Windows 11 Trick That Microsoft Doesn’t Want You To Know. They Even Tried To Stop Me From Posting!

How to install Windows 11 without an internet connection or any network connection at all. This method uses the SHIFT + F10 key combo to open a cmd shell during OOBE first time setup in Microsoft Windows. You then
run a script that changes a registry key to reenable the setup without internet connection option that is missing in latest builds.
If you end up getting to user setup part of OOBE while connected to the internet because you went to far it will try to force you to use a LIVE account to login which is bad for so many reasons when it comes to privacy and security. Just type in “user” as a he username and password for the live account and when it fails it should unlock local user setup.
It’s very concerning that Microsoft is going this direction. Were they force you to do something and not give you any other options when it’s not even a realistic requirement of the operating system and it works just fine with local accounts and not connected to the Internet.
Microsoft only change this because they want to force people to use live accounts so they can gather relational data on how the user is using windows and what they are doing at any given time so they can also compare that to their other products usage data like Xbox live.
They claim the reason for gathering this data is to improve the user experience, and claim that none of the date is personally identifiable. But I can tell you from experience it absolutely is personally identifiable, and it’s relational meaning that once they know who you are on one account they can link that to all the other data and all the other databases they have and make connections to determine if the same person and now all of this data is going to train ChatGPT which Microsoft is heavily invested into.

[@Barnacules]

If you guys enjoyed this come find me on all other platforms and see my other tech tips I’ve been posting for months 👍🏻 Also, I live stream every weekend here on KZbin but the live streams don’t show up in sub boxes so all the recorded shows are there and I also stream 3 times a week over on that other popular streaming platform I can’t mention by name or this short will stop showing up anywhere 😜

[@Dreamerlok]

Would you recommend upgrading to Windows 11 now?

[@Barnacules]

​@@Dreamerlok If you're on fairly modern hardware that can take advantage of Windows 11 like current generation CPU, DDR5, 30xx GPU, etc then I would say that alone is worth the upgrade. They also fixed a ton of DPI scaling issues, smoother UI transitions, better Multi-tasking and Window management features and PowerShell and WSL2 seem more a part of the operating system than a second class citizen in Windows 11. However, I will warn you that it's a bit of a learning curve on the new UI since they are really going out of their way to ditch the classical UI once and for all and go all in on Windows 11 look and feel across the entire OS which honestly isn't a bad thing now that they aren't in this strange Alpha stage like when it first released. Also, I haven't had any real big compatibility issues with software or games so I wouldn't say that's a reason to stay on Windows 10 any longer also. Plus there are some cool features coming down the pipeline like video snipping tool support and even more Windows management stuff that will give you built in functionality like you need half a dozen 3rd party tool in order to pull off with Windows 10. But, is it going to change your world and blow your mind? Probably not, it just feels mostly like a reskinned Windows 10 that runs quite a bit better and feels like things load faster depending on what you do. I feel like a lot of the refinement that could have been done in Windows 10 just got given to Windows 11 to try and make it stand out when it would have fit perfectly without any extra work. We all know Microsoft loves ditching support for old operating systems beyond security patches and basic functionality improvements where it's critical for end users but beyond that all the new stuff always comes out for the new OS so being on Windows 11 is beneficial for that. Also, Microsoft loves harvesting data from people and Windows 11 is the next generation of data harvesting with their new telemetry stuff and reporting and it's why they try to make you connect with a Windows LIVE account during setup which this video shows you how to work around. So because of that they are even more committed to trying to force people to upgrade to Windows 11 and if they have a computer that isn't supporter they are encouraging people to upgrade and buy a new PC by making the requirements for Windows 11 artificially high when I can tell you right now it will run on anything Windows 10 will run on and it will actually run faster with less resources. This may be the longest comment response I've ever made but since it's the first comment I've made from this crispy new install of Windows 11 right after logging in Microsoft Edge on KZbin I figured I'd give it my all 🤗

[@jesuschris9543]

Wow you’re so smart… I’m working on my A+ cert right now hopefully some day I will be as knowledgeable as you!

[@Sinister_BOONe]

@@jesuschris9543 I am working on my A+ cert right now also. 😁

[@Dreamerlok]

@@Barnacules Thank you for the lengthy reply. It sure made me consider it more since I wanted to upgrade but with all the negativity it got since the beginning I just thought it was going to be bad for a while.

[@SebTH1Games]

Feels like a classic episode, missed this feel like the podcast kinda took over

[@AReallyBuffLlama]

Hearing “Jerry here AKA Barnacules” gives me such an unbelievable level of joy it’s crazy. Will always be one of my favorite creators. Love ya, Jer!

