New Windows 11 trick lets you bypass Microsoft Account requirement

April 2, 2025

Windows 11

A previously unknown trick lets you easily bypass using a Microsoft Account in Windows 11, just as Microsoft tries to make it harder to use local accounts.

Since the release of Windows 11, Microsoft has been increasingly closing loopholes and making it harder to use a local account in the operating system.

Instead, the company wants you to use a Microsoft Account, as many operating system features rely on cloud-based services.

Last week, Microsoft removed the 'BypassNRO.cmd' script from Windows 11 preview builds, which allowed users to bypass the Microsoft Account requirement when installing the operating system.

While the Registry commands used by the script still worked, it became less easy to add them, requiring users to type them out or manually edit the Registry.

On Saturday, X user "Wither OrNot" shared a much easier way to bypass Windows 11's Microsoft Account requirement, which BleepingComputer has confirmed to work.

When installing Windows 11 and you reach the screen asking, "Let's connect you to a network," you can use the Shift+F10 keyboard combination to open a Windows command prompt.

At this prompt, type start ms-cxh:localonly and press Enter on your keyboard to open a "Microsoft account" window where you can create a new local user for the Windows 11 install.

**Entering the "start ms-cxh:localonly" command to create a local account***Source: BleepingComputer*

After filling in the information and clicking the Next button, the Windows 11 setup will continue. However, now it will continue using your created local account and will not prompt you to use a Microsoft Account.

When done installing, you can confirm a local account is being used by clicking on the Start button and then clicking on your account name, as shown below.

**Windows 11 configured to use a local account***Source: BleepingComputer*

As you can see, this command makes it much easier to use a local account when setting up Windows 11, even compared to the previous BypassNRO method.

Whether Microsoft will remove this command from Windows in the future is too early to tell.

However, as the start ms-cxh:localonly command appears to be more tightly integrated into the operating system, rather than just a script, it will likely be harder to remove.