Question Windows 11 installation without Microsoft account

[lopri]

Is there a working method as of today (Nov 12, 2022)? I have tried disconnecting from the Internet during the setup but I can't seem to move past the account setup screen.

 

[Steltek]

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere there is a canary build of Win11 out there being tested by MS now that has eliminated every single one of the known workarounds for installing on unsupported hardware. I suspect that it won't be that long before they finally implement it. And, once they do this, they will also certainly block installation of any updates on existing systems.

Once all this happens, I suspect they will also eliminate the ability to install without a Microsoft account as well. They've been dreaming of having a walled userbase ala Apple, and have never been closer to finally attaining it.

 

[mikeymikec]

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere there is a canary build of Win11 out there being tested by MS now that has eliminated every single one of the known workarounds for installing on unsupported hardware. I suspect that it won't be that long before they finally implement it. And, once they do this, they will also certainly block installation of any updates on existing systems.

Once all this happens, I suspect they will also eliminate the ability to install without a Microsoft account as well. They've been dreaming of having a walled userbase ala Apple, and have never been closer to finally attaining it.

I've previously been sceptical about this kind of outcome because my opinion was that MS would avoid situations whereby Win11 wouldn't install at all (e.g. no detected network hardware), but they've been skirting the line pretty close lately.

Maybe there will always be a workaround simply because MS employees wouldn't want to eat the dogfood with those strings attached?

 

[Steltek]

I had to work on a system yesterday night for my neighbor that deactivated when they updated the BIOS.

Turns out Microsoft did an update last month to their activation servers which finally removed the "free update" upgrade for Win7/8/8.1 systems that expired back in 2016. You know, the one that allowed you to update for free using the Win7/8/8.1 keys.

However, it had the unexpected side effect of causing activation problems on some systems that were legitimately upgraded via the process before the cutoff date. I know my neighbor's system was updated before the cutoff, as I did it for him. For some reason, he got the urge to update his BIOS and it deactivated his Windows installation.

MS customer support totally blew him off when he called (by multiple support reps, including an escalated support call), so we ended up having to buy another key from a "reputable third party" to get his computer up and running again.

Apparently, it is a known thing -- if you upgraded using that "loophole", don't change any hardware or update your BIOS or you may need a new Win10/11 key. Microsoft has acknowledged the issue and is supposedly "investigating".... which I read to mean they have no intention of doing anything about it.

 

[Underclocked]

Yep, Rufus.

 

[mikeymikec]

I've had a couple of run-ins with Win11 setup but for laptops that come with S mode - two problems I've encountered:

1 - no amount of workarounds to get the Shift+F10 command prompt work and I think this is because with S mode, the command prompt has been disabled. I tried Shift+Fn+F10 and also tried disabling 'action keys' in the BIOS, no difference.

2 - no@thankyou did not work, nor did nonsense email addresses. I bit the bullet and signed in with an MS account and then removed the MS account later. I might set up a dummy MS account as a fallback option for customers who don't already have an MS account, just for situations like what I've described.

I believe one could wipe a computer that comes with S mode and just install Home and be done with it, but that's a long workaround especially on the super-low-end laptops that S mode is typically installed on. They often have the baby Celeron type CPUs, maybe emmc storage, 4GB RAM, lots of things to slow it down.