Windows 11 new laptop sign in with work account at install

Question

I've just recently started as an IT help desk for my company and have not been using windows for some time but I'm not unfamiliar with it.

I've been tasked with setting up a brand new laptop for a new employee which I thought was going to be a a very quick and easy task.

I want to use the email I set up in our azure ad the same day we got the laptop but when trying to use the email to sign up it continually says it isn't a Microsoft account.

There should be an option during the initial set up to name the device and then to choose for work or school but I've reset windows about 4 times now and after connecting to the wifi it skips to adding a Microsoft account.

I cannot find helpful information as to why I'm missing options in the initial set up and how I can use the account I just created as a sign in user for the laptop

Answer 1

The answer is: you can't do what you want to do easily because Microsoft want to force you to use a MS account to log in and for some stupid reason they won't let you use a work account - you have to use a personal account.

The only alternative is to use a local account. You can get that option by starting over (again :-) with the computer disconnected from your network. It's still not obvious, but it's possible.

Answer 2

Take a look at:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/devices/azuread-joined-devices-frx
This is about the Windows 10 but it should work in Windows 11 too.

Answer 3

In this case we advise you to consider using Autopilot , take a look at:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/autopilot/windows-autopilot