Submitted 6 days ago by Tea@programming.dev to technology@lemmy.world
We’re removing the bypassnro.cmd script from the build to enhance security and user experience of Windows 11. This change ensures that all users exit setup with internet connectivity and a Microsoft Account.
Any windows fanboy cares to explain how this supposedly enhances a user’s security?
The spin on requiring an internet connection being phrased as ‘ensures all users exit setup with internet connectivity’ is amazing too.
Not wanting to seem like a windows fanboi in the slightest, but… I guess they’re saying that if you log in to your windows box using their cloud authentication, then they can better protect your account, force regular password changes, force password complexity requirements… and because they’re in a position to see all auth attempts against that account, they can react to attacks… having said that. a lot of those advantages go away if you’re not actually connected to the internet… but then, you also lose automatic updates… it’s a difficult question… I can see how it could be better for a non computer-savvy user to log in using a microsoft account, but that also makes is worse and more frustrating for advanced users who don’t want to touch microsoft’s cloud at all. I guess they made the decision based on what was better for the majority of users.
That’s what they’re saying - it’s not true, but it is what they’re saying.
then they can better protect your account, force regular password changes, force password complexity requirements…
if that was the goal, they wouldn’t be saying on the password input screen to “choose the most simple password”, and especially they wouldn’t accept that field to be left blank
if you are not logged in, they can’t setup onedrive to automatically steal all pictures and documents of the unsuspecting user, and they can’t setup bitlocker with a cloud key that they could use to lock you out of all your data when they think so
Thank you
Y’all is this true:
No one would accidentally enter the special anti-spyware command so they’re screwing the 1% who are privacy hawks without benefiting the 99% who were already dark patterned into online accounts.
It’s double speak.
It’s like when they say “We value your privacy” it really means “Selling your data is worth a lot of money/value to me”.
“User Security” means “We want to secure customers/users for our cloud services by forcing a login to a microsoft account”
It increases security ^of the Microsoft share price^
I just bypass the requirement by installing Linux Mint instead
I did the same on my media center mini PC. Any idea how to check/enable HDR?
The answer is a bit complicated. Linux has a long history with HDR where you would need exact software and hardware, or else no HDR… Just know that it will get easier because the ball has already started to roll in the correct direction.
But the shortest way I can say it now,
If you use Valve’s game mode, (which is possible to get either using steamos, bazzite, chimera OS, nobara, or you can manually set it up. You should be able to get it to work. This should work for windows games that support HDR. AFAIK there are no Linux games yet supporting HDR. It should be possible to get videos playing with HDR also, but that would be an exercise for the reader, or wait until people make it easier.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but I currently believe the newest version, of KDE and Gnome are now HDR ready. If I am wrong you might just need the newest beta which will become stable Q2 this year.
Playing videos, I believe the newest version of MPV just got HDR support. With more apps incoming.
Anything that let’s a gamepad or a remote browse your videos? AFAIK not yet, but be patient, as this is all new
What is hdr and why do people care about it?
You’ll want to not use cinnamon for HDR, cinnamon is not going to get it for a very long time, KDE is a much more up to date environment and it works mostly out of the box on the most recent versions.
HDR is kinda complicated right now.
As it stands, it’s only available on the Plasma and Gnome desktop environments.
The HDR stack on Linux has went through a lot of change recently, and much of the stack has only just been finalised/standardised. It’ll take a while to mature, and to arrive on distros like Mint.
The command OOBE\bypassnro (.cmd) one types into the command prompt (after opening it with Shift+F10) for the bypass is the location of a batch file they will be removing. You can still do whatever it’s doing (adding a registry key and restarting) by typing the command manually or providing a copy of the file on a USB drive. After a restart, the OS will check for the registry key AND lack of internet connection to provide the local account option.
For the record, the contents of the file are
@echo off reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG\_DWORD /d 1 /f shutdown /r /t 0
Rufus has an option to auto add this for you when building a bootable drive. Works great.
