OOBE

• at any point in OOBE, get elevated command prompt pressing Shift+F10

• to shut down the OOBE, get an elevated command prompt as above, then follow the instructions here

• to reboot from the OOBE, get an elevated command prompt as above, then follow the instructions here

• to reboot to UEFI from the OOBE, get an elevated command prompt as above, then follow the instructions here

• bypass unnecessary Internet connectivity prerequisite
  • ensure Internet not already connected (i.e. cable disconnected and/or WiFi profile not created – if already connected via WiFi, refer to below to delete)
  • using elevated command prompt, run C:\Windows\System32\OOBE\BypassNRO.cmd (effectively just type OOBE\BypassNRO and press Enter at the elevated command prompt when opened)
  • system will reboot
  • if Internet still connected on reboot, Microsoft will still force their stupid online account down your throat

2025/10/07 Update: F*cking Microsoft has disabled the above methods and more (with lame excuses to boot). Your best bet (at time of update) is to create your own bootable Windows installation image with a local account already created with some other settings disabled (with one easy method of using Rufus)

• delete WiFI profiles
  • using elevated command prompt, run netsh wlan show profiles
  • delete profile using netsh wlan delete profile name="<profile>"

• run registry editor
  • using elevated command prompt, run regedit

 

Hiding Windows Accounts

• to hide Windows accounts from the Logon screen:
  • create DWORD entries with the user names under registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList

 

Cleaning Out Windows 11 Preinstalled Crapware and Niusances

• the easiest method is to use a “debloater” (follow the instructions as posted using and administrator Powershell session)
• for (my own) convenience, my “predefined settings” are here (unzip to %TEMP%\Win11Debloater)

 

Windows “Special” Folders

Common “Special” Folders

• The following is a list of common special folders and their default locations:

Name	Location	Environment Variable (if any)	Comments
Start Menu (All Users)	C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
Start Menu (Current User)	%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

Moving/Changing Locations

• There is a handy Powershell script available to move special folders (local copy here).

 

Checking for Network Optimisation

• particularly on high-speed links (“high speed” as of writing this, i.e. >= 10Gbps) coupled with multi-core CPUs, Windows RSS (receive-side scaling) should be enabled to ensure better throughput (credit)
• run netsh interface tcp show global from an administrator command prompt
  
  • if it is disabled, enable it (and auto-tuning) with:
    • netsh interface tcp set global rss=enabled
    • netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=enabled

 

Dual/Multi-Booting w/Ubuntu

As per usual, Microsoft’s “I’m the thousand-pound gorrilla” attitude (which is still several orders of magnitude better than Apple’s “f*ck” everyone else, including its users), installation of Windows means any other OS previous installed on a separate partition would now not be accessible.

To dual/multi-boot with Windows, it is usually easier for Windows to be the first OS for a multi-OS/multi-boot set up (instead of “cleaning up” after Windows installation stomps all over the ESP).

• the steps below assume:
  • Windows on UEFI machine (i.e. anything before/below Windows Vista SP1 is not applicable)
  • you will have pre-created partitions for the Windows installation, or will use manual installation steps to create and install to separate partitions – instructions for which are out of scope of this guide
  • if you are multi-booting multiple Windows installations, then you should do this only after the last copy of Windows is installed

Ubuntu Installed Last

• install Ubuntu (on to a separate partition) – the installation procedure should automatically set up the ESP with GRUB and add in entries for found/existing OSes
  • • if not, you may have to either:
      • not recommended
        
        • edit /etc/default/grub and enable (i.e. uncomment) GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false and ensure that /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober is working
      • recommended
        • identify which partitions are the (i) Windows OS partition and (ii) EFI System Partition aka ESP:
          • lsblk -o NAME,PARTN,LABEL,PARTLABEL,UUID
        • edit /etc/grub.d/40_custom and insert the below

menuentry 'Windows' {
    search --fs-uuid --no-floppy --set=root <UUID>
    chainloader (hd0,<gptN>)/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
}

• • • • • where:
          • UUID is the UUID of the EFI System Partition
          • gptN is the partition number (i.e. PARTN) of the identified partition

Windows Installed Last

• if the above is not true (i.e. you installed Windows last), then:
  • ensure that your UEFI BIOS is set to boot the “Ubuntu” EFI (rather than the Windows Bootloader), or whatever bootloader-id GRUB “informs” the UEFI system to show the EFI entry as

• • reboot into a Ubuntu “live” desktop environment
  • open a terminal and sudo bash to load a root shell
    • identify which partitions are the (i) Ubuntu OS partition and (ii) EFI System Partition aka ESP:
      • lsblk -o NAME,LABEL,PARTLABEL,UUID
    • mount relevant partitions and remap some key directories and chroot:
      • mount /dev/<Ubuntu partition> /mnt
      • mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
      • mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
      • mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
      • mount /dev/<ESP> /boot/efi
      • chroot /mnt
    • (re-)install grub:
      • grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=GRUB --recheck
      • NOTE: feel free to replace “GRUB” with some other identifier that makes sense to be shown in a motherboard’s UEFI “boot” screen (default for Ubuntu is actually “Ubuntu”)
    • run update-grub