oobe\bypassnro removed from Windows 11 24H2 dead/hidden ? – YouTube – or is it? Two alternatives
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/03/07
I needed this for some Windows ARM VMs on VMware Fusion for running on my M1 MacBook Pro: [Wayback/Archive] oobe\bypassnro removed from Windows 11 24H2 dead/hidden ? – YouTube
In the end this combination works:
- before booting, remove the network adapter (physically, or virtually from VMware Fusion or from Parallels)
- after boot, as soon as the Shift-F10 combination works, run
oobe\bypassnro(or add the registry entry, see below)
After this, Windows detected no network, and offered an install with a local username/password indicating the choice “I don’t have internet”.
If that ever fails in the future, I can use this trick from the comments:
“home edition”. That’s the problem. I only use PRO and simply choose ‘domain join instead’ during the setup and done. Create admin account, finish the install and boot into desktop. Once I am at desktop I can then create standard users as needed.
and this other comment:
You said you were going to run bypassnro again after the reboot but you didn’t run it. You only disabled the network and then you didn’t say any more about it.
So the purpose of this video is to show people that disabling the network is the new replacement for bypassnro?
After querying Google, I found a lot of other links with confusing information as “bypassnro” has poisoned the search results.
On the list of additional problems I encountered was a red “OOBEREGION” warning. I think that might have to do with my region choice “English (world)” which – after skipping the warning – ended up with the machine ending in the region “Yemen” and a totally wrong time zone.
- [Wayback/Archive] How to Install and Log In to Windows 11 Without a Microsoft Account | Tom’s Hardware
Whatever your reason for doing so, it’s easy to install or set up Windows 11 without using a Microsoft account. Below, we’ll show you two methods: the first involves issuing some commands during the install / OOBE process. The second, which only works for a clean install, requires you to create a modified USB install disk using a free tool called Rufus. We’ve tested these methods on the latest major Windows 11 version, 24H2, and they work.
This made me wonder how Rufus does this, and that indicates the same actions as
BypassNRO.cmdnormally does[Wayback/Archive] rufus/src/wue.c at master · pbatard/rufus · GitHub which has this series of lines:
if (flags & UNATTEND_NO_ONLINE_ACCOUNT) { uprintf("• Bypass online account requirement"); fprintf(fd, " \n"); fprintf(fd, " %d\n", order++); fprintf(fd, " reg add HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\OOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f\n"); fprintf(fd, " \n"); }Searching for the local account source code location, I also found [Wayback/Archive] Unable to exclude requirement for Microsoft account from Windows 11 installer media · Issue #2502 · pbatard/rufus · GitHub which indicates
You need to uncheck the “Create a local account” of Rufus because you have no choice but to reinstall Windows in S Mode (but then you might be able to use the link I gave earlier to switch Windows out of S Mode, and reinstall Windows with a local account).
In case I ever need that, the video [Wayback/Archive] Disable Windows S Mode Without Microsoft Account in 2024 – YouTube which basically shows two solutions:
- Disable UEFI Secure Boot on the BIOS level
- If that fails, load the SYSTEM registry hive of the underlying system (for instance while booting that system in recovery mode), then set a “
SkuPolicyRequired” registry value to zero.
- [Wayback/Archive] How to set up Windows 11 without a Microsoft account | Windows Central was the first I found which combined
ipconfig /releasewithoobe\bypassnrothough I think it got the order wrong as the last one will force a reboot thereby restarting the network stack which will automatically obtain a DHCP address (whichipconfig /releasehad forcibly wiped) - [Wayback/Archive] A method for creating a local account during clean install I have not seen before | Windows 11 Forum worded this no-reboot solution:
During installation, Windows will reboot. After a period of time you will be presented a screen asking “Is this the right country or region?“. At that screen, press
SHIFT+F10to open a command prompt. At the command prompt, type “Regedit” and then press ENTER. Navigate to the following registry key:HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBECreate a new
DWORD (32-bit)value named “BypassNRO” and set the value to1.Close the registry editor.
At the command prompt, run this command:
ipconfig /releaseContinue with installation.
On the screen entitled “Let’s connect you to a network” select “I don’t have internet”. Continue with installation to completion.
