Hi all
I have (legitimately) ended up as owner of a decent laptop running Win11, from a recent employer.

My previous laptops from this employer ran Win10 and I was able to run
with at least some admin privileges (after entering an admin password). Although that is still somewhat the case with this installation, things
seem rather more locked down...

Since I am no longer connected to 'the mothership', I would like to be
able to set up this machine so that there is at least one 'God' account.
Is this possible from where I am starting, or would it be better to
re-install Win11 and take it from there?

I run mostly Linux these days and am out of touch with the fine points
of Windows administration. But it would be handy to have at least one
machine running M$...

Pointers appreciated - thanks a lot

J^n

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jkn wrote:

Since I am no longer connected to 'the mothership',

First, have you checked if it still belongs to the company domain?
start a powershell window and type

(Get-WmiObject Win32_ComputerSystem).PartOfDomain

you want it to say "false".

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On 15/06/2025 14:16, Andy Burns wrote:

jkn wrote:

Since I am no longer connected to 'the mothership',

First, have you checked if it still belongs to the company domain?
start a powershell window and type

(Get-WmiObject Win32_ComputerSystem).PartOfDomain

you want it to say "false".

Hi Andy
good call - I nearly mentioned 'domains?' in my original posting but wasn't sure what to say ;-o

That command returns 'True' for me... no special 'decomissioning'
actions were taken with this laptop FWIW.

J^n

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Andy Burns wrote:

it'll detect the same licence it currently has, but none
of the company's pesky settings.

Not so fast, maybe ... It can't be Home (as part of a domain) but you
should find out (from searching inside "Settings" for "activation")
whether it's Pro, or Enterprise ... if the former you're good, but the
latter will want to find a corporate activation server.

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jkn wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

(Get-WmiObject Win32_ComputerSystem).PartOfDomain

you want it to say "false".

good call - I nearly mentioned 'domains?' in my original posting
but wasn't sure what to say ;-o

That command returns 'True' for me... no special 'decomissioning'
actions were taken with this laptop FWIW.

You'd be better off backing up any data you want from it, then do a
fresh install, it'll detect the same licence it currently has, but none
of the company's pesky settings.

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On 15/06/2025 17:36, Andy Burns wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

it'll detect the same licence it currently has, but none of the
company's pesky settings.

Not so fast, maybe ... It can't be Home (as part of a domain) but you
should find out (from searching inside "Settings" for "activation")
whether it's Pro, or Enterprise ... if the former you're good, but the
latter will want to find a corporate activation server.

Thanks Andy
I couldn't find much useful by searching for 'activation' as you suggest, but my 'headline' account details in settings says 'Win 11 Pro'.

Once upon time I extracted activation strings using Magical Jelly Bean's "Keyfinder" utility. Is that relevant for this purpose nowadays?

Thanks, J^n

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jkn wrote:

Once upon time I extracted activation strings using Magical Jelly Bean's "Keyfinder" utility. Is that relevant for this purpose nowadays?

No longer relevant, when the machine activates, enough details are
stored by Microsoft to recognise it and re-activate it in future.

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On 15/06/2025 19:39, Andy Burns wrote:

jkn wrote:

Once upon time I extracted activation strings using Magical Jelly
Bean's "Keyfinder" utility. Is that relevant for this purpose nowadays?

No longer relevant, when the machine activates, enough details are
stored by Microsoft to recognise it and re-activate it in future.

Thanks Andy, this is all very helpful.

Unfortunately, now two issues:

1) if I try to mount a Win11 .ISO file and run 'setup.exe' from within
Win11, I get an error because I have not got permission ... nor access
to the domain for admin credentials

2) if I copy the .ISO to a USB pendrive and try to boot from that, I get
a message about "Install Driver to show hardware". On further reading
this might mean I need some drivers ... which looks painful to
get/extract, especially since I don't have access to another Windows
machine other than this one.