[@Barnacules]

Thanks man, I think on your suggestion I'll bring that back to stay. I might bring back "It's time for nerdgasm" intro also.

[@AReallyBuffLlama]

@@Barnacules Love it!

[@MakeItWithCalvin]

This is the kinda content we need! Hopefully, Microsoft does not see this and removes said workaround!

[@Barnacules]

Lucky for you I found about a dozen workarounds for this problem before finally settling on this method because it had the least number of steps. So Microsoft would have to be really on it's game to close up every single hole to prevent me from doing this and since local accounts are a requirement of all domain customers they can't take it out of their workstation products like PRO otherwise companies would be screwed so there will ALWAYS be a way to do this.

[@JW_934]

A KZbin upload! I love to see it, feels like the old days. A great tip too.

[@javiervazquez9472]

Wooohooooo! This one is gonna blow up, and I was here before it went viral! Good stuff, man!

[@Barnacules]

I hope you're right, that would do so much for my morale after everything that happened lately.

[@asaflevy1540]

Or unplug the network adapter before setup, it used to also work, but the built-in shell Shift+F10 and included script are very cool, thanks for teaching again, Barnacles Tech Tips :)

[@exxor9108]

What sucks is that the average consumer isn't gonna have prior knowledge of this.

[@Barnacules]

Yeah, and to be honest the last time I installed Windows 11 it didn't have this option turned off by default forcing you to be connected to a network. This is something new they added in the last few builds to try and force people to stop using local user accounts and connect their computers to their servers and databases so they get a bigger stream of data they can use to train up their new fancy AI (OpenAI & ChatGPT) and also to market their stuff to you like Office 365, Teams, etc. The good news hopefully is that people will just think to KZbin this if they encounter the same problem and find a solution so they don't get bamboozled into using a LIVE account to login to their computer which has some very serious security issues in my opinion if Microsoft gets hacked. And after the Solarwinds thing I'm sure there are plenty of backdoors into the Microsoft Redmond Campus network that they haven't found and the hackers are just waiting for the right moment to strike so I'm not putting my security in their hands.

[@billybobby7607]

Yeah or what if I don't have internet or ethernet port is buggered or drivers not working Complete joke this always on requirement

[@leftctrlgaming]

Thanks for that tip Barn, illsee ya sat on the stream with Auxiliary

[@Barnacules]

See you there 👋

[@Barnacules]

Fight the power! Share this everywhere!

[@Gam3rs_Un1te]

Welcome back to the world of non-live content! Hope to see more of your handsome face in some more edited content in the coming months!

[@Barnacules]

That is the goal my friend, if you've been watching the Twitch streams I'm sure you have seen the ESP32 programming I've been doing and the interactive LED arrays I have behind me during the live stream. I've been getting heavily into software development again both on the PC and on microcontrollers and that is going to blow up in 2023 and hopefully get me back into 3D printing and every other piece of technology I have to create projects for you all.

[@gilgamesh2293]

Its actually good to have an online account for windows 11 so you can digitally back up your windows key on that account. Make a specific email for it if you dont to use your own email. I just bought a compuer with windows 11 pre-installed. Long story short windows wouldnt activate after a fresh install because it was an upgrade key from windows 10. Lots of people with geniune keys run into this problem. You can sign out of the online account after and just use an offline account.

[@curious20000]

It's good, but don't force people. I think that's the biggest complaint.

[@fightingfalconfan]

I definitely miss the old Barnacules when YT was his main platform, playing games (no game capture) just him in the man cave geeking out. I don't have time these days to watch a live podcast.

[@GrumpyGrobbyGamer]

Great tip! Thanks Barnacules, and FO Microsoft.

[@stirfry7987]

Thank goodness I'm subbed to this guy. Nice!

[@Nunya58294]

Glad to see you're alive and well Jerry

[@samuelsampson8145]

I think this actually fixed my issue! Also had to hold shift+fn+f10 to open the command prompt

[@profosist]

Glad you found a way around it. Hopefully what I sent on Twitter was helpful ;)

[@Barnacules]

Everything you all sent me was helpful, even if I didn't use that specific method, I now know another method to do it when they ultimately remove this script from the release build in the future. You know they will too.

[@profosist]

@@Barnacules oh for sure! Also gotta get you some connections to get the business ISO with enterprise from MSDN

[@TheOriginalJAX]

Thankyou, perfectly timed too.

[@Barnacules]

Awesome! Nobody should be forced to place the security of their home PC in the hands of Microsoft's authentication servers.

