And in another episode of “We demand your soul, you have no choice”, in recent hours, some users have reported that the famous “email trick” to force the creation of local accounts in Windows 11 stopped working. The request for valid credentials has been (and still is) one of the biggest points of conflict between the Redmond giant and users, but all is not lost, and there are still shortcuts to take…
When we set up an iPhone or an Android device for the first time, we are likely to end up entering some valid credential to access official stores and other integrated services. From a technical point of view, this step is not mandatory, but the final experience in those environments becomes very limited.
So why do we resist so much the idea of using an account in Windows? One of my reasons is that time has taught us not to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt. Both Windows and its users stopped being a priority years ago, and instead of working “with” Redmond products, we actually work “despite” them. The latest news only confirms it.
Goodbye to the “email trick” for local accounts in Windows 11
According to several reports on social media, Microsoft blocked the famous “email trick” to force the creation of offline accounts. The trick basically consisted of entering an invalid or blocked email address by Microsoft. Upon detecting this information, OOBE (out-of-box-experience) would send us to the local account creation phase, but now the installer goes into a loop, asking for another valid address.
Fortunately, support for local accounts hasn't completely vanished. We can still use the path of “OOBE\BYPASSNRO” (i.e., press Shift+F10 during installation to open a console, enter the command OOBE\BYPASSNRO, and specify that we have no internet on the next reboot), or let the Rufus app handle the heavy lifting by modifying the ISO image to prioritize offline mode. Another possibility is to install Enterprise or Education editions, which are much more flexible in that regard.
Of course, the underlying question is “what's next?” Honestly, Microsoft hasn't budged an inch with Windows 11: The taskbar stays put at the bottom, its icons are huge, the Start menu recommendations haven't gone anywhere, and the absurd hardware requirements have increased rather than decreased. If Redmond refuses to change, the user will make those changes on their own…
Source: PCWorld