Anyway, this is a different topic from the one I started asking about -
thanks for the info anyway, I will carry on chasing my tail...

J^n

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On 16/06/2025 15:08, jkn wrote:

On 15/06/2025 19:39, Andy Burns wrote:

jkn wrote:

Once upon time I extracted activation strings using Magical Jelly
Bean's "Keyfinder" utility. Is that relevant for this purpose nowadays?

No longer relevant, when the machine activates, enough details are
stored by Microsoft to recognise it and re-activate it in future.

Thanks Andy, this is all very helpful.

Unfortunately, now two issues:

1) if I try to mount a Win11 .ISO file and run 'setup.exe' from within
Win11, I get an error because I have not got permission ... nor access
to the domain for admin credentials

2) if I copy the .ISO to a USB pendrive and try to boot from that, I get
a message about "Install Driver to show hardware". On further reading
this might mean I need some drivers ... which looks painful to get/
extract, especially since I don't have access to another Windows machine other than this one.

Anyway, this is a different topic from the one I started asking about - thanks for the info anyway, I will carry on chasing my tail...

    J^n

FWIW: I seem to have made progress on installation using a Win11 image
on a Ventoy drive (I have been meaning to try that for a while...)

The old S/N that I noted down (read via Powershell commands) didn't
work, so I guess for now I have an 'invalid' installation. But that is
probably OK to be getting on with...

J^n

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On 16/06/2025 15:08, jkn wrote:

2) if I copy the .ISO to a USB pendrive and try to boot from that, I get
a message about "Install Driver to show hardware". On further reading
this might mean I need some drivers ... which looks painful to get/
extract, especially since I don't have access to another Windows machine other than this one.

If the PC is a "mainstream" device, I'd have expected the standard
installer to have drivers ... tried making a USB boot stick with the
Win11 Media Creation Tool?

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On 16/06/2025 17:58, Andy Burns wrote:

On 16/06/2025 15:08, jkn wrote:

2) if I copy the .ISO to a USB pendrive and try to boot from that, I
get a message about "Install Driver to show hardware". On further
reading this might mean I need some drivers ... which looks painful to
get/ extract, especially since I don't have access to another Windows
machine other than this one.

If the PC is a "mainstream" device, I'd have expected the standard
installer to have drivers ... tried making a USB boot stick with the
Win11 Media Creation Tool?

Yes, it's mainstream (Thinkpad T14s) - I am not quite sure why a USB
pendrive didn't work, but a Ventoy-based one did. Maybe I created the
former wrong? (I just used linux 'dd', most of the other options seem over-complicated and hide what is going on)

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Andy Burns wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

it'll detect the same licence it currently has, but none of the
company's pesky settings.

Not so fast, maybe ... It can't be Home (as part of a domain) but you
should find out (from searching inside "Settings" for "activation")
whether it's Pro, or Enterprise ... if the former you're good, but the
latter will want to find a corporate activation server.

It should not need activation.

If it is "Pro" the OP should go back to his recent employer.

The IT people there should be able to log into the laptop using their
"Domain Administrator" account and create a "Local Administrator"
account, providing the OP with the login and password. Then tell the
laptop to disconnect itself from the Domain.

The OP then logs in with this "Local Administrator" account and should
create a local "Standard User" account for himself.

I know this works for "Pro" connected to a Domain controlled by MS Small Business Server 2003 so I would expect it to work for a Domain
controlled by a more modern server. As to whether it works for
"Enterprise" I don't know; but I would expect the procedure to be the same.

This isn't a new install, so activation should not be required.

--
Graham J

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Graham J wrote:

If it is "Pro" the OP should go back to his recent employer.

Technically it's simple to remove a machine from a domain, but it
requires a domain admin to be present, it'll moan a few times if it
isn't connected to the corporate network, no domain admin worth their
salt would disclose their password to an ex-employee.

So in practice, it's highly likely to be simpler to re-install, than
remove from the domain.

