last year.

Okay so you have 3 accounts? Im able to use MS store on Win 10 and download free apps from there without signing in.

Why not just have 1 local admin account, why have another standard user account when its the same as the admin account but with more limitations so better to use admin account from the get go without the limitations right? What happens if you install in standard account?

I just want 1 account easy to manage.

To confirm its impossible to bypass MS account sign in during 1st time initial setup of Win 11?

 

[USAFRet]

Okay so you have 3 accounts? Im able to use MS store on Win 10 and download free apps from there without signing in.

Why not just have 1 local admin account, why have another standard user account when its the same as the admin account but with more limitations so better to use admin account from the get go without the limitations right? What happens if you install in standard account?

I just want 1 account easy to manage.

To confirm its impossible to bypass MS account sign in during 1st time initial setup of Win 11?

Yes, 3 accounts exist.
But only one is used on a daily basis. The Standard user.

When I need to install something, it simply asks for the admin pwd for authorization. Thats all.

The MS account is only used for things to do with licensing, or seeing/recovering the BitLocker password.

As said, I'd logged into that account maybe 3 times since this system was set up over a year ago.
Its not really an issue of having to 'manage' multiple accounts.

 

[hotaru.hino]

The only way to bypass needing a Microsoft account during the initialization of Windows is to have an edition that is only obtainable if you're a large enough business or a education institution. Microsoft also doesn't sell licenses for said editions unless you ask them for it, so anything you might see online regarding how to get one without going through Microsoft is breaking EULA.

In any case, I do something similar to what @USAFRet does, only my Microsoft account is also the admin account. I also very rarely log into said account after the initial setup.

You can also log into your Microsoft account on the local account just for MS Store apps.

 

[kerberos_20]

So you need to sign into a MS account to use Bitlocker? I might not use Bitlocker and use a alternative instead. Its Windows 11 home, do I even have Bitlocker?

win11 laptops are device encrypted, that uses bitlocker for encrypting whole device, since you have win11 home, you dont have option for manualy encrypting what you want

 

[kerberos_20]

is to have an edition that is only obtainable if you're a large enough business or a education institution

that might not be true anymore, enterpise/edu iso builds on azure from 22H2 got removed local account in oobe aswell

 

[hotaru.hino]

that might not be true anymore, enterpise/edu iso builds on azure from 22H2 got removed local account in oobe aswell

You got a link?

 

[kerberos_20]

You got a link?

for iso from azure? sure, but i dunno if you have access to it
https://msproduct.download.prss.microsoft.com/dbazure/SW_DVD9_Win_Pro_11_22H2.6_64BIT_English_Pro_Ent_EDU_N_MLF_X23-39385.ISO

you can search it on web with this sha256 code:
36631B95B63413723C3E51D11DD7DC7164EEA0798C2BBA720DB68D6B26F9D920

 

[joeldf]

I use a local account for the PC itself, but still have the MS account signed in for the MS Store, Office apps and my email. Those apps can have the MS account signed in individually without the PC itself being "signed in". It's not a big deal.

But, you have to be careful, because the first time you sign in to the MS account in one of those apps, it's going to ask to use that account for all of your PC - that means changing the PC from the local account to the MS account system-wide. That's where you say "NO". They word it in such a way to make it seem like you want to say "yes", but you have to resist the urge.

Of course, when I built my PC just over 2 years ago, I used Win 10 Pro, which did not need an MS account to set up from scratch. At that time even Win 10 Home started requiring an MS account to install, although there were ways around it if you kept at it. I did wait 6 months after the initial release of Win 11 before upgrading it "in place".

 

[very_452001]

Yes, 3 accounts exist.
But only one is used on a daily basis. The Standard user.

When I need to install something, it simply asks for the admin pwd for authorization. Thats all.

The MS account is only used for things to do with licensing, or seeing/recovering the BitLocker password.

As said, I'd logged into that account maybe 3 times since this system was set up over a year ago.
Its not really an issue of having to 'manage' multiple accounts.

Why not use the other Admin account instead of the Standard account to save you from inputting the password all the time?

Lastly just to Confirm you need to be signed into your MS account to use Bitlocker?

 

[very_452001]

win11 laptops are device encrypted, that uses bitlocker for encrypting whole device, since you have win11 home, you dont have option for manualy encrypting what you want

You mean all Win 11 laptops that are bought new have Bitlocker turned on by default? Do you also mean the Win 11 home version just supports encrypting the whole drive only not manually encrypting individual folders/files?

 

[very_452001]

I use a local account for the PC itself, but still have the MS account signed in for the MS Store, Office apps and my email. Those apps can have the MS account signed in individually without the PC itself being "signed in". It's not a big deal.

But, you have to be careful, because the first time you sign in to the MS account in one of those apps, it's going to ask to use that account for all of your PC - that means changing the PC from the local account to the MS account system-wide. That's where you say "NO". They word it in such a way to make it seem like you want to say "yes", but you have to resist the urge.

Of course, when I built my PC just over 2 years ago, I used Win 10 Pro, which did not need an MS account to set up from scratch. At that time even Win 10 Home started requiring an MS account to install, although there were ways around it if you kept at it. I did wait 6 months after the initial release of Win 11 before upgrading it "in place".

Okay to confirm Microsoft cannot gather more data from your other local accounts after you logged out of your MS account then logged into your local admin or standard accounts on the same computer?

 

[USAFRet]

You mean all Win 11 laptops that are bought new have Bitlocker turned on by default? Do you also mean the Win 11 home version just supports encrypting the whole drive only not manually encrypting individual folders/files?

Yes.

I have a Microsoft Surface 3 Go, bought last Sept.
Originally came with Win 11 S.
Whole drive BL encrypted.

Promoted to Win 11 Home.
The BL stayed.

It is absolutely transparent in use. It is there to protect the contents of the drive if it were removed from the laptop.

 

[USAFRet]

Okay to confirm Microsoft cannot gather more data from your other local accounts after you logged out of your MS account then logged into your local admin or standard accounts on the same computer?

I wouldn't say "zero information". You're still using the OS, after all.

But using an MS account lets you do things like sync applications and use across different systems, and more targeted ads...stuff like that. MS as the middleman for that sharing.
Local accounts don't do that.

 

[MaxT2]

Why not use the other Admin account instead of the Standard account to save you from inputting the password all the time?

In theory it's a good security practice to use a standard account for everyday stuff, this adds a barrier to stop some software who would try to hurt your system and would require admin rights for that.
However, I used to do it for a long time... true need to enter your admin password regularly. But the main reason why I stopped doing this was some creative software license issues, typically softwares that required admin rights to be installed, but then the licences were restricted to admin account ... or things like some main software usable by the standard account but it's plug-in only usable by the admin account... so that caused too much trouble in a time when software editor try to identify their use by account and there are many ways (for them or the user) to mess it up.

 

[zesun]

What is it that you and others are so afraid of ms collecting about you? That you need to go through all these hoops just to get a system running? I am just curious.