Preparing a new Windows install for a new user, want to reset/delete all accounts.

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Jan 3, 2009
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My nephew's harddrive died on his laptop, he said he didn't care about any of the files, just wants it working again.

Ok, simple enough, just replace the HDD (or even use a NVME instead) and reinstall Windows. The issue is that I would need to create an account for myself first in order to install the drivers and configure it. And since he won't be here to create his account, I basically need it to be a "blank" install after all the drivers and everything are configured, same as if he had just bought it new and it asks him to create an account when he boots it up for the first time.

Is there a way to reset/delete all accounts after I have set it up so it asks him to create an account when he turns it on?
 
Why not just give him the credentials you create and have him change them. Create "Bob" with a password of bob and have him change the account name password when he does arrive.
 
Im struggling to understand this. Just make a dummy account to begin with and give them the username and password? User logs in then makes his own ID and deletes the old. You can try installing everything and then doing an OS recovery to reinstall Windows on top of the new drivers you loaded but you will lose somethings. Multiple other avenues like sysprep but not worth the time investment for a one off trivial task.
 
My nephew's harddrive died on his laptop, he said he didn't care about any of the files, just wants it working again.

Ok, simple enough, just replace the HDD (or even use a NVME instead) and reinstall Windows. The issue is that I would need to create an account for myself first in order to install the drivers and configure it. And since he won't be here to create his account, I basically need it to be a "blank" install after all the drivers and everything are configured, same as if he had just bought it new and it asks him to create an account when he boots it up for the first time.

Is there a way to reset/delete all accounts after I have set it up so it asks him to create an account when he turns it on?
I have a feeling you are referring to Windows 10 and that he is using an email address to log into the machine, right?

As said in the above post you can just use Audit mode by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+F3 at the very first screen that pops up after the install. It reboots into the administrator account. Once done setting up the computer you have to sysprep (open run and type in sysprep, double click the exe, then reboot into OOBE). This will restart the computer and go back to the initial screen to create an account. Shut it down and let him take it from there.

You also can just create a local account yourself, make the changes, then just give it to him. When he powers it on it will boot straight to the desktop, then have him log out and log in with his email address (if I'm assuming correctly about your problem). Then just go and delete the account you made from the settings menu. As long as the user folder is removed from C:\Users, that's as clean as you can get removing a user.
 
Do your newphew a favor and create a non-admin user account for him and keep the admin to yourself. Of course then he can't do much anything without your help but at least he'll be 90% safer than using the default account.
 
Do your newphew a favor and create a non-admin user account for him and keep the admin to yourself. Of course then he can't do much anything without your help but at least he'll be 90% safer than using the default account.

Except his nephew does not live locally. It would be better to teach him how to use an admin and non admin account.
 
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