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YouTube is taking down videos on performing nonstandard Windows 11 installs
(news.ycombinator.com)
this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2025
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For those who care, at the first setup screen instead of answering any of the questions press Shift + F10.
CMD will open.
Type (no quotes) “net user Prefferedusername /add” (replacing Prefferedusername with the user name you wish to use) and press enter.
Next type “net localgroup administrators Prefferedusername /add” and press enter.
Next type “net user Prefferedusername /active:yes” and press enter.
Next type “net user Prefferedusername /expires:never” and press enter.
Next type “net user administrator /active:no” and press enter.
Next type “net user defaultUser0 /delete” (this is case sensitive make sure the "U" is capitalized) and press enter.
Next type "regedit" and press enter.
This opens registry editor, navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE"
Delete "DefaultAccountAction", "DefaultAccountSAMName", and "DefaultAccountSID"
Right click on "LaunchUserOOBE" and rename it to "SkipMachineOOBE" and make sure the value is set to "1".
Close registry editor and type "shutdown /r /t 0"
I am usually not that guy, but honestly, why not just install Linux Mint at this point
Because some people still require windows for what ever reason and also it's fun to resist corporate bullshit by spitting in their face.
Personally I switched to Bazzite for my gaming rigs and Mint for everything else, but I wont judge anyone who wants to stay on windows despite the hostility microsoft has for its user base and I say more power to them.
Those who stand defiant in the face of overwhelming odds are exactly the sort of folk I like.
"Resist corporate bullshit by eschewing the free, non-corporate option – which, because it's open, gets better the more people use it – in favor of continuing to use the exact same corporate product but with an abstruse, hacky workaround that 0.001% of the userbase will use and will probably be plugged by this time next week. That'll show those corpo fucks who's boss. ✊Ⓐ"
I don't judge, I just don't understand. At this level, you need way more skills to keep your Windows account local than installing Linux with their GUI wizard. I understand some people need Windows professionally for Photoshop, but I guess the large majority doesn't. If you read this Windows user, now is the time. Trust me, you will experience a level of freedom and performance you would have never thought of.
Heard good things about Bazzite, how does it work out with .exe game files off the internet etc?
Ive got a boat load of games that aren't on steam/are from GOG or itch and run as their own files instead of being run off a service
I haven't had any issues with any of the the games I play. For example recently I've been playing Driver San Francisco and all I had to do was tell my system to run it using proton and it plays, no weird configurations or workarounds needed. I have even had some games that were so buggy on windows they would randomly crash that ran like they were native on linux. RAGE for instance always gave weird memory errors on windows but on Bazzite it just worked. I am fairly anti social though so I don't play any online games so I can't vouch for those. I've heard older multiplayer games seem to work fine with a few work-arounds. If you look up guides on how to get things running on the Steam Deck they usually work for getting things running on Bazzite as well.
I'm that guy.
Install Linux Mint.
I cannot find this meme I know I have seen
Panel 1: "Installing Windows 20 years ago" screenshot of install wizard with just a couple buttons
Panel 2: "Installing Linux 20 years ago" screenshot of a busy command line
Panel 3: "Installing Windows today" screenshot of a busy command line
Panel 4: "Installing Linux today" screenshot of install wizard with just a couple buttons
Made a new one for you
Awesome, thanks! You should definitely post that to a Linux meme community or something.
Lol im stealing that
its ok, not mine
That's a lot of instructions just to use the computer you paid for and is yours...
Linux has its stupid bullshit too, its just 12 of one and a dozen of another sort of situation. For example I don't have to jump through hoops to auto mount a secondary drive on windows I just install the drive and there it is. But on linux I have to jump through all sorts of ridiculous hoops for some stupid reason. However it will auto mount flash drives and sd cards even though those are the ones more likely to pose a security risk.
I just plugged in an old drive to make sure I'm not going crazy, and I didn't do anything besides hit the power button, log in, and open the file explorer:
And its right there.
It depends on the DE.
Even still, typing mount /dev/sda1 external isn't exactly Cirque du Soleil
That behavior is controlled in the gnome user session defaults
Say what? That's not true in the slightest, if the drive is mountable it will show up in your file manager.
Yeah, but again you don't have to do all this stuff just to use the PC. And for having the tiny user base Linux does it's amazingly pro-user compared to the monopolistic bullshittery that is Microsoft Windows.
What are you running? Mine just shows up, I double click it and supply the encryption password and it's mounted. (Which could be skipped if it wasn't encrypted)
A space is needed before the slash on this command, right? And no space before net.
You are correct I will update my instructions. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.
Windows users: "I don't want to swap to Linux, you have to follow arcane instructions from the Internet and use the terminal to do basic tasks"
Also Windows users: "Now here is how you add a local user:"
Using backticks instead of quotation marks is the ideal way to document technical instructions like this here:
I've been doing this in command prompt:
reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
shutdown/r /t 0
After reboot it lets you choose "I don't have internet" and you can continue with creating a local account.
Haha does this mean they removed only the BypassNRO script, but not the underlying regkey?
If they did it would make all the bullshit I typed earlier entirely pointless, and honestly I hope its true because having to do all of the just to get a local account is ridiculous.
And same people are complaining that Linux is difficult to install..
You could also just make the iso using Rufus. It sounds easier than this shit.
I thought they started blocking that work around.
Also +1 for describing things like the quotes and preferred username.
We had a guy doing remote file copy on a Unix system. Hr was given a sample like:
Scp john@server2:/data/incoming/filename.prt /home/john/files
He tried 5 times then complained to IT that the system couldn't find the file to transfer.
IT realized he wasn't replacing filename with his filename he just assumed the server new which file he wanted by typing filename. Lol.
Had a user given instructions to delete log data in C:/users/myusername/logs
User replies to IT: my system does not have a folder called "myusername"
Unless they remove local accounts all together or disable shift F10 in the OOBE this should work, it just sets up a local account through command prompt in a similar manner that lusrmrg.msc would.
That said I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if they remove local accounts altogether next.
I think that was part of a Windows 11 update, but I'd have to find the article
i've run across a couple prebuilts where shift-f10 didn't work at any screen of the oobe. those just got clean installs via rufus.
Honestly that is the best approach if you are able too, but this guide is for those who can't or won't for whatever reason. https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/ is also a great resource if you want to customize it further.