[@sam928232]

Still works perfectly, every time i install windows 11 i check this video because i cant remeber those commands 😂😊

[@cesarvillalta4730]

Excellent, profesional, smooth tip, Best Wishes to you pro

[@balkanhub7020]

Thank you sooooooooooo much this saved me 2 hours amazing video ahort and helpful

[@carlostrudo]

Not all heroes wear capes !

[@Rasle500]

Thank You, you saved my weekend !!

[@tipsygamer7487]

You my dear sir are a digital pimp. Love it. You got a new sub

[@DethNade]

Thank you so much for making this video.

[@tomoprime217]

This happened to me on Windows 10 a few weeks ago. I had to unplug the internet to get it to create a local account and then plug it back in. They are enforcing this microsoft account on all builds it seems even on Windows 11 pro.

[@Heavens_Rejected]

I'ma keep this bookmarked incase I ever (for some reason, probably forced to) install win11

[@Barnacules]

At some point Microsoft will literally give you no choice but to use it. The only way that is going to change is if Linux can dethrone them and now it's looking like that won't happen since Microsoft is bank rolling a lot of the open source stuff now and WSL2 basically puts Linux as a first-class citizen in the Windows 11 product.

[@HeadCannon1776]

Good windows: '95 '98 XP(sp3) 7 10 Bad windows: everything else Me a genius: stay on 10, wait for windows 12 😉

[@Barnacules]

It's funny how Microsoft has a history of Good OS followed by Bad OS in a continuous cycle. This is usually because the second OS is always just lipstick on a pig from the previous OS and every other OS they usually make some major changes to the underlying architecture since they can now deprecate a lot more since enough time has passed. Windows 11 is definitely that lipstick on a pig and a lot of the stuff they said would be WIndows 11 only is now being back ported to Windows 10 since adoption numbers aren't where they need them for companies to use features only available in Windows 11 since it would hurt their sales. This is why Direct Storage will now be on Windows 10 when Microsoft originally said that would be impossible due to its special use of modern hardware. But let's not forget that Microsoft also said that Chromium was the least stable and most privacy invasive browser technology ever created and now today it's the foundation of their Edge browser and the foundation of the WebControl2 infrastructure all the Microsoft store apps run under. Microsoft likes to say something is crap until they start using it themselves then all of the sudden it's amazing and groundbreaking. The truth is Windows 11 has shown a lot of promise and what they are doing with the UI is actually turning out to be a good thing in the long run as they fix a lot of crap that never should have shipped in such Alpha shape and I'm glad that I'm running it. But, I'd be lying if I said everything in it was better than Windows 10 when it clearly isn't and there are a whole bunch of new bugs to deal with.

[@HeadCannon1776]

@@Barnacules I largely agree, but however I don't feel Win-11's UI is going in the right direction having avidly used Ubuntu in the Gnome 2 hayday. which is a funny thing how a lot of windows now is so linux like ("something is crap until they start using it themselves"). What do you think of windows's licensing going to a subscription based model? cause you gotta know that's next.

[@NotAViper]

How did you get wifi working in the setup? My PC does have wifi but I must use ethernet first and also did you install windows 11 yourself or is this a preinstalled machine?

[@bikerchrisukk]

Nice one Jerry 😁👍

[@SamLK]

Thanks for the fantastic information

[@conydeptrai7122]

Niceeeeee brooooo , thanks ur tips

[@TruePcKing]

That pretty neat

[@Nobody-vr5nl]

Windows has really gone down the shitter the last 8 or so years. Every they do with the gui and settings suck. It used to make sense. Now it's moved around to keep ppl employed.

[@Barnacules]

I'll agree that Winnows 8 and Windows 8.1 were absolute trash. But Window 10 and 11 are highly optimized & utilize a lot of new generation hardware like ARM for instance. However, neither Windows 10 or Windows 11 shipped in a stable good working product, and it took years to get both of them stable to the point where they are a good option. That being said though I do hate how much Microsoft has pushed into the online services space and tried to connect their operating system to Azure. Windows is no longer a primary product of Microsoft. It's just another interface to their Azure online services and they will keep pushing hard that way and I don;t like that one bit but we are becoming a more and more internet connected world so I do understand the business reasons. But Windows 7 always will be my favorite Microsoft operating system that I helped shipped while working at Microsoft.

[@johnbee1574]

Madness. Glad there doing windows 12

[@gunnarsandstrom8031]

U can use Rufus when u make a windows usb.

