this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2025
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In the latest Windows 11 preview build, Microsoft removed the “bypassnro” command, which let users skip signing into a Microsoft Account when installing Windows. (blogs.windows.com)
submitted 5 days ago by Tea@programming.dev to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 92 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (3 children)

The command (C:\Windows\System32\) OOBE\bypassnro (.cmd) one types into the command prompt (after opening it with Shift+F10) for the bypass is the location of a batch file they will be removing (the parenthesized parts are optional, implied by the command interpreter, and so is any capitalization). You can still do whatever it's doing (adding a registry key and restarting) by typing the command manually or providing a copy of the file on a USB drive. After a restart, the OS will check for the registry key AND lack of internet connection to provide the local account option.

For the record, the contents of the file are

@echo off
reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
shutdown /r /t 0

The first line is optional, and so is the third if you're OK with restarting manually. If creating the file on Unix-based systems, make sure the newline sequence is CRLF (DOS/Windows standard).

Obligatory shoutout to literally any Linux distro, which does not need this workaround, and is usually easier to install and set up than debloating a fresh Windows 11 install.

[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 45 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Rufus has an option to auto add this for you when building a bootable drive. Works great.

[–] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Still using Rufus? Ventoy is the way of the future. One USB, hundreds of ISOs.

Edit: Seems I was unaware of some potential risks with the binary blobs pre-built in Ventoy. No threat has been found, but there are supply-chain concerns. It appears there is a fork where someone is cleaning up the build process.

[–] untuned@lemmy.ca 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I might be OOTL but wasn't there some concerns with the developer or something? I thought I heard something but I forgot what

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Until they remove checking that reg key from all versions other than maybe enterprise. If they decide that running windows requires an MS online account, they can keep bumping up the difficulty of running it without whenever they want.

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 5 points 5 days ago

They are keeping around so many deprecated features for internal use and whatnot, I would be surprised if they did remove this registry check.

Until Windows 12 is released, you can always use an old ISO and then update to the newest version.

[–] milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee 1 points 5 days ago

Thank you! I've bookmarked this for next time I have a Windows reinstall! Hoping it still works then...