Setting up Windows 11 with a Local User at First Boot

I like to make sure there is a back door to my PC, just in case something goes wrong with my main account. Sometimes my main account is a domain account, sometimes a local account, and sometimes a Microsoft account. In all cases, I want to start out with a local administrative user that can get me out of trouble down the road. I don’t care if this is considered best practice or not, because I have been doing this for 21 years, and it has never put me in the news, so I am good with it. If you are in a highly-regulated environment, this is probably no good, but that is very few of us.

Windows 11 is actually EASIER than Windows 10 when it comes to starting out your fresh computer with a local account. I read all the stories about how they don’t let you do that, but at the time of this writing, that is not true at all. The key seems to be that, upon first boot, when it asks you to connect to a wireless network (this is assuming you are using WiFi, which most people are at this point in time) you can connect to your network, but make sure to tell it not to remember the network. After the computer reboots shortly after that, it will simply ask you who is going to use the computer. This is where I recommend using a username and password that you will keep locked up in your lockbox, and use a different account that you will set up later.

Once you are in, you can connect to your wifi again (and have it automatically reconnect), then click on the gear icon to go to your Settings, then find the Accounts area, and add a “Family and other users” account. That will let you add another local account, which once set up, you can then click on and make it an administrative account, so you can install software and printers and whatnot without needing the original credentials you just set up. Or, you can choose to Sign in with a Microsoft Account. This SHOULD leave your existing user intact and set you up to log in as your Microsoft user. It MAY decide to convert your local account to your Microsoft account, which would make me sad, but honestly, I have not tried it, so I am not sure.

Also of note, I can’t imagine that this will not change within 6 months. You might still be able to do it, but the process could change. That is a hallmark of Microsoft, and we just have to live with it. There are other articles out there with all sorts of information on how to do this that are much more complicated. And, if you did not set it up this way out of the box, you will need them, or, you can always add a local account later and ignore the one you started with. As an IT guy that is doing this for others, I like to have the machine be as clean as possible, with as few accounts on it as possible.

So, sometimes when you are extremely familiar with something, it can be hard to remember that others may not be. That is the case for the following two items of which I am about to write. And, I write about these things not to shame anyone or make someone feel foolish, but to educate. For, as someone once said, “Fool me once… shame on you. Fool me… can’t get fooled again.”

Queue

Fine word, dumb spelling. I think most people know what the word means when they hear it, but when faced with it on screen or on paper, they panic. They feel that it can’t possibly be correct that you pronounce the word correctly by saying just the first letter. And really, what is the point of the second “ue?” If the word stopped at “Que,” I think we would all do just fine. To back me up, you can listen to a robot lady say the word here.

So anyway, it is pronounced “kyoo.” It is not pronounced “kwee,” or “kweh-weh,” or “kway,” so don’t say those things aloud. In your head is fine, but out loud, “kyoo.”

Ellipsis

So, this one is even harder, and I often use the plural when I should use the singular. The thing this word refers to is not the geometry thing, which is spelled “ellipse,” and refers to conic sections. An ellipsis is three periods. It means that something has been left out, like in a quote you would read in a news story. I used them in the quote above, somewhat erroneously, although not necessarily. In the quote in the first paragraph, what I left out were the awkward pauses that occurred in delivery of the words in a speech. I do that often in writing to indicate a pause that would occur if I were talking. I don’t think that it is quite correct to do that, but I don’t care because I think it makes people read what I am writing in the way I would like them to. Also, I am not in school anymore and will not receive poor marks on a test.

Now, the computer tie-in is that Microsoft loves to use the ellipsis in SharePoint, which is why I need to refer to them almost daily. If you store a file in SharePoint, at the right side of the space where the filename appears, there will be an ellipsis indicating that there is more ‘stuff’ you can do. In their infinite wisdom, the ‘stuff’ you get to next is never the ‘stuff’ you want, so you need to click on another ellipsis to get to the good ‘stuff.’ So, in SharePoint, there are two ellipsis, or to use the plural, there are ellipses, that you need to be aware of and use.

At any rate, I have found that most people are not aware of what the word for those three little dots are. Now, you have perhaps been made aware, and can lord it over your friends. I suggest you get started now.

Summary

Let’s all just get back to work and not worry about any of this, shall we?

Apparently, Microsoft Office products that you run per an Office 365 subscription are deciding that they are not licensed. There is a fixit out there for it, and I had a client run it, and it seems to have done nothing. My guess is, it was because he had not closed all Microsoft applications prior to running it. Anyway, the following (lifted from SpiceWorks) worked, so I am posting it here, mostly so I do not forget how to do this next time.

1. Make sure all Office programs are closed. This will ensure the script runs properly.
2. Open the Command Prompt as Administrator.
3. Navigate to the Office Installation folder %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office15\.
4. Run “cscript ospp.vbs /act”.

I opened up an Office product and all was well.

I hate to be the guy that tells you how the magician does the ‘magic,’ but there is a secret in the I.T. community, and I can’t hold it in any longer. This is going to shock the world, but here goes: I.T. people don’t know the answer to every computer question within 5 seconds of being asked. Shocked? Appalled? Well I’m not even finished. Here is bomb number two: when we don’t know the answer to something, we Google it. All of us. Are you still standing? Pining for the fjords? I’ve got one more to lay on you: you can use Google too. It’s free, and lots of times, it gives you the answer to your question in the first result. I know, I know, MIND. BLOWN.

Now, I know that sometimes when it comes to computer stuff, the answer isn’t always much help unless you have ensconced yourself in the digital milieu, but give it a shot. And, as an added bonus, Google can tell you things about non-computer things too, like dirt, bibs or even wax. So get out there, and start spending more time on the Internet!

I would like to save you some time. When you have a problem, reboot and see if it goes away. And I am not talking soley about computers. Phones too. Shut them down, all the way down, then start them again. Your car. Weird noise? Turn off the car, then turn it on again. Yourself. Go take a nap, then get up and try again. There is almost nothing in life that is not made better by rebooting.