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Comment by star-glider | Hacker News Reader

Correct: with the latest images, W11 will not under any circumstances allow you to avoid creating an MS account. It will insist you go online and halt the installer until you do.

Rufus (https://rufus.ie/en/) offers an option to revert fix this, but you still have to ensure that you keep wifi disconnected and ethernet unplugged during install.

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Actually yes it will - at least as of last weekend. During OOBE setup, after connecting to Ethernet or Wi-Fi, you must select “join a work or school domain.”

I got tripped up by this too because I was insistent on not connecting it to the internet during setup, but the local account only switch had moved since I last checked up on it.

It will still ask you three or four times ARE YOU SURE you don’t want to sign in to a Microsoft account. But at least you can still avoid it for the moment.

Probably only for Pro edition, not Home

I'm fairly sure if you try to login with f@you.com it'll try to log you in and fail a few times and let you make an account.

> Correct: with the latest images, W11 will not under any circumstances allow you to avoid creating an MS account. It will insist you go online and halt the installer until you do.

Huh. Aside from the ethics, this creates a chicken-and-egg problem for anyone who needs a PC to set up their home internet.

Most people would just get a pre-configured router from their ISP that you can just plug in.

Even those sometimes require some kind of activation on a network-connected PC or phone. It's probably not very common, but it happens.

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