Setup Windows Without Online Account

On Windows setup, Windows often asks for an online account to set up your computer. If you're like me and hate Microsoft, and want as little involvement from them as possible on your computer, you can refer to the information below. However, there is no guarantee that Microsoft will not attempt to cause issues for offline accounts, so be warned.

Versions 25H2 and Onward

Unfortunately, the following option does require you to be online, so it does not bypass 25H2's requirement to be online when setting up your device. If you are connected to Ethernet, you should be able to successfully run the following steps at any point in the setup. However, if you are connected via Wi-Fi, wait to run the terminal commands described below until after you have connected to Wi-Fi.

When proceeding through the Windows setup screens, you can press Shift+F10 (or possibly Shift+Fn+F10, if your keyboard has a shared set of function keys, such as F10 sharing the same key as "Volume Up") to open a terminal. I have had trouble with certain external keyboards in the past, so if you are having difficulty opening the menu, perhaps attempt the key combination with a different keyboard, or attempt it on a different setup screen.

Click on the terminal to put it in focus. In this terminal, type and run curl -L christitus.com/bypass -o skip.cmd. This downloads a script created by ChrisTitusTech which forces Windows to use the "unattended upgrade" options when setting up, using a very generic "unattended upgrade" template. If you want to view a video on the topic or more detail on the tool itself, Chris Titus has a video covering it. Keep in mind, however, that Chris Titus's script runs some de-bloat actions on Windows, so while it will be very similar to a stock Windows 11 offline experience, it will not be exact. As of the time of writing, I would also look into Felitendo's fork of these scripts, which may work better if you want an experience as close to stock as possible, while still being offline.

To execute this file, simply type skip.cmd and press enter.

Versions 24H2 and Prior

Option 1

When proceeding through the Windows setup screens, you can press Shift+F10 (or possibly Shift+Fn+F10, if your keyboard has a shared set of function keys, such as F10 sharing the same key as "Volume Up") to open a terminal. I have had trouble with certain external keyboards in the past, so if you are having difficulty opening the menu, perhaps attempt the key combination with a different keyboard, or attempt it on a different setup screen.

Click on the terminal to put it in focus. In this terminal, type and run start ms-cxh:localonly. This will open a menu to set up security questions for an offline account. This is my preferred method for Windows 11 24H2 and prior.

Option 2

When proceeding through the Windows setup screens, you can press Shift+F10 (or possibly Shift+Fn+F10, if your keyboard has a shared set of function keys, such as F10 sharing the same key as "Volume Up") to open a terminal. I have had trouble with certain external keyboards in the past, so if you are having difficulty opening the menu, perhaps attempt the key combination with a different keyboard, or attempt it on a different setup screen.

Click on the terminal to put it in focus, and type oobe\bypassnro. This often triggers the device to restart, but you should eventually find yourself able to continue setup offline.

Once you run this, you will be prompted to create a local account, requiring a password and security questions, but notably not requiring an internet connection!