Creating an account allows to choose between using a Microsoft account or creating a local account.
Domain joining from setup is impossible (it requires a reboot, and then group policy could push something that breaks the rest of the out-of-box experience), so it's safe to assume that will always be there (unless they do a major change to how AD joining works, but they probably won't since they consider it "legacy").
Select "Join a domain/corparete" network and there is a button for offline account.
Select "Join a domain/corparete" network and there is a button for offline account.
But yes, if you get an script with the set of actions that make local accounts possible, you can replicate them.
Seems like it still holds!
But the current versions of windows 10 only offer that if you don't have internet (no ethernet cable in, and answered "I don't have a wifi" in the screen before user creation), if you connected to the wifi it won't show the option for local account.
And there's this nagging alert that keeps popping up:
"Microsoft account problem."
"We need to fix your microsoft account. (Most likely your password changed). Select here to fix it in shared experiences settings."
Which I assume most novice users would obey.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/seeing...
My ritual for family machine setup is locate wifi kill switch-> if not available, announce wireless going down-> kill network->setup to local account->reenable network
It's patently infuriating. Throw in where I've had family members set up Microsoft accounts with only 1 form of auth (Phone number), change that, them get locked out of their Microsft account for a month because of Microsoft's daft policies. Though I didn't set up that machine. It boggles the mind that Microsoft's default flow would run the risk of such an outcome.
[1]: https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-11/269419/tip-set-u...
No we won't just add a "No thanks" button, but we'll set up an undocumented magic username to serve the same purpose?
And to make it even more nightmarish, where is that check? Is it extractable from the installer binary? Or is it some weird exception case implemented in server code only viewable by microsoft?
For that matter, who owns thankyou.com? Is there some unfortunate sod with no@thankyou.com as an email address?
There is so much wrong with this. I can't even...
There is nothing about that setup that isn't an exercise in plausibly deniable forced on-ramping. No it isn't a best practice to create the illusion you can't use an operating system without agreeing to a cloud services contract.
That's BS, and should be called out as such. UX is trying to gaslight the non-technical into services they don't need, and I'm willing to go out on a limb that everyone in the market is trying to converge on that exact practice.
And when you did, the next step required you to first select "I don't have internet" then next be shown some embarassing pseudo-technical propaganda appealing to your FOMO, to provide one full page of discouragement before you agree to "continue with limited setup" if you want to actually have a full regular local account. And that illusion is maintained further into the user experience, where status will sometimes be reported as "setup incomplete".
With the Sept 2022 release of W11 you can't even do that any more.
When you reach this point and there is no longer the option to admit your poor soul has no internet, the incantation here is to hit Shift+F10 which opens a command prompt. Click in the CMD window to make it respond to your keyboard then oobe\bypassnro. Reboots and reverts to previous "I don't have internet" option.
Sheesh.