There is still a way to use Windows 11 without a Microsoft Account

Windows 11 on convertible laptop

Microsoft has been gradually shutting down the various ways people found to install and use Windows 11 without a Microsoft Account. The company has made it all but impossible to install the operating system without creating or signing into an account.

With the most recent preview build of Windows 11, Microsoft nixed a script that could be used to sidestep the requirement -- although it can still be manually applied via the registry. But there is still an easy way to avoid having to use a Microsoft Account.

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The technique for getting around the Microsoft Account requirement is not exactly obvious -- far from it, in fact -- but it is pretty easy. Details of the approach was posted on X over the weekend, and on Bleeping Computer.

Working on both Home and Pro versions of Windows 11, the bypass is beautiful in its elegance and simplicity as Wither OrNot’s X post shows:

As you can see in the video, you just need to hit Shift + F10 to bring up a Command Prompt when the “Let's connect you to a network” screen appears. Then run the command start ms-cxh:localonly and create a local account before continuing with the installation.

Image credit: Dmitrii Melnikov / Dreamstime.com

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