Windows 11 Useful Commands

Bypass the Windows 11 Installation Network Requirement with Command Prompt

My previous post detailed the process of creating Windows 11 installation media in order to get past the annoying Windows 11 network requirement, where you are “forced” to sign in with a Microsoft account. But there’s still the situation of setting up a pre-built PC that already has Windows installed. In order to keep the Windows 11 product key attached to that device, you have to go through the normal Windows start-up installation like with any new pre-built Windows machine. And so you will still be faced with getting past the “Let’s connect you to a network” page, for which I’ve found a solution.

It’s just one simple command. First, press Shift + F10 to pull up the command prompt.

Then type in the following command and press enter:

oobe\bypassnro

The computer will restart, and the network page will once again have the “I don’t have internet” button just like with Windows 10.

Restoring the Windows 10 Right-Click Menu

The default right-click menu

Another thing I’ve found annoying with Windows 11 is the new right-click menu. Everything looks a little different and “Copy” and “Paste” are now presented as icons that are difficult to get used to. Selecting “Show More Options” at the bottom of the right-click menu brings back the old Windows 10 user interface, and thankfully there is a way to make that the default right-click menu once again.

This involves editing the registry, and my preferred method involves just a single command in command prompt rather than opening up the Registry Editor application.

Run the command prompt as administrator and type in the following command:

reg.exe add "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0–34aa-4e8b-a509–50c905bae2a2}\InprocServer32" /f /ve

Now you will need to either restart explorer.exe in Task Manager or restart the computer. I prefer to restart the whole computer unless your PC is particularly slow to reboot.

Windows 11 has now been out for a little more than a year and there is still much to get used to, as well as many things that can be changed ourselves. I’m sure I’ll be posting more about Windows 11 as Windows 10 users continue to transition to this newer operating system.