Windows 11 new boot?

[#1]

I got a used laptop great spec for a good price. I have a bootable thumb drive with utility stuff and first went into the laptop's setup to allow the USB boot.

Using the utility I could look at the hdd and see if still had any user stuff - no - unlike one I got some years back with "interesting" browser history!

So rebooted and after some screen whorls the display showed text -
"...please connect to wi-fi...." Huh?

There was no opting out/skip button.

What's the deal there, this is my first encounter with Win11?

I've had over the years used examples with Win8.1 and  Win10 and they just went into a User setup, no activation or such. Sitting in the cupboard for now - the laptop.

[#2]

In principle Win 11 requires an internet connection during setup. There's a trick to get around it if you really want to

How do I skip the internet check when installing Windows 11? When you get the "Connection required" prompt, hit Shift + F10 to launch Command Prompt. After entering OOBE\BYPASSNRO, hit ENTER. This time, the procedure will start over, and an "I don't have internet access" button will appear.

[#3]

HI again,   thanks for that, will give it a try later today.

[#4]

Yes indeed. Boot my util and checked directories saw the /oobe and BypassNRO cmd file.

Needed a bit of alt-tab for some reason to get correct terminal window allowing typing input, but that did the trick.

As previous purchases spent last few hours for notes of all the default settings -jeez!

thanks again