Still using Rufus? Ventoy is the way of the future. One USB, hundreds of ISOs.
Until they remove checking that reg key from all versions other than maybe enterprise. If they decide that running windows requires an MS online account, they can keep bumping up the difficulty of running it without whenever they want.
They are keeping around so many deprecated features for internal use and whatnot, I would be surprised if they did remove this registry check.
Until Windows 12 is released, you can always use an old ISO and then update to the newest version.
Thank you! I’ve bookmarked this for next time I have a Windows reinstall! Hoping it still works then…
I’ve got my first son or daughter on the way, I’m thinking they might be learning Linux as their first OS
Uh… what? They only thing they have in common is following the POSIX standard. The moment you step outside of that POSIX lowest common denominator, it becomes abundantly clear just how different they are.
I mean compared to some elements of windows, yeah Linux is more similar to macos. But compared to other elements of macos, Linux is more similar to windows. But to say it’s super similar to either one in particular is kind of missing what makes each of them what they are.
Macos and Linux skills and fluency aren’t significantly more transferable than between Linux and Windows. They’re three pieces of software that ultimately try to do the same thing, but go about it in drastically different ways. There are only so many ways from your house to the grocery store, so some of them are bound to cross.
The only difference I see both try to follow posix macos follows the unix specification linux doesn’t and that’s about it
I put this in another thread: It’s not a big deal. They’re removing the bypassnro.cmd script, which is just this:
@echo off
reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
shutdown /r /t 0
You can still use shift-F10 at the same point, type those two lines (not the @ECHO OFF), and it will achieve the same result.
I will copypaste your comment next time people complain linux is hard to learn.
It’s actually so bad lol. Idk what Microsoft has against - for args but it’s fuckn annoying
if someone says linux is hard to learn, that person isn’t making regestry edits.
That said, windows used to be intuitive, but they peaked with xp and it’s been a downhill slide since.
So you’re telling me 2% of new Window’s users won’t be forced to make an account? Neat!
This is not about the technically savvy. The populace is being conditioned into not owning what they purchase. This will in turn make everyone’s life worse.
Ultimately this change, while frustrating, probably doesn’t change the initial value for those who fit these two categories:
These people were already going to go out of their way to use the OOBE bypass. They still will. This is no more effort thanbit already was.
Microsoft crossed the line already by disallowing offline account creation through their default setup process.
A bitch to remember compared to the bypassnro though.
You know, if you copied those three lines into a text file, then saved it as bypassnro.cmd, you’ll have solved that problem.
upvoted for visibility.
Its not a big deal the same way cancelling adobe subscription is not a big deal.
I have to have Windows, a VM at least, for reasons.
A nameless install, decrapified with [Chris Titus’ decrapifier, installer and streamliner script]((christitus.com/windows-tool/) is actually decent
I mean, not really. You had to open command prompt anyways. The command is just a bit different now. There’s no monetary penalty here, just a few more keystrokes.
start ms-cxh:localonly
This will be the year of the Linux desktop.
Funny u say that, I’ve switched! 🐧
One of us!
I personally know three, myself included, who are switching right now.
If Microsoft keeps fucking up at every turn, it seems like at some point the only thing that’ll keep them afloat is workplace/education investments in their environment. Seems like they’re even losing their grip on being the default OS preinstalled on non-apple PC hardware and the advantage that provided.
bypassw11.exe
Microsoft it the best ad for linux.
Fix:
open this site: schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/
check your options that you like
download your xml
download win 11 iso
put on stick with the downloaded xml file
install win 11
profit
I’ve had issues with the installer from 24H2 for my unattended. I had to use the previous versions installer and installed the 24H2 ISO.
L I N U X
1000 percent. I did this for myself a year ago and haven’t looked back.
I did 6 months back to linux mint. The experience is smooth
Are people shocked that windows keeps removing things that allow the os to be usable and debloated?
Copilot recording your screen will be a non optional feature before win11 is over.
