VOGONS


First post, by ncmark

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Hi everyone, a serious question

I just got a windows 10 computer off dell refurbished. One my reasons was I wanted to escape the wholes windows 11 forcing you you have a micro$oft account. Unfortunately, I started looking around and it seems newer versions of 10 also required the account! Grrrrrr.

I have seen a couple of workarounds:

1. Enter no@thankyou.com for an email address and a random password

2. Install with no internet access. Question - possible to add this later?

3. Just create the account but don't use your real name or birthdate. Question - are they going to let you set up an account without a phone number?

4. If using windows 10 professional, on network setup you can opt to connect to a domain. Question - can regular networking be set up after the fact?

Does anyone have any experience with any of these methods and can shed some light?

Reply 1 of 4, by Living

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use rufus

Reply 2 of 4, by Grzyb

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I always install Windows 11 with local account:
- disconnect LAN
- start installation
- when it complains about no Internet connection, press Shift+F10, and enter OOBE\BYPASSNRO
- after reboot, select "I don't have Internet"
- when installed, you can connect LAN again, and normally use the Internet

Kiełbasa smakuje najlepiej, gdy przysmażysz ją laserem!

Reply 3 of 4, by ncmark

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Thanks to those who offered advice here. I installed it completely offline without a hitch! I may not even connect it to the internet at all, undecided. Taking thinks slowly.

The long story - I initially could not try it out because of no VGA connector, display port only. Then I opened the case and looked at the inside and saw (what I thought) no hard drive! Just a cable where one would connect. What the heck. In the meantime I got a display port cable, and it booted right up. Again, what the heck.

There *IS* a SATA cable there with nothing connected to it and an empty 3.5 slot. But I think what I was interpreting as the DVD drive was really the hard drive. Live and learn, I guess.

Seems like a pretty sweet machine, especially considering what I paid for it.

Reply 4 of 4, by Grzyb

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BTW: what happens if you have a Microsoft account, but there's some connection problem?
You can't even login to your own computer?
If you don't have any additional boot device - how to access the data stored on the local drive?

Kiełbasa smakuje najlepiej, gdy przysmażysz ją laserem!