It's clear that the publisher takes a malicious pleasure in complicating the lives of certain users... for benefits that are hard to pin down.
For years, Windows installation - in this case, Windows 10 as well as Windows 11 - has been possible either through the creation of a local account, or via an online Microsoft account. In the latter case, it is of course essential to have an active Internet connection at the time of installation, which is not always very practical. Nor is the use of a Microsoft online account to the taste of all users, who until recently had the choice. Until recently, that is, because since the beginning of 2025, Microsoft seems to have been waging a real battle against these "local" users, by making Internet connections and online accounts more and more restrictive. Last April, for example, we reported on the end of a famous bypass, named after the procedure used to avoid the Internet connection page when installing Windows 11. Fortunately, this bypass was replaced by an equally effective one, without making the slightest difference to users.
The cats are cute, but they're linked to a rather painful update © Microsoft
Microsoft is not disarmed, however, and with the release of build 26220.6772, the publisher is aiming to be more efficient: " We are removing known mechanisms for creating a local account in the Windows installation experience (OOBE). Often used to bypass Microsoft account configuration, these mechanisms also inadvertently ignore critical configuration screens, which can lead users to exit OOBE with an incompletely configured device. To ensure correct device configuration, users will need to run OOBE with an Internet connection and a Microsoft account ". It is therefore no longer possible to use the most popular bypasses, and there's no guarantee that a new bypass will ever be discovered, as Microsoft seems so determined. One of the few methods that currently work is to use a tool like Rufus combined with a Windows 11 ISO... but for how much longer will this work?
