• d-RLY?@lemmy.ml
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        5 months ago

        They did mostly. It is still possible (but can be extremely frustrating if your timing is off by fractions of a second) to disconnect a LAN cable or USB-LAN adapter (DON’T sign into a wifi network) at the right moment and cause it to ask for a name for the user account. I have taken to calling this the “AA Pullout Method.” My co-workers and myself are crass de-gens and sometimes have to trade off trying to get it to work and made it a game to see who can get it to work in the least amount of tries. Get the “title” of “pullout king.” Did you need to know this? No, but it is no less dumb than the steps below and attempts needed to just make a fucking local user on Windows 10/11 (though 10 seems to be much easier to get around).

        You have to first fail at signing into a MS account. Which you can just type the letter “a” instead of an actual email address (seriously don’t have to type anything else, not even adding “@email.whatever” is needed) as if you are just using a preexisting account and not pick the “create a MS account.” It will then ask for your MS account password and just again type the letter “a.” It will then give a “Oops something went wrong” message. This is where the unplugging the cable is needed. The timing is that you need to pull the cable basically right as you let go of your left-click on the “Retry” button. So like if you are using a regular mouse it won’t register that you clicked the button until the moment you have lifted your finger. But if you fail to time it just right, it will either just cycle back to the “Sign into existing MS account” screen where you used the first “a” instead of an email. Or it will give a different message about not being online and take you back to the “Let’s get you online” network screen with your LAN adapter and wifi networks. However if you time it correctly, it will just ask for the name of the user and password.

        If you forget to plug the LAN cable back in after getting the “name of user” screen, it will give the screen about not being online. If you are able to get the local user name screen, just plug your LAN back in and it will just ask the rest of the setup questions like normal. And you now have a local user account. But again, shit is super touchy about the timing. So it could take quite a number of retries to get it to work. If you have ever used the PSP/PS3/PS Vita “Hen” non-permanent “custom firmwares,” then you might know the struggle (as the hack may fail to launch until entirely too many attempts if you haven’t used them).

        • zod000@lemmy.ml
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          5 months ago

          It worked as of six months ago, but it is possible that was patched in this recent “fix”.

    • zod000@lemmy.ml
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      5 months ago

      The W11 installer sadly doesn’t allow that anymore with the current versions. If you have that older installer, keep it safely archived.

    • henfredemars@infosec.pub
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      5 months ago

      A few months back I installed home edition and this workaround did not work. The installer would not allow me to proceed until it could verify with Microsoft.

    • Llamajockey@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Just used this bypass 2 days ago. I’d recommend people download the current W11 installer so that the work around always works as long as you keep the device away from Internet until the OS is installed

      • GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml
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        5 months ago

        I believe it wasn’t the case in the past. Well that sucks. I’m glad I don’t use Windows for anything except gaming now