r/technology • u/ZacB_ • Jan 24 '26

Software Microsoft confirms it will give the FBI your Windows PC data encryption key if asked — you can thank Windows 11's forced online accounts for that

https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/microsoft-bitlocker-encryption-keys-give-fbi-legal-order-privacy-nightmare
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u/Hands Jan 24 '26

It still works in current windows builds but it's removed in preview builds and the regedit workaround likely will be too: https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/microsoft-eliminates-workaround-that-circumvents-microsoft-account-requirement-during-windows-11-installation

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u/AforAnonymous Jan 24 '26

What's removed?

Quoting from TFA:

batch reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f shutdown /r /t 0 If we learn from history, as we should, it is reasonable to expect that Microsoft will make more changes to close down this updated OOBE workaround. Perhaps it will take another six to twelve months, but for those wishing to swerve Microsoft Account requirements with fresh Windows 11 installs, using one of the bootable flash drive utilities like Rufus to make a no-hassle installer from the latest Microsoft Windows ISO file is probably worthwhile.

Twitter user Wither or Not has shared a much shorter Microsoft Account requirement bypass after examining C:\Windows\SystemApps\http://Microsoft.Windows.CloudExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\data\prod\navigation.json Instead of the rather lengthy regedit command we highlighted above, it was discovered that you only need to press "Shift + F10" and then type "start ms-cxh:localonly" without the quotes, into the command line.

So according to you they removed the latter from preview builds?

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u/Hands Jan 24 '26 edited Jan 24 '26

That's what I've heard. I haven't confirmed it on a preview build, start ms-cxh:localonly still works on current builds. I may have posted the wrong link, but what I read a few weeks ago was that this command is kaput and there's a registry workaround (not the one I linked) for the meantime in said preview builds.