March 2025 update: no@thankyou.com may no longer work, but there is a newly discovered method for bypassing the Microsoft account requirement on a new Windows setup. If you don’t want to cooperate with giving over your Microsoft account credentials, here are the steps & details (which I have just tested and confirmed!) to log in with a local Windows account:
When booting into the Windows 11 for the first time, you will likely come to this type of screen:
Press Shift + F10 on the keyboard to open a DOS prompt window:
Click one time in that DOS window, just to make sure your focus is in the right place. And then type the following line of text:
start ms-cxh:localonly
Press Enter and a new intro screen will appear, over top of the old windows. This one, however, will allow you to create your user account without the email requirement.
And this local account also does not require that you set a password. You may leave these passwords fields blank, if you wish.
If you click Next on that screen, the Windows setup will finish surprisingly fast and bring you to the Windows desktop. It is so fast, because this process also skips the lengthy Windows Updates that auto-install on a new system.
May 2024 Update: Microsoft is updating Windows 11 to disregard “no@thankyou.com”. If you attempt this trick on a new Win11 PC, it will no longer work! But it should still work on Windows 10, if you should have to reinstall or reset an older system.
If you want to use your Windows 11 computer without a Microsoft account, your easiest way forward is to sign in with a Microsoft account, and then later switch to a local account with these steps. I will update this post if the situation develops further.
September 2022, original post: When first turning on a new PC, you’ll field a few basic questions before meeting the demand that you use a Microsoft account. And while there are some benefits to doing so, not everyone wants to do that. Some people just want to keep their email and other info to themselves. If this is your preference, then you need to know about “no@thankyou.com“.
Windows 11 is very forceful about getting everyone to use a Microsoft account. If you are sitting at a Sign In screen on your new PC, you probably will see no way around it. Here’s how to bypass this requirement:
In the field asking for an email, phone or Skype, type in no@thankyou.com
Click Next and the next screen will ask for password entry. Type anything you want (it doesn’t matter) in the field and click the Sign In button.
You will get an error because the sign-in attempt failed. And on the next screen, you’ll be asked “Who’s going to use this device?” Simply type in any name you wish, and you won’t be asked again for a Microsoft account!
After entering your name, you will be asked to supply a password. This can be anything you want, short or long. Or you can even leave it blank (if you don’t want a password on your computer).
Password Caveats
If you choose to setup your computer with no password, please understand that this makes your computer usable by anyone who touches it. This may be perfectly fine, in a secure household with trusted family members. You would not want to do this if you have naughty children or devious roommates.
If you set any kind of password on this final screen, you have got to be extra-careful. Be accurate with your typing and never lose this password! This is a local password, which means you cannot reset it on the Microsoft website. It is stored only on the hard drive. If you forget this password, then your computer will be completely unusable until you erase it and reinstall Windows!
This, as of today when I tried it, causes a BSOD of death, time for a new work around. =(
Sorry to hear that, but I’ve also used it today on a few new computers, and it worked as well as it always has for me. Perhaps there’s something amiss with your computer?