Upcoming Windows 11 builds won't have the ability to to install without internet connectivity and a Microsoft Account.
https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2025/03/28/announcing-windows-11-insider-preview-build-26200-5516-dev-channel/

@wdormann sigh.

@wdormann windows is great for airgapped installs

@kura @wdormann Preferably air gapped between the install media and a computer

@wdormann To enhance security and user experience – mhm, yeah, sure… 🙄

I mean, bypassnro.cmd just does:
reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

So what Microsoft is saying is that they want to make it more work to install Windows without a Microsoft Account? 🤔

@wdormann literally used that this week for the first time… wonder if it can be re-inserted and run.

@ajn142
I mean if bypassnro.cmd is just a batch script, presumably one can just type the commands manually? 🤔

@wdormann @ajn142 someone will add it back in via a Rufus patch anyway

@wdormann this is 1984-like doublespeak. This just fucks up the user experience.

But I dont care. I've left windoze on the side of rhe road YEARS ago.

@wdormann
Enhancing user experience like it's 2025...

@wdormann Microsoft is abusing their monopoly, again. Maybe we need better laws to protect customers from monopolies? :-(

@wdormann It used to be a UI flow, then a script, now you're losing the script. So yeah, I suspect that's the goal, they're probably unhappy with the % of users who don't enroll for the super fun cloud panopticon.

I could imagine it's a pain to support the special case of users who are not logged into the cloud account, but that's presumably not going away because they have enterprise buyers. So seems strictly anti-consumer.

@lcamtuf @wdormann IIRC, you can use the Microsoft account to do BitLocker recovery, and if Microsoft does BitLocker by default, then it's important to have a key escrow in place somewhere.

(That said, Azure is not a place I want my decryption keys stored...)

@wdormann bypassnro just sets some registry entry and reboots anyway… i wonder if they’ll keep the registry entry around

if not, the oobe is literally javascript so lol

@wdormann ...turns out that yes, the registry entry that the script sets still works - they just removed the script lol