Install Windows 11 Without An Internet Connection

At times installing Windows 11 is required to be done without an Internet connection. This circumstance can occur when not having Wi-Fi or Ethernet drivers, you only want to have a local account, or just simply not having the access to an Internet connection. All are valid reasons and one should not require the Internet for a basic installation, but unfortunately Microsoft has chosen push for people to have an Internet connection and a Microsoft account. As a result this has made it not easily apparent on how to achieve an installation without an Internet connection and a Microsoft account. This decision has gone so far that it is implied there is no way around it when seeing a screen display a message saying “Oops, you’ve lost Internet connection” or “Let’s connect you to a network”. Fear not though, there is a way and I will show you how to do this quickly and easily so you end up with a clean installation of Windows 11 without a Microsoft account and an explanation of how the solution works.

Environment

Tested using the following.

• Windows 11 23H2 x64 v2

Problem

Cannot install Windows 11 without an Internet connection.

Solution - TLDR

For those well experienced and that want the “Too long; Didn’t Read” (TLDR) answer.

1. At the “Oops, you’ve lost internet connection” or “Let’s connect you to a network” screen, press Shift + F10.

   

2. At the command prompt type, OOBE\BYPASSNRO and press the Enter key to bypass the required Internet connection.

   The system will restart automatically, and the out-of-box experience (OOBE) will start again.

3. Select the region or country then click the “Yes” button.
4. Select the keyboard layout or input method and then click the “Yes” button.
5. Click the “Skip” button if you do not need to configure a second layout.

6. Click on “I don’t have internet”.

   

7. Click on “Continue with limited setup”.

   

Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the installation.

Solution - All Steps

The following steps illustrate what steps are required in order to Install Windows 11 without an Internet connection and Microsoft account.

1. Start the system with the Windows 11 USB flash drive.
2. Press any key to continue.

3. Select language, time and currency, keyboard or input method then click the “Next” button.

   

4. Click the “Install now” button.

5. Enter the product key or click on the “I don’t have a product key” option to deal with later.

   

6. Select the edition of “Windows 11” associated to the license key (if applicable).

   

7. Check the “I accept the license terms” option and click the “Next” button.

   

8. Select the “Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)” option.

9. Select each partition in the hard drive you want to install Windows 11 and click the “Delete” button.

   The “Drive 0” is usually the drive that contains all the installation files. Deleting partitions will not be required on an unused storage drive.

10. Select the hard drive (Drive 0 Unallocated Space) to install Windows 11 and click the “Next” button.

    

11. After the installation select the region or country then click the “Yes” button.

    

12. Select the keyboard layout or input method and then click the “Yes” button.
13. Click the “Skip” button if you do not need to configure a second layout.

14. At the “Oops, you’ve lost internet connection” or “Let’s connect you to a network” screen, press Shift + F10.

    

15. At the command prompt, type OOBE\BYPASSNRO and press the Enter key to bypass the required Internet connection.

    The system will restart automatically, and the out-of-box experience (OOBE) will start again.

16. Select the region or country then click the “Yes” button.
17. Select the keyboard layout or input method and then click the “Yes” button.
18. Click the “Skip” button if you do not need to configure a second layout.

19. Click on “I don’t have internet”.

    

20. Click on “Continue with limited setup”.

    

21. Enter the name of the local default account and click the “Next” button.
22. Enter a password for the local account and click the “Next” button.
23. Enter the password again to confirm and click the “Next” button.
24. Select and complete the three security questions to recover the account and click the “Next” button.
25. Choose to whether to share your location then click the “Accept” button.
26. Choose to use find my device and then click the “Accept” button.
27. Chose to share diagnostic data with Microsoft then click the “Accept” button.
28. Choose to improve inking and typing then click the “Accept” button.
29. Choose to get tailored experiences with diagnostic data then click the “Accept” button.
30. Choose to allow apps to use advertising identifier then click the “Accept” button.

You will now see the Windows 11 desktop.

What Does BypassNRO Do?

When the command OOBE\BYPASSNRO is executed it runs “C:\Windows\System32\oobe\BypassNRO.cmd”. When examining the file the first line turns off the command echoing feature. The second line, queries for the registry key “BypassNRO” found at the location of “HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE”, sets the datatype to “REG_DWORD” and sets the value without confirmation prompt to “1”. The third line restarts the computer system immediately after shutdown.

Here is what the “BypassNRO.cmd” command file contains.

1
2
3

@echo off
reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
shutdown /r /t 0

This is post 7 of 31 of the Weblog Posting Month 2024 (WeblogPoMo2024) challenge.