[@Barnacules]

I tried Rufus with the latest 22H2 image, and I didn't get any of the unattended options that I did with the older versions. I know that Microsoft recently started putting the install.wim files inside of an .etf file for multiple SKU's and I wonder if Rufus doesn't know how to work around that. Let me know if you get this working with the ISO downloaded from the Media Install Tool from Microsoft. I did find a tuturoal on how to create the image by hand using PowerShell to extract the Install.wim from the install.etf file and use a custom unattended.xml file in the panther folder before saving it and saving the ISO and re-burning it. But it's quite a few steps to do manually so I would rather just have Rufus do it.

[@gunnarsandstrom8031]

@Barnacules Nerdgasm I did a reinstall last week with the latest image and Rufus without problem even disabled tpm and ram running dualboot maybe they fixed it and ntlite works to.

[@neutral_green]

Legend. Have to give a sub..

[@Grey-Troll]

One question that seems kind of obvious to me: Why in the name of all things that can work with linux+wine would you ever use a product from a company that puts giant 'window(s)' directly into your private activities, even exclusively legal activities, allowing your resident country's agencies to gaze into whenever they like? If I must spend the same amount of time searching for info on how to do this versus how to do X on X distro and windows will loose that fight

[@ninjashadow27diaz55]

I LOVE YOU MAN I REALLY DO YOU SAVE MY LIFE

[@FuckyWucky]

I hit shift f10 and get nothing. Not a laptop, no function keys.

[@mjt918]

what is alt +f4 does not work shift + f10 does not work ????

[@randyklingbeil7822]

So very Wonderful😍💘

[@cyphaborg6598]

I will never understand why they would fire someone that's really passionate about technology.

[@7ngel]

Clean your setup sir

[@Barnacules]

Started working on this today! Check my Twitter to see what my Keyboard looks like "before" and "after" 😱 It was way grosser than this video shows 🤣

[@ronallen6196]

genius. thanks

[@BreadHeadHD]

LIFE SAVER

[@xila8861]

pop! os is working fine for me.. I just installed it 2 days ago. I wish it doesnt spy on me like windows used to do.

[@rick-vista1612]

you are great!

[@005MDS3]

I can't help but notice how many water bottles you have on your table and how dusty your keyboard is. Maybe try cleaning your desk one day?

[@Nobody-vr5nl]

If Microsoft didn't have a monopoly on OS that doesn't take constant work around to get things working, I would t be using windows. UT sense everything is built for windows, I'm stuck.

[@barryd999]

No longer works

[@tallnrough68]

I think this has been patched already

[@elliottslab]

I don’t want a dang ms account

[@Barnacules]

Microsoft learned from Google that peoples data is the new gold rush. So they are leaning hard into making people dependent on their online resources and since telemetry sent to Microsoft is so verbose having your actual personal information attached to it all makes it way more useful for marketing, etc. They have already started leveraging user data heavily in the presentation of advertisements on websites when you're using Microsoft Edge or when to advertise coupons to you or how Bing responds to queries, etc. There is so much of your information being harvested and used against you these days it's not even funny. But all these companies are figuring out that it gives them a crazy advantage the more data they have from their customers so they are all playing hungry hungry hippos to get it. Notice how all these servers like Google, Microsoft ,Amazon, etc are implementing authentication servers that can be used for free so people don't have to create new accounts on every single website and can just login with the click of a button and a phone app? That's because every single time a site adopts that all the traffic in and traffic out and activity from those websites goes to their servers and they can associate it with you so they can better figure out how to market to 3rd party and first party products and how to train their AI and Cortana to respond best to you and by best I mean in the way that makes them the most money or gives them the most leverage over their user base. I honestly don't like where any of this is heading so I fight it as much as I can but honestly it's becoming hard and hard with everyone picking convenience over security and privacy.

[@elliottslab]

@@Barnacules yeh I hate the new new model I want all software to be one off payments, not selling my data not a subscription

[@JC-lu8dt]

It says oobe not recognized

[@PhilThomas]

but, they don't want you to use that, better to hide it so new users give up and let them do whatever it is their software wants to do

[@haroldfinch1955]

Just setup an unattended installation. So much faster.

