Although I’m a big believer in the usefulness of a Microsoft account, there are times that I want to set up a new device with a LOCAL account first, and then add a Microsoft account, or maybe even join the machine to a domain for work purposes. So, what’s the easiest way to do that?
I just bought this HP laptop for a work project and the first screen that popped up was the Country or Region settings.
- I pressed Shift+F10 (being a laptop I had to also use the “FN” key as well), and this popped up an Administrative Command Prompt.
- Then I typed oobe\bypassnro and hit enter.
This changes the “Out of Box Experience” to one that “bypasses Network Readiness Operations.” In other words, it no longer requires you to be connected to a network to complete the setup.
After I confirmed my region and time zone settings, it once again tried to get me to connect the laptop to a Wi-Fi network, but I simply clicked “Skip This Step” at the bottom of the screen, near the accessibility button. It then walked me through the same GUI based set up as when I first pulled it out of the box, but this time, where it would normally ask you to connect it to a network and refuse to let you continue past that point, I could select “I don’t have Internet.”