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Andy Burns wrote:

Graham J wrote:

If it is "Pro" the OP should go back to his recent employer.

Technically it's simple to remove a machine from a domain, but it
requires a domain admin to be present, it'll moan a few times if it
isn't connected to the corporate network, no domain admin worth their
salt would disclose their password to an ex-employee.

Perhaps I should have written: "The OP should take the laptop back to
his recent employer and get their IT people to remove it from their domain".


--
Graham J

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Graham J wrote:

Perhaps I should have written:  "The OP should take the laptop back to
his recent employer and get their IT people to remove it from their
domain".

It's simple enough to re-install, I'd want to nuke it anyway, not least
because employers tend to install monitoring software on their machines.

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On 17/06/2025 10:42, Andy Burns wrote:

Graham J wrote:

Perhaps I should have written:  "The OP should take the laptop back to
his recent employer and get their IT people to remove it from their
domain".

It's simple enough to re-install, I'd want to nuke it anyway, not least because employers tend to install monitoring software on their machines.

Alternatively ... has anybody ever used the "Change product key" option
in the System > Activation menu ?

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On 17/06/2025 12:10, Abandoned Trolley wrote:

On 17/06/2025 10:42, Andy Burns wrote:

Graham J wrote:

Perhaps I should have written:  "The OP should take the laptop back
to his recent employer and get their IT people to remove it from
their domain".

It's simple enough to re-install, I'd want to nuke it anyway, not
least because employers tend to install monitoring software on their
machines.

Alternatively  ... has anybody ever used the "Change product key" option
in the System > Activation  menu ?

Interesting thought, I wondered if there was something like that...

I realise that it would have been better to properly
decommission/de-domain this machine, but that wasn't really feasible at
the time.

I mentioned that when re-installing via Ventoy, trying to use the old
product key didn't work. So I clicked on 'I have no Product Key'.

I checked today via the PowerShell command:

(Get-WmiObject -query 'select * from SoftwareLicensingService').OA3xOriginalProductKey

and (as Andy Burns suggested) it looks like the previous one is still
present. So I think I am where I need to be ;-)

Thanks, J^n

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and (as Andy Burns suggested) it looks like the previous one is still present. So I think I am where I need to be ;-)

Thanks, J^n

All things considered, if you have a legit licence for whichever version
of Win 11 that you want, then I cant think of any sensible reason NOT to
nuke it

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All things considered, if you have a legit licence for whichever version
of Win 11 that you want, then I cant think of any sensible reason NOT to
nuke it

Also, I am stonished that any sensible company would let the thing go
anywhere without wiping the disk

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On 18/06/2025 11:59, Abandoned Trolley wrote:

All things considered, if you have a legit licence for whichever
version of Win 11 that you want, then I cant think of any sensible
reason NOT to nuke it

Also, I am stonished that any sensible company would let the thing go anywhere without wiping the disk

When I retired my company-issued laptop was 6 months overdue for
replacement, so I asked if I could keep it.

Firm NO. Not even if they wiped it :(

(No, I didn't try to keep my workstation!)

Andy

--
Do not listen to rumour, but, if you do, do not believe it.
Ghandi.

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On 21/06/2025 17:07, Vir Campestris wrote:

On 18/06/2025 11:59, Abandoned Trolley wrote:

All things considered, if you have a legit licence for whichever
version of Win 11 that you want, then I cant think of any sensible
reason NOT to nuke it

Also, I am stonished that any sensible company would let the thing go
anywhere without wiping the disk

When I retired my company-issued laptop was 6 months overdue for
replacement, so I asked if I could keep it.

Firm NO. Not even if they wiped it :(

(No, I didn't try to keep my workstation!)

Andy

About 18 years ago, a company I was working for let me have a batch of 9
Sun Ultra 60 workstations, which were literally going in the skip.

I managed to get them all going and made a small killing on eBay

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