How To Log On Without the Internet

To bypass the PIN requirement when you have no internet access, you can use the Windows Recovery Environment to activate the hidden Administrator account. Start by holding the Shift key while clicking the Restart button on the login screen. Once the computer reboots into the blue recovery menu, navigate through Troubleshoot and then Advanced options to select Command Prompt. You will need to determine which drive letter contains your Windows installation, as it often shifts to D: or E: in this mode. You can check this by typing a drive letter followed by a colon and then typing the directory command until you see the Windows and Users folders.

Once you have identified the correct drive, you need to replace the Accessibility shortcut on the login screen with the Command Prompt. Assuming your Windows drive is C:, enter the following commands sequentially.

c: 
cd windows\system32
ren utilman.exe utilman.exe.bak
copy cmd.exe utilman.exe

After entering these commands, close the window and restart your computer to boot normally. When you reach the login screen, click the Accessibility icon in the bottom right corner, which looks like a person or a circle. This will now open a Command Prompt window with system-level privileges. You can then enable the built-in Administrator account, which does not have a PIN or password by default, by typing the following command.

net user administrator /active:yes

Close the command prompt and restart the computer again. You should now see an Administrator account in the bottom left corner of the screen. Select it to log in directly to the desktop. Once logged in, you will have access to File Explorer to install your WiFi or Ethernet drivers from a USB flash drive. After the drivers are installed and you have an active internet connection, you can switch back to your original user account and follow the prompts to set up a new PIN through your Microsoft account.

To clean up the system once you are finished, you should disable the built-in Administrator account and restore the original Accessibility tool. Open a Command Prompt as an administrator within Windows and run the following commands to reverse the changes.

net user administrator /active:no
cd c:\windows\system32
del utilman.exe
ren utilman.exe.bak utilman.exe

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hth

Marcin