I’ve been spinning up test VMs on and off this month to prep for the Windows 10 end-of-life wave coming October 2025. One thing that caught me off guard—Microsoft’s latest Insider Preview builds (26120.6772 and 26220.6772) quietly shut the door on local account setup during installation.
Not gonna lie, I used to rely on the classic oobe\bypassnro trick to skip the Microsoft account requirement. It worked like a charm on earlier builds. But when I tried it on 26220.6772 last week—black screen, reboot loop, and no way forward. It felt like the setup was mocking me.
Why I Was Testing This
I maintain a few lab environments—mostly Hyper-V on a ThinkPad with 32GB RAM—and I like keeping things lean. Local accounts are faster to provision, easier to isolate, and don’t drag in cloud dependencies. So when I saw chatter about Microsoft tightening OOBE flows, I wanted to see how far they’d gone.
What Actually Happens Now
On Windows 11 Home, the setup flow requires a Microsoft account. No offline path, no skip button, no workaround that doesn’t involve hacking the ISO. Even the start ms-cxh://setaddlocalonly command that used to work in a pinch is now blocked.
Windows 11 Pro still lets you sneak in a local account via Domain Join—but I wouldn’t bet on that lasting. Microsoft’s blog hints that these bypasses “inadvertently skip critical setup screens,” which sounds like they’re prepping to shut that door too.
Workarounds I Tried (and What Broke)
- Rufus ISO tweaks: Still viable. You can strip the Microsoft account requirement from the install media, but it’s not officially supported. I used Rufus 4.3 with the latest 25H2 ISO and got through setup without issue.
- Post-setup switch: I signed in with a burner Microsoft account, finished setup, then created a local account and deleted the online one. It works, but it’s clunky and leaves traces.
- Registry edits: Tried a few from older forums—none worked reliably. Most led to blocked screens or forced reboots.
Lessons Learned
Microsoft’s clearly moving toward a cloud-first identity model. Between OneDrive sync, Copilot integration, and telemetry baked into setup, the local account path is being deprecated—not just hidden.
If you’re deploying in enterprise or privacy-conscious environments, start planning for custom ISOs or automation scripts. And if you’re a home user who prefers offline setups, brace yourself: the default path is now online-first.
Final Thoughts
This shift isn’t just about accounts—it’s about control. Microsoft wants consistency across devices, and local accounts don’t fit that model anymore. I get it from a product standpoint, but as an admin, I miss the flexibility.
Ever had to explain to a client why their brand-new laptop won’t let them skip account setup? Welcome to 2025.
