Windows 10 October 2018 Update (1809)
- Thread starter sswilson
- Start date
I'll have to do another install at some point with the network cable unplugged. I had it plugged in for an install I did today and there wasn't any option at all to do an install without a MS account. The reference to having to disable network cards was from something I read over the last couple of weeks that was related to the upcoming "update".
Yeah I wouldn't put it past them to require an internet connection to install now just to get around that "bypass".
This whole burying a local (or domain) install is BS at best. Seriously at the point where I would *pay* extra for a installer without Cortana, telementry, bundled apps and none of this jumping through hoops crap.
This whole burying a local (or domain) install is BS at best. Seriously at the point where I would *pay* extra for a installer without Cortana, telementry, bundled apps and none of this jumping through hoops crap.
Are you using Home? I decided to give it a whirl on a VM (v1903) and seeing the same thing, no options anymore for a local account. Even when you click more info, it says to just sign in with your MS account and you can remove it after
Looks like it would be best to install as Pro, it still has the "Offline Account" button. Then once you're in, you can put in your key and switch it back to Home.
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Yeah, this was an install using a W7 premium key which equates to W10 Home.
I'm curious what system builders do with this issue.... do you install using your creds, and then create a new full admin local account so that you can then completely remove the first one? Are they going to use throw-away accounts?
I'm curious what system builders do with this issue.... do you install using your creds, and then create a new full admin local account so that you can then completely remove the first one? Are they going to use throw-away accounts?
Actual OEM's have custom media that wouldn't do this, typically they build their own images anyhow and wouldn't apply it using the normal Windows Setup - likely cloned disks or some other toolset.
This will mostly solve it, just save it as "Autounattend.xml" in the root of your USB beside the setup.exe. Swap out the ProductKey if you need to install Pro instead and feel free to change the username to whatever you want. I put comments in the XML (orange on the dark theme) of where to make the changes.
It's setup for English (Canada) with US keyboard and the "ProtectYourPC" set to 3 is equal to not approving the "express" privacy settings so most things should be off.
XML:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
<settings pass="oobeSystem">
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<OOBE>
<HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage>
<HideLocalAccountScreen>true</HideLocalAccountScreen>
<HideOEMRegistrationScreen>true</HideOEMRegistrationScreen>
<HideOnlineAccountScreens>true</HideOnlineAccountScreens>
<HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>true</HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>
<ProtectYourPC>3</ProtectYourPC>
<UnattendEnableRetailDemo>false</UnattendEnableRetailDemo>
<SkipMachineOOBE>true</SkipMachineOOBE>
<SkipUserOOBE>true</SkipUserOOBE>
</OOBE>
<UserAccounts>
<LocalAccounts>
<LocalAccount wcm:action="add">
<!-- Change username if you wish! -->
<DisplayName>SuperUser</DisplayName>
<Name>SuperUser</Name>
<Group>Administrators</Group>
</LocalAccount>
</LocalAccounts>
</UserAccounts>
</component>
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<InputLocale>1009:00000409</InputLocale>
<SystemLocale>en-CA</SystemLocale>
<UILanguage>en-CA</UILanguage>
<UserLocale>en-CA</UserLocale>
</component>
</settings>
<settings pass="windowsPE">
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<SetupUILanguage>
<UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
</SetupUILanguage>
<InputLocale>1009:00000409</InputLocale>
<SystemLocale>en-CA</SystemLocale>
<UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
<UserLocale>en-CA</UserLocale>
</component>
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<UserData>
<ProductKey>
<!--
Home: YTMG3-N6DKC-DKB77-7M9GH-8HVX7
Pro: VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T
-->
<Key>YTMG3-N6DKC-DKB77-7M9GH-8HVX7</Key>
<WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
</ProductKey>
<AcceptEula>true</AcceptEula>
</UserData>
</component>
</settings>
</unattend>That'll result in a few screens, one to confirm the Windows 10 image selection, the usual disk partition screen, and lastly the logon screen where you'll be asked to set a password. Leave the first "password" field blank as there is none set, but enter your new password in the 2 fields below. You could also put your password into the XML, but that obviously is a bit of a security risk.
