How to Install Windows 11 with a Local Account

How to Install Windows 11 with a Local Account

Windows 11 strongly encourages the use of a Microsoft account to sign in to your PC, so much so that the installation process does not allow you to avoid this if you are using a Home edition and are connected to the internet. If you use the Pro edition or do not have an internet connection, local account creation choices are provided.

To bypass this restriction, please wait until the "Let's add your Microsoft account" stage of the installation process and click Sign-in Options:

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If you're running Pro or are disconnected from the internet, you'll see an option entitled Offline Account. Please click this to create your local account. If you don't see this, please skip to the next step:

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If you don't see the "offline account" option, you need to temporarily disable your internet connection. You can either remove your ethernet cable, disable wifi on your router, or you can press SHIFT + F10 to open up the command prompt. Then type "ipconfig /release" and press enter:

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Now, quickly close the command prompt window and click the back arrow:

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Now you should find that Windows detects that the internet connection is not available and is forced to allow local account creation. You can fill this in with your desired username and password:

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