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Comment by LeoPanthera | Hacker News Reader

This is not correct, and I’ve tried it. The installer will ask you to connect to the internet, and halt until you do.

Last time I installed, I had to only select "continue with limited setup" (tiny font with bad contrast in the bottom left corner, doesn't really look like a button), and confirm that in the nag-screens that follow. Then it created a local account. After the installation I inserted the network cable and all is well.

I'm pretty sure Microsoft removed that. I didn't see it last time I tried.

Shift+F10 and the magic bypass command still work, though, but who knows for how long.

There is a straightforward workaround, namely Shift+F10 -> OOBE\BYPASSNRO.

"hack" or "workaround", in this context, have the same meaning.

So the comment is correct: you can't install (specific versions of) Windows without internet.

It's a built-in and supported workaround, just intentionally hidden (because Microsoft wants the average Joe / the masses to use an online account). That's not something that a random person came up with, even if it's not advertised.

While this is a workaround, I would not call it "straightforward" because there is no world where I can explain this to my family members :)

Straightforward would be a small text-based link at the bottom saying "skip this step"...

Straightforward would be a big button saying „skip this step“.

IMO, that's the difference between straightforward and obvious. It's not obvious because Microsoft doesn't want it to be obvious. But one can totally tell a family member "press these keys, then type this command and press Enter" - non-technically inclined people couldn't care less about further explanation, only about the end goal. I've done more complicated troubleshooting over the phone...

That would be the hack I mentioned, yes. "Normal" users would never do this.

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