During the installation of Windows 11, an internet connection is required at the OOBE stage to successfully complete the process of setting up your system. That said, PC users can easily install Windows 11 on a device without an internet connection and still complete the OOBE (Out Of Box Experience) setup – this can be done as described below, whether you are setting up Windows 11 Pro or Windows 11 Home.
With this development, during the setup, if Windows detects that the device isn’t connected to the internet, you will get the page with the following message;
Oops, you’ve lost internet connection page. Let’s go back and connect to your network again.
If you click the Retry button, you will get a prompt to connect to the internet. In earlier releases, you would be able to easily skip this requirement and continue offline with a local account, but with future updates of Windows 11, this will no longer be the case. So, for PC users who may not have an internet connection at the time of the installation or want a more traditional offline experience without further ado, let’s jump right into it.
Use Command Prompt to bypass internet connection
To use Command Prompt to bypass the internet connection stage of the Windows 11 setup is slightly simpler and straightforward. To do this, begin the normal process of clean installing Windows 11 and then follow these instructions:
- Boot the PC with the Windows 11 USB flash drive.
- Press any key to continue.
- Click the Next button.
- Click the Install now button.
- Next, click the I don’t have a product key option if performing a reinstall.
If Windows was already activated after the installation, reactivation would happen automatically.
- Next, select the Windows 11 Edition that your license key activates (if applicable).
- Check the I accept the license terms option.
- Click the Next button.
- Select the Custom: Install Windows only (advanced) option.
- Select each partition in the hard drive (usually, the Drive 0 is the drive that contains all the installation files) you want to install Windows 11.
- Click the Delete button.
- Next, select the hard drive (Drive 0 Unallocated Space) to install Windows 11.
- Click the Next button.
- After the installation, on the OOBE first page, select your region setting.
- Click the Yes button.
- Select your keyboard layout setting.
- Click the Yes button.
- Click the Skip button if you do not need to configure a second layout.
- Now, on the Oops, you’ve lost internet connection or Let’s connect you to a network page, press the Shift + F10 keyboard shortcut to invoke Command Prompt.
- In Command Prompt, type the command below and hit Enter bypass network requirements on Windows 11:
OOBE\BYPASSNRO
The computer will restart automatically and the out-of-box experience (OOBE) will start again. You will need to select the region and keyboard settings one more time to get to the network connection page.
- To proceed this time, click the I don’t have internet option on the Let’s connect you to a network page.
- On the Connect now to quickly get started on your device page, click the Continue with limited setup option.
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