This change ensures that all users exit setup with internet connectivity
And what if someone doesn’t have internet connectivity?
no computer for you
But then how we can put advertisements in the Start Menu, and spy on them once our Project2025 overlords want the general populous to be fully committed to extremist christianity 24/7?
ive been on windows all my life but as of last week it’s the first time that ive had zero windows machines in my life since i installed linux mint on them. ive never been happier.
Wow for some reason that’s weirdly attractive.
as soon as i had arch linux set up in the bathroom i sat down to take a wet crap and said ooooh god yea FRRSSHHHFFTTGTTTBBLPP fuuuuuck yeah that’s good
Seems an alternative, easier method was found: windowscentral.com/…/an-even-better-microsoft-acc…
Relevant part:
But fret not, as a new, perhaps better bypass has already been discovered that still uses the command prompt (which you can open with Shift + F10) and makes skipping the Microsoft Account sign-in step a total breeze.
Discovered by user @witherornot1337 on X, typing “start ms-cxh:localonly” into the command prompt during the Windows 11 setup experience will allow you to create a local account directly without needing to skip connecting to the internet first.
Shit like that has to be a leak, idk how else you’d just pull that out of one’s ass.
“The bypass uses a CXH (cloud experience host) URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) string during the OOBE to invoke the hidden local account setup screen.” this had to be data mined or something yeah.
How the hell are we supposed to install it without a Internet connection? I worked in a company that was so hard on security that only certified machines were allowed access to the net, so virtual machines were not allowed to access the LAN and therefore the Internet. Generally not a problem as we just used them to test software on different OS versions, so no Internet required.
This change disallows all offline installs. What is their gain? Are they that keen on our data or are they planning to use the connection to a Microsoft account for something even worse than just selling personal information? I could think of a few reasons and none are nice…
They are indeed just that keen on our data.
They know they can’t get rid of it for all of their customers, but they do want to make it as hard as possible for random users to do so.
I’M OKAY WITH MAKING A WINDOWS ACCOUNT. I’M JUST NOT OKAY WITH MY ~/ PATH BEING C:/Users/Jacobuedhbcuycbdhh55674c4bhdncy6448774/ THIS CAN BE FIXED BY CREATING A LOCAL USER AND THEN SIGNING IN
A few weeks ago I helped one my client’s employees set up their brand new laptop, which came with Win11 installed, of course. They just need it for basic work stuff and there’s no chance in hell anything other than Windows is a viable option here.
We work remotely so I would help them get set up to a point where they could at least share their screen to me, or I could take over via remote access myself. I just needed to guide them through the steps “blind” for a short while.
So we go through the Windows 11 first time setup together. All seems to go ok until Windows asks them to log into their MS account or create one. No problem, we should be able to do that, right? Only that we can’t. We’re connected to the WiFi, etc., yet they get some generic ass error message like “Sorry, something went wrong” and that’s that.
Ok, so we can’t log in with an online account. Let’s try offline as a fallback! We set the username, password… “Sorry, something went wrong” again. I don’t use Windows myself, I’ve been a Linux user for years now, I don’t have any freaking clue how to remotely diagnose an vague issue that literally prevents them from getting the laptop to a functional state. So I Google the problem and the recommended answer is to run this magic “bypassnro” command. It will cut all the mandatory online account bullshit, move straight to a reliable offline account setup screen, and allow us to, you know, actually do work? And it worked!
If I hadn’t had that command at my disposal, that I had to use to work around Microsoft’s broken ass setup UX, I would’ve probably spent twice or three times longer coaching my non-tech-savvy client through booting into fail safe mode and doing all kinds of arcane sysadmin shit that I don’t even have to ever think about in Linux. All this just to get them into the desktop.
And Microsoft have decided to take it away. Nice one.
Great even more reasons to avoid it
windows is not user friendly
I feel like this won’t stop anyone who was already refusing to use a Microsoft account for windows. Anyone who was already bypassing the account requirement will still do so, it just will be more difficult. They’ve accomplished nothing except further pissing off some of their most competent user base.