When installation is done, open a command prompt and run “
ipconfig /renew” to reenable your network connection, if you have one.The first step is basically what the OOBE\BypassNRO.cmd does, sans reboot as this is the content:
@echo off
reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
shutdown /r /t 0[Wayback/Archive] New Easiest! How to Setup Windows 11 Without Microsoft Account (Elon Mus… : microsoft
That installed 21H2, which doesn’t require a Microsoft account to get through the process. Then I used the latest installer for 23H2 to update the system, and that seems to have worked fine. (I hope posting this doesn’t give MS more info to shut down yet another small loophole…)
This obviously is not going to work on VMware Fusion which assembles its own Windows 11 installation ISO, but will help others.
- [Wayback/Archive] Installing Windows 11 VM without a Windows Account : vmware
just type in
no@thanks.comandnothanksas the password, it’ll error out and let you make a local account.That’s a really interesting approach. I will try that one day.
- [Wayback/Archive] A method for creating a local account during clean install I have not seen before | Windows 11 Forum of which I saved [Wayback/Archive] Comment from thread “A method for creating a local account during clean install I have not seen before | Windows 11 Forum” · GitHub as it contained a few tricks for unattended boot installation.
- In case the OOBEREGION error ever results in no administrator user to be present, I need this solution from [Wayback/Archive] windows 10 – Why is the OOBEKEYBOARD / OOBEREGION bug fixed (or worked around) by enabling the default administrator account? – Super User
The real workaround that worked for me is found elsewhere, which is to enable the built-in administrator account and create a user account manually.net user Administrator /active:yes net user /add your_user_name your_password net localgroup administrators user_name /add cd %windir%\system32\oobe msoobe.exeThen poweroff. And finally disable the password-less admin account after installation (withnet user Administrator /active:no).That solution came from [Wayback/Archive] Something went wrong OOBEKEYBOARD OOBEREGION in Windows 10 (And How to Fix Them)
If you get these errors, there are a couple of things you could do to fix them. You can click Try again or Skip button. If that is not working, power off and restart your PC.
…
If none of the previous solutions have worked for you, you need to open windows CMD and then activate the built-in administrator account to create a new local user to skip the OOBE process.
…
After everything is done, don’t forget to Disable the Admin Account.
- [Wayback/Archive] Top 3 Fixes for OOBELOCAL, OOBEREGION, or OOBEKEYBOARD – MiniTool: Retry; Manually create registry key; Manually create admin user
The last query below magically returned this short video showing how to disable the network interface from the VMware Fusion side before even booting the Windows installer, which – combined with running oobe\bypassnro on the commandline right when you need to perform the “country selection in the install steps – will get Windows 11 installed without a cloud account: [Wayback/Archive] UPDATE 2022: Windows 11 ARM Offline Install Fix (No Network Internet) VM on Mac – UTM, VMware Fusion – YouTube. It also has this very convenient comment:
This is my solution to connect network with VMware Fusion after this process
- once you fixed this issue, click Virtual Machine on the menu bar and click ‘Install VMware Tools’
- and then, open the Powershell with administrator authorization and type ‘
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned‘- after that, go to
D:\( where there is VMware Tools) usingcdcommand- after that, execute
setup.ps1file via.\setup.ps1commandI hope it would help you guys!
Queries (I needed many to dig through the chaff):
- [Wayback/Archive] windows 11 arm install without microsoft account – Google Suche
- [Wayback/Archive] “vmware fusion” “Windows 11” “local account” without “bypassnro” – Sök på Google
- [Wayback/Archive] microsoft removed bypassnro – Sök på Google
- [Wayback/Archive] “SkuPolicyRequired” – Google Suche
- [Wayback/Archive] ooberegion windows 11 – Google Suche
- [Wayback/Archive] oobregion – Sök på Google
- [Wayback/Archive] “ooberegion” windows 11 ARM – Google Suche
--jeroen
[Wayback/Archive] Disable Windows S Mode Without Microsoft Account in 2024 – YouTube
[Wayback/Archive] UPDATE 2022: Windows 11 ARM Offline Install Fix (No Network Internet) VM on Mac – UTM, VMware Fusion – YouTube.
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