Have you ever been stuck on the “Let’s connect you to a network” screen while installing Windows 11 on a new laptop, with the Next button grayed out? Whether your Wi-Fi list is completely blank or you simply prefer setting up your PC without a Microsoft account, here is how to skip past this screen in seconds.
At a Glance
- On the network screen, press ‘Shift + F10’ (or ‘Fn + Shift + F10’ on laptops) to open Command Prompt.
- Type ‘OOBE\BYPASSNRO’ into the window and press Enter to restart your computer automatically.
- After rebooting, click [I don’t have internet] followed by [Continue with limited setup] at the bottom.
- Set up a local account username and password to finish Windows installation immediately without internet.
Why Does Windows 11 Setup Get Stuck on the Network Screen?
When installing Windows 11 on a newly purchased FreeDOS laptop or custom-built PC, you may find the Wi-Fi list completely blank and the “Next” button disabled. Even if your home Wi-Fi router works properly, the setup will not budge.
This happens because standard Microsoft installation media does not include preloaded drivers for newer wireless chipsets. It creates a classic catch-22: you need an internet connection to install the driver, but you need the driver to connect to the internet.
Modern thin-and-light laptops rarely feature built-in Ethernet ports. Your only practical option is to complete the setup wizard offline first, then download and install the wireless LAN driver from the manufacturer’s website.
5 Steps to Bypass the Network Screen Using Keyboard Shortcuts
There is a built-in workaround to bypass both the mandatory network connection and the Microsoft account login screen at once. In Windows 11 Home and Pro editions as of 2026, following these steps lets you create an offline local account in under three minutes.
Depending on whether your keyboard has Fn Lock enabled, the shortcut combination might require pressing the Fn key as well.
| Step | Current Screen | Action to Take |
|---|---|---|
| Step 1 | Let’s connect you to a network | Press Shift + F10 (or Fn + Shift + F10 on laptops) |
| Step 2 | Black Command Prompt (CMD) | Type OOBE\BYPASSNRO and press Enter (PC reboots automatically) |
| Step 3 | Network screen after reboot | Click the newly visible [I don’t have internet] option at the bottom |
| Step 4 | Microsoft account prompt screen | Click the blue [Continue with limited setup] text |
| Step 5 | User info setup | Enter your local username and password to complete setup |
Once you run the command, your computer will reboot on its own. After going through the language and keyboard selections again, you will arrive back at the network screen with the skip option now available.
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How Does the BypassNRO Command Work Under the Hood?
The command BypassNRO stands for “Bypass Network Requirement Online.” It is an administrative script built into the Windows Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE) setup engine.
When executed, the system runs the batch script stored at C:\Windows\System32\oobe\BypassNRO.cmd. This script writes a 32-bit DWORD registry entry named BypassNRO with a value of 1 under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE and triggers a restart.
If the script does not execute directly in your setup environment, you can write the registry key manually using Command Prompt:
- Type
reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /fand press Enter. - Next, type
shutdown /r /t 0and press Enter to restart immediately.
Additionally, if you reach the account sign-in screen, entering start ms-cxh:localonly in Command Prompt serves as an alternative route to open the local account creation window directly.
Why Older Windows 11 Bypass Tricks No Longer Work
Many legacy bypass tricks shared online have been closed by server-side updates from Microsoft. For instance, entering dummy email addresses like no@thankyou.com to trigger an error now returns a standard connection error instead of falling back to a local account prompt.
Similarly, killing the network background process with taskkill /f /IM oobenetworkconnectionflow.exe no longer solves the issue and often traps the setup wizard in an infinite loading loop.
Microsoft has also shown intent to restrict these bypass routes further, testing the removal of the BypassNRO.cmd script in internal preview builds (Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5516 and Build 26220.6772). Reports differ on whether manual registry modification remains viable after script removal, making future release notes worth monitoring closely.
If you are currently stuck on the network setup screen while installing Windows, press Shift + F10, enter OOBE\BYPASSNRO, and jump straight into setting up a local account.
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