[@Barnacules]

Most people don't know how to download, install or even use the Microsoft OEM toolkit or know how to mount & extract the install.wim from the install.etf file using PowerShell for their particular SKU then add an unattended.xml file then save it all before burning the custom image. I've heard that Rufus can do some of this now, but you have to download the ISO from a special place on Microsofts website since just passing an install.iso which the media creation tool downloads confuse Rufus and it doesn't understand it's a Windows 11 distro since I think it goes by the filename. But I agree that once you have an unattended install built it's the easiest way to install because you don't have to do any of the OOBE ever again and can even have separate media for each PC that will change the computer name and configure specifics and even deploy drivers. We used to do this exclusively and even deploy machines through PXE servers so you didn't even need media if system had a PXE enabled LAN adapter. But, for the 99% of the people who just want to insert install media and go this workaround has them covered which is nice and I like that Microsoft still provides the .cmd file in the folder on the original image to bypass OOBE they just don't give you a way to access it through the UI which makes sense because they hid it in the first place when before it was fine to just offer it as an option in earlier builds. It's clear that Microsoft is pushing hard to get users to sign up for Microsoft Live so they can track them across multiple devices and record more telemetry that can be tied back to a single user instead of a single machine which gives them something much more granular and precise for marketing, etc. The new digital gold rush is data so every company is moving fast to nudge their customer base into a position where they can extract the most information with the least amount of liability. That being said I've already deployed pfBlockerNG lists to my router to prevent telemetry from reaching Microsoft's servers from any of my devices but if they change those IP's and they will eventually they will get a nice little backload of data sent to their servers but it won't be joined with a MS Live account so that makes me happy. I tried the whole gutting Windows 11 so it doesn't even have the ability to send telemetry but found it caused a lot of strange transient issues since it completely throws off what a bunch of services are expecting leading to random waits and DPC spikes. So I'm always fighting to find a happy balance between a supported install and sending the least telemetry to Microsoft and I'm always on the lookout for the next best way to do it without creating unsupported install configurations. Local users will always be officially supported though since Microsoft has a lot of business and server customers that run domain controllers and the clients need to be able to connect to the domain which you don't want to do as a Microsoft LIVE account since it would present a huge gaping security hole. If you read this entire response then you probably drank as much coffee as I just did ☕

[@haroldfinch1955]

Thanks so much for the reply. I’m system administrator and deal with Microsoft Deployment for McDonalds. After seeing what their systems were capable of, i started building some of my own. The more automation the better, and there are a lot of awesome tools out there that can help you do that. Someone needs to make an automated installation image that removes as much telemetry as possible and skips all the Microsoft bullshit and then package it up and make it available for download. Kinda like a debloated windows image. But I agree there’s no simple answer, for the average user most people just expect it to work, and Microsoft is very shady with forcing people to do stuff.

[@TheNetworkingGuy]

❤

[@tallnrough68]

Is no one going to talk about how dirty that keyboard is 😬

[@sharkylal]

Just used this 😅

[@paigem]

"spit" 🤣😏😏

[@lostdongle]

This does not work any more

[@sebastiangwozdz2080]

It's too much redbull ;D

[@imawsome6]

Love it

[@SEEshadow]

What happened to your setup? No more quad screens?!

[@Barnacules]

Life happened back in 2021 when I tore the whole room apart to rebuild and hurt my back so bad I couldn't sleep and was mostly laid up for months and then it turned into years and then had to fight with a bunch of other medical stuff. But the good news is I'm slowly coming back to life and rebooting and trying to build it back, but it will be a slow process since I'm still dealing with a lot of pain. I wish the last 2 years of my life never happened.

[@SEEshadow]

@@Barnacules I still consider you to be one of the originators of tech adoption and reviews on KZbin and I've always loved your content. Your knowledge/passion for all things tech and your sense of humor always made for great videos. I sincerely hope the best of things for you and your family. Sorry for the long response, I actually got a bit of a nerdgasm when you replied!! Stay healthy and happy.

[@mohmmad_170]

I just have the old iso

[@Ace-gw4uk]

Hopefully Microsoft sees this and windows 12 will be Linux!

[@webcatafan]

bravo

[@steakburger101]

Dude clean out those water bottles

[@SalandFindles]

0:00

[@JamesJacob-lr5gt]

Just user rufus

[@arranmc182]

WTF this is proof that Windows 11 is hot garbage at this point Linux systems like Ubuntu & Pop!_OS is simpler to install and does not need you yo entre commands just to do a basic offline install, this video is perfect advertisement as why not to use windows 11

[@airman_85uk]

Did that for my mum's pc. It's bullshit from Microsoft again

[@adityaambulkar4086]

Its given on windows website😅

[@aunabreslingaming3279]

Linux! Love the dust!

[@pumpuppthevolume]

damn

[@mosesvega1300]

🤷 *PromoSM*

[@nattybyrne]

Well they are microcontrol really @barnacules

[@Barnacules]

They’re worse than the government sometimes

[@3-7-77MT]

🫡

[@Barnacules]

🫡