It’s been a few years since I’ve needed to install a version of Windows on a PC for personal use. I have a license for Windows 10 Pro, but today I found out it is no longer possible to get through the installation without first creating an account with Microsoft.

I don’t want to do this. Does anybody have any way to get around it? The stuff I’ve read online basically ends up being create your account switch to a local account after installation and delete your account. I want a better solution. Would installing a much older version of Windows 10 work? The whole reason I got an msdn license back in the day is so I didn’t have to do this.

Edit: 10/2/2023

I thank you all for giving me advice and ideas. Much I had already tried before posting my question here, and some suggestions and experiences led me to keep at it. Here’s my experience for others who have a similar problem.

I downloaded the ISO from Microsoft - Win10_22H2_English_x64v1. I used Ventoy to launch the installer. The first time I went through, I connected to Wi-Fi. As soon as I did that, it sealed my fate. By this time in the process, it installed the boot partition on my HD and saved this information so every time I tried to restart the installer, it always went through language, keyboard, then “enter email address”. All the suggestions for fake values simply triggered “This email is already used. Please choose another”, and that was it.

I was getting ready to wipe the partition and try again, but decided to turn off Wi-Fi in the BIOS first to see if that worked. It did. This time it tried to convince me to set up the network and failed and I was able to create a local account.

The way this multi-version installer works is annoying. It installed Windows Home edition, so I had to “know” that I could go to settings and enter a key. Once I put in the key, it “upgraded” to Pro edition, and I was done.

Next time I have to do this, I’ll see if Rufus works. It seems that will remove some annoyance. Either way, I will avoid configuring Wi-Fi until after install next time. I gotta say, I am not looking forward to the day when I must upgrade to Windows 11. So far I’ve been able to avoid actually buying a new copy due to my aging MSDN key. By the time I’m forced to “upgrade”, I might have to cough up some cash for something I don’t want, but am forced to own.

It should be illegal.

Anyway, now that I know I can still use my MSDN key to get an updated Win 10, I feel a bit more comfortable with re-imaging my Dell laptop from dual-boot to Linux only, then install Windows as a VM for these times I need to use it. Fortunately, that is increasingly rare.

  • Brickfrog
    19•1 year ago

    Hmm on the last few installs I’ve done (both Win 10 and 11) I just lead the installation to believe I’ll be doing a corporate/domain install & it always lets me create a normal user/password after that. Not necessary to unplug any ethernet/internet or anything of the sort.

    It’s always worked for me both at work and at home.

    Just to be sure, I spun up a virtual machine to install Windows 10 22H2, here are the steps I went through:

    1. Boot into the Windows 10 installer, jump into the installer & run through all the initial install steps until we get to the OOBE (Windows 10 out-of-box-experience post installer)
    2. Select your Region, click Yes
    3. Select your Keyboard Layout, click Yes
    4. Skip Second Keyboard Layout (unless you want one)
    5. Let it keep going, it might restart (mine did)
    6. At the Account screen select Set Up For An Organization then click Next
    7. At the “Sign In With Microsoft” screen select “Domain join instead”
    8. At the “What name do you want to use?” screen enter your new Windows user account name and click Next
    9. At the Password screen enter a password for your Windows user account and click Next
    10. Re-enter your password and click Next
    11. Set up a security question/answer - Or do like I do & fake them all e.g. select a security question then enter random gibberish alphanumeric text - and click Next
    12. (do the same for all 3 security questions)
    13. Select your Privacy settings then click Accept
    14. Accept or skip any customizations you want (I usually Skip)
    15. For Cortana you can click “Not Now” or “Accept” up to you

    Done! You now installed Windows 10 Pro without a Microsoft Account.

    • @MasterBlasterOP
      3•1 year ago

      6-8 is not a choice I am given. The installer for Windows 10 is a “multi-release” package. It contains all the distributions, so I cannot download the “pro” version or the “home” version.

      • Brickfrog
        3•1 year ago

        Just to be sure, did you download some strange version of the .iso from some non-official source? Or did you modify your Windows install in some way?

        And you’re definitely selecting to install Windows 10 Pro, not something else?

        I assumed you downloaded the generic .iso direct from Microsoft at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 like most people do. (you can use the browser trick to get the page to give you .iso download options e.g. in Chrome I just hit F12, set the dimensions to something mobile looking, hit F5 to refresh the page, then go ahead & download the .iso)

        The generic .iso is indeed a multi with the download option named “Windows 10 (multi-edition ISO)”, that itself doesn’t affect any of the steps above.

        Then just use Rufus or similar to create a bootable USB with it.

        • @MasterBlasterOP
          1•1 year ago

          I installed the most recent installer from microsoft. There’s only one and it covers all the versions.

          Earlier today I managed to get it to work by turning off Wi-Fi in BIOS. I’m going to put a brief writeup as an edit to my original message sometime in the next several hours.

        • @MasterBlasterOP
          1•1 year ago

          It does not. Once installed, I can “upgrade” by entering my license key. I will write the details as an edit soon.

        • @MasterBlasterOP
          1•1 year ago

          It did not. Whoops - I already answered this :)