Another fudge emerges for Windows 11 to be installed with a local - not a Microsoft - account

You probably didn't miss the recent fuss about Microsoft cutting off a workaround to enable a Windows 11 installation to be carried out with a local account, rather than being tied to a Microsoft account - but it turns out that when one door closes, another two open.

To recap on this, the door being closed was the so-called 'bypassnro' method (used in the command prompt during Windows 11 setup), although there remains a way to do this via the Registry still (although that's clunkier, and surely likely to be stripped out soon enough, anyway).

WitherOrNot subsequently highlighted a better workaround on X, and on top of that, Neowin noticed that there's now yet another way to fudge a local install of Windows 11 - check out the post above from XPower7125 on X.

This is another Registry edit (via the command prompt), and interestingly, it's one that Microsoft flags in its official documentation - for the relevant setting, HideOnlineAccountScreens - as Neowin discovered after doing some digging.

Microsoft explains:

"HideOnlineAccountScreens specifies whether the user will be required to sign-in during OOBE [Windows 11 setup]. This setting is primarily for enterprises that do not want employees using email addresses as user names."

This method works for both Windows 11 Home and Pro editions.

We've no doubt there are other ways to fudge a local installation than these two new methods which have emerged this week, and so for the foreseeable, it looks like this will remain an option - one way or another.

Microsoft may yet move to stamp out all of these alternative fudges, but we hope not. Really, there should be a choice to use a local account right there in the Windows 11 installation process, no workaround required - as sometimes, it's an option that people need.

Read more: Miss Windows Vista? Well, both of you can now recreate the OS in Windows 11 with a new mod