Voila! Semi-automated Windows install with a local account
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Actual OEM's have custom media that wouldn't do this, typically they build their own images anyhow and wouldn't apply it using the normal Windows Setup - likely cloned disks or some other toolset.
This will mostly solve it, just save it as "Autounattend.xml" in the root of your USB beside the setup.exe. Swap out the ProductKey if you need to install Pro instead and feel free to change the username to whatever you want. I put comments in the XML (orange on the dark theme) of where to make the changes.
It's setup for English (Canada) with US keyboard and the "ProtectYourPC" set to 3 is equal to not approving the "express" privacy settings so most things should be off.
XML:<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend"> <settings pass="oobeSystem"> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <OOBE> <HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage> <HideLocalAccountScreen>true</HideLocalAccountScreen> <HideOEMRegistrationScreen>true</HideOEMRegistrationScreen> <HideOnlineAccountScreens>true</HideOnlineAccountScreens> <HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>true</HideWirelessSetupInOOBE> <ProtectYourPC>3</ProtectYourPC> <UnattendEnableRetailDemo>false</UnattendEnableRetailDemo> <SkipMachineOOBE>true</SkipMachineOOBE> <SkipUserOOBE>true</SkipUserOOBE> </OOBE> <UserAccounts> <LocalAccounts> <LocalAccount wcm:action="add"> <!-- Change username if you wish! --> <DisplayName>SuperUser</DisplayName> <Name>SuperUser</Name> <Group>Administrators</Group> </LocalAccount> </LocalAccounts> </UserAccounts> </component> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <InputLocale>1009:00000409</InputLocale> <SystemLocale>en-CA</SystemLocale> <UILanguage>en-CA</UILanguage> <UserLocale>en-CA</UserLocale> </component> </settings> <settings pass="windowsPE"> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <SetupUILanguage> <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage> </SetupUILanguage> <InputLocale>1009:00000409</InputLocale> <SystemLocale>en-CA</SystemLocale> <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage> <UserLocale>en-CA</UserLocale> </component> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <UserData> <ProductKey> <!-- Home: YTMG3-N6DKC-DKB77-7M9GH-8HVX7 Pro: VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T --> <Key>YTMG3-N6DKC-DKB77-7M9GH-8HVX7</Key> <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI> </ProductKey> <AcceptEula>true</AcceptEula> </UserData> </component> </settings> </unattend>
That'll result in a few screens, one to confirm the Windows 10 image selection, the usual disk partition screen, and lastly the logon screen where you'll be asked to set a password. Leave the first "password" field blank as there is none set, but enter your new password in the 2 fields below. You could also put your password into the XML, but that obviously is a bit of a security risk.
Voila! Semi-automated Windows install with a local account
Thanks for that... saved and copied to my onedrive for the next install I do (I almost want to try a fresh one just to test it out... I've got a couple of spare mech drives here so maybe I will...
).If I'm understanding your directions correctly this doesn't require any actions from the user so long as it's placed in the root of an install USB created with the install media creation tool? The normal autoboot install function will just see it there and carry out these directions based on the name of the file?
Hrmmm..... can the product key just be left blank? I haven't bothered with a product key in ages... I just let windows activate it from the digital entitlement.
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Nothing special to do, as long as it's in the root of the USB. Even if you were installing from a DVD, you could have that Autounattend.xml on the root of a USB plugged in and it would read it.
That product key is equivalent to not entering one as it's the generic key that get's used when you say "I don't have a product key". I tried doing it without but then it doesn't seem to accept the Autounattend file at all.
That product key is equivalent to not entering one as it's the generic key that get's used when you say "I don't have a product key". I tried doing it without but then it doesn't seem to accept the Autounattend file at all.