More and more people just need to switch to Linux and grow the userbase so more and more proprietary software create Linux builds just like how Maya and Davinci Resolve are available for Linux. If your computer is a web browser, you should be on Linux. Firefox, Chrome, Edge are all on Linux
If you’re a casual photo editor, Darktable. A casual photo editor can probably be well served with GIMP or Krita. If you’re a web browser and digital painter Krita. If you edit videos, Davinci Resolve and Kdenlive. Office - OnlyOffice, Libre office, WPS Office
Just another reason to switch to Linux
Didn’t Microsoft do the same thing with Windows 10 and EU prevented that?
So happy that I switched to linux. Microsoft has been one of the main forces of enshitification of the world. Fuck em. I cant play a bunch of games with my friends anymore, and I have to learn a few new CAD programs, which is like 10 thousand hours of work that I am flushing down the toilet. Worth it.
Apple does this.
Microsoft is now doing this.
I wonder how long until Google start doing it with Android 🤔
This future is so fucking dystopian
W10 LTSC has support until 2032 😎
I use that command partially because Microsoft accounts don’t allow passwords as long as the password I like to use for my PC
It is insecure to create one account with username and password during the setup process. The password should always come from your password manager. But you would not have access to your password manager during the installation process.
Please remove this step.
Fuck Microsoft! Use Linux Mint
TwinTitans@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Just one more reason to skip Windows 11…
Draegur@lemm.ee 6 days ago
every passing day i feel increasingly gratified to have switched my previously win11 laptop to linux mint. aside from the sheer principle of microsoft being ass, i also fucking despise all of windows’ AI bullshit. Fuck copilot for eternity.
Arghblarg@lemmy.ca 6 days ago
Just be sure to check support before buying any newish laptop. I really like my ASUS Duo Pro 2024, but ASUS adamantly refuses to lift a finger for proper Linux support for special features. Even the audio chipset which is standard somehow doesn’t work with default kernels due to something they’ve done. Dual screen can be made to work with some scripting-fu, but the keyboard’s multimedia keys just don’t work at all.
Vote with your wallets and be noisy to those brands who don’t support Linux well. Let them know if lack of Linux support was why you didn’t buy.
Bunbury@feddit.nl 6 days ago
I tried setting up a dual boot Mint next to my Win 11 last night. Just so I can experiment with getting all the (replacement) programs of my Win 11 install to work on there… froze during install and was busy for hours getting my boot files for Win 11 back.
I’m not a technical genius or anything and now I’m scared to try again. I assume it’s way easier if I would just rip the bandaid off and do it in one go. Sadly too much relies on me still being able to use the computer close to the way I could before. Ah well. Another day, another chance to nuke the boot files.
BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 6 days ago
FTFY
3dmvr@lemm.ee 6 days ago
I like seeing these posts, non issue now that im on linux, need more ppl to swap to help the piracy ecosystem
Halliphax@lemmy.world 6 days ago
I’m waiting for things like HDR to work properly on Linux - once it’s as easy to mod and play games on Linux as it is Windows I’ll be making the jump.
pogmommy@lemmy.ml 6 days ago
Lots of the most best tools for desktop Linux are free and open source, so you really don’t need to pirate desktop software. As far as multimedia goes, I generally find it much easier to sail the seas on Linux as opposed to Windows where everything felt hacky and difficult to isolate.
AdamBomb@lemmy.sdf.org 5 days ago
My hardware refresh came up this year. The asked for a MacBook instead of a windows laptop for the first time in my long career. Linux isn’t an option at my org yet.
TwinTitans@lemmy.world 5 days ago
If you have the money to drop on a Mac it’s definitely better, but there’s a bit more work to get games going. So if you play games elsewhere a Mac is to easy to recommend.
lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 days ago
My work laptop has W11. It’s…fine. But I don’t have to manage it, so… ¯\(°_o)/¯
I had W11 on my personal gaming PC for a total of 6 months before I got fed up with it. Running W10 until I make sure it’ll run everything I need it to on Linux Mint (LMDE).