Windows Commissioning

Be sure to disable all the BitLocker nonsense before you get hacky-wid-it. Some Regedit things will force an encrypted drive on next startup and who remembers to write down those codes?! Woof. 

Setting Up A New Account

Oh no! You're trying to install Windows 11 on a new system and it's forcing you to create an online account and forcing you to sign in to Microsoft? And/or you're not connected to the internet and it's forcing you to get on the internet to setup Windows? And/or logging is gate-keeping you from doing your job? Yucky. 

During the Windows setup process, press Shift + F10 to launch CMD during setup and type start ms-cxh:localonly

Congratulations! You don't have to login to a dummy Microsoft account (though you can do this later). You'll be prompted to create an offline account. 

Disabling Windows Update

Obviously, there are serious issues that can be caused by disabling Windows Update, but if you’re installing a stable installation and you’re ideally quarantining it from the greater net, then disabling Windows Update might be necessary. A random update could break the whole install! 

Windows 11 : Last Tested September 2025

Step 1 — Open the policy editor
Press Win + R → type gpedit.msc → Enter (Local Group Policy Editor opens).

Step 2 — Disable automatic updates
Go to: Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates → Windows Components → Windows Update → Manage end user experience
Open Configure Automatic Updates → set to Disabled → Apply → OK. 

Step 3 — Block any connection to Microsoft’s update service
Go to: Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates → Windows Components → Windows Update
Open Do not connect to any Windows Update Internet locations → set to Enabled → Apply → OK. 

Step 4 — Hide/disable the Windows Update UI (so no one can re-enable it)
Same folder (Windows Update)
Open Remove access to use all Windows Update features → set to Enabled → Apply → OK.
(This removes the Check for updates button and related controls.) 

Step 5 — (Recommended) Prevent driver updates via WU
Same folder (Windows Update)
Open Do not include drivers with Windows Updates → set to Enabled → Apply → OK.

Step 6 — Apply the policies
Open an elevated Command Prompt (CMD with admin priv) and run:
gpupdate /force

Step 7 – Verify
Open up Windows Update and you'll notice that you can't update anything!

Windows 10 : Last Tested January 2025

First, you can disable it from running automatically when starting with the system. This works, but if you open Windows Update it will manually relaunch it. Not ideal. 

• Open the Services Manager:
  • Press Win + R, type services.msc, and hit Enter.
• Locate Windows Update Service:
  • Scroll down to find Windows Update in the list.
• Disable the Service:
  • Right-click on Windows Update and select Properties.
  • Under the General tab, set the Startup type to Disabled.
  • Click Stop if the service is currently running.
  • Click Apply and OK.
• Reboot the Computer to ensure the changes take effect.

Then, you can disable it at an admin level so that it appears to be managed by group permissions. This seems to prevent automatic updates, but it seems to allow you to update manually. 

• Open the Group Policy Editor:
  • Press Win + R, type gpedit.msc, and hit Enter.
• Navigate to Windows Update Settings:
  • Go to Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates → Windows Components → Windows Update.
• Modify Update Settings:
  • Double-click on Configure Automatic Updates.
  • Select Disabled, then click Apply and OK.
• Reboot the Computer to ensure the changes take effect.

Since that doesn’t completely kill it, you need to manually move the executable, or rename it. Permissions to do this are controlled by the system, so you can’t change it via properties. Instead, you have to do it using the command prompt run as administrator. This also gives you the ability to change the name back at a later date if you decide you do want to update Windows. Open Command

• Open Command Prompt as Administrator:
• Take Ownership:
  • takeown /f C:\Windows\System32\wuaueng.dll
• Grant Permissions:
  • icacls C:\Windows\System32\wuaueng.dll /grant %username%:F
  • if you’re username is “cam” then the string is
  • icacls C:\Windows\System32\wuaueng.dll /grant cam:F
• Rename the File:
  • ren C:\Windows\System32\wuaueng.dll wuaueng.dll.bak
• Restart the Computer.

Always Works Method for Setting Up Windows Auto-Login

(If login creds need to change, do that first - just press the Windows key and type in change password and a system setting will pop up). 

You can do the following insane effort … or run this utility from the Microsoft site called “Autologon” 🤦‍♀️

1. Press Windows+R and type in regedit
2. Select the path at top, delete it and paste: 
   
3. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\PasswordLess\Device
4. Find the entry: DevicePasswordLessBuildVersion DWORD 
5. Double-click on DevicePasswordLessBuildVersion and change its value from 2 to 0
6. Close regedit
7. RESTART 
8. Windows+R and type netplwiz
9. Turn off checkbox to require password on login. If it’s already off, toggle it on and then off again. Either way, it will ask for your credentials. 
10. ** REBOOT TO CONFIRM ** sometimes a slow reboot
    

This has worked 100% of the time on different server configs. If it doesn’t, you can also try:

1. Run Regedit.
2. Copy and paste this path:
   
3. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
   
4. Find the entry DefaultPassword
5. Make sure it’s the right password
6. Find the entry DefaultUserName
7. Make sure it’s the right user name
8. If neither entry is there, you can create the entries by right-clicking and creating a new string item. 

Launch Some Application or Document on Startup

Windows+R, then type “shell:startup” – then throw a shortcut to that app or doc in that folder. Donezo. 

If you want to do something more complicated, like boot apps in a specific order or put in some kind of delay, see Windows Scripting