Forced to sign in to work or school account during setup

Anonymous
2022-05-30T11:19:29+00:00

Hi, I have been having this problem for months and communicating with Microsoft support, without much luck.

When I do a completely fresh installation of Windows 11 Pro (or Windows 10 Pro), including completely wiping my hard drives, I am forced to log in with a work or school account, and it shows the logo of the company that I work for. This happens after installation is complete and after the "Connecting to Microsoft" part of the OOBE. It then restarts and jumps straight to a "Let's get things set up for your work or school", with no way of choosing a personal account. This is a personal computer that belongs to me, it is not a corporate device and has never been registered as such. I have used the "Access work or school" option in the past to use this device with work resources under the bring-your-own-device policy.

This happens only if I install Pro. It happens regardless of whether or not I put a license key in during setup. It doesn't happen if I install Home - in this case I am allowed to log in with my personal account.

Does anybody know how I can stop this from happening?

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Install and upgrade

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Anonymous
2022-07-20T15:10:53+00:00

Hi everyone I believe I found the solution. I'm sure many of you noticed that when this occurs you actually don't pick which edition (figure 1) of Windows during the install. You need to get this screen to appear to solve the issue.

To get this window (figure 1) to appear in the installation process. You need to add a file to the bootable usb you've created for your install.

  1. Create a file in notepad (figure 2). This notepad file needs to look EXACTLY how it appears in figure 2 below. I've pasted the text below the figures for you to copy and paste.
  2. Now save the file in the appropriate location (use "Save as..." in the "File" drop down menu of notepad). Location is the BOOTABLE USB/sources (check figure 3 to see if you're in the appropriate area). NOTE you must name the file "ei.cfg" with the quotations and "Save as type:" should be selected to "All Files (*.*)"
  3. When completed your sources folder should look like figure 4. (note the order of the files is set to "Date modified"
  4. Now attempt the installation process of Windows again.

***This works for Windows 10 and Windows 11 installations. (I personally did this with Windows 11)

Credit and video (YouTube):

Video title: Fix Can’t Select Windows 10 Edition During Clean Installation

Creator: Britec09

Link to tutorial: https://youtu.be/xW5nDUbwTo4

***I would love to here if this solution work for anymore please me know it would mean a great deal to me

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

[EditionID]

Professional

[Channel]

Retail

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EmilyS_726 29,200 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2024-11-27T22:12:42+00:00

Please note - everyone's scenario can be unique and different, based on how the computer is set up. If the recommendation method doesn't work for yours, please start your own thread, so the troubleshooting can be unique to your specific scenario.

====================

For this OP, it looks like it is due to autopilot being deployed on their device. For this type of issue, a clean install is NOT going to help. The key here is the OOBE will display company name, that's the giveaway of autopilot. If you find yourself in that situation, it is usually because you got your computer used or is a refurbished model, and the previous business owner didn't deregister the device from their device management. If this is your case, only the former business IT, or registered reseller or OEM can remove it for you. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/autopilot/autopilot-motherboard-replacement 

However, you can manuplicate the .iso with the ei.cfg file to force the clean install to allow you to choose home edition, and install it as home edition so the autopilot will not work, because it requires Pro to work, in that case, make sure you home license.

Here is the instruction:

After you make the bootable flash drive with Windows media creation tool, On your computer, launch the Notepad app and place the following in the file:

[EditionID]

Core

[Channel]

Retail

Then choose Save As and choose file type "all ..", then save it as EI.cfg in the file name field. And then place this file in your flash drive under the \Sources folder.

=======================

Some other scenarios that can look like this, but not due to autopilot can be because:

  1. Your computer is domain joined, you need to do a clean install to get out of it.
  2. Your Windows edition is enterprise, in this case, a work/school account or local user is must, personal account will not be accepted.

===============

Once again, please start your own thread so your issue can be looked at individually.

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99 additional answers

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-11-24T23:07:27+00:00

    Hi @CHBen, ah yah sorry for that missed.. Thank you for correction. 🙏

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-11-02T07:17:23+00:00

    This worked for me. On a Beelink SER5 Ryzen 7 5700U Mini PC. On the forced “work or school sign on” screen I held down the WIN+R keys. That got a new screen where I was allowed to select a “Reset with credentials, etc.”

    The Reset wIth credentials performed a disc wipe and auto reinstalled a clean WIN10 installation. I did not have to upload the WIN10 drivers, etc. The info & license was already on the PC SSD.

    It Took a while to do all that.

    Then it took me through a standard OOBE (that is a normal new PC) Windows setup. All worked great. After that it auto recommended a WIN11 upgrade which took another 30 minutes. Perfect all around it appears. Brian B.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-10-28T09:52:23+00:00

    The workarounds provided are not solutions to the problem.

    I've followed the stated solutions, which did render me able to create an account without logging in.

    Now the fun part: i'm an avid user of windows admin components, so, naturally, i use an admin account. Which are NOT able to login because you're not part of the registered organization.

    Whatever you try, you won't get past it and i've been pulling my hair out for days.

    Hopefully someone finds a fix for this because i'm sure i'm not the only one who buys a refurb then finds out you can't use it...

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