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Microsoft SCOOBE DO. Go straight to sell!
Go straight to sell! Windows second-chance setup hawks Microsoft services at IT's expensehttps://www.theregister.com/2026/04/26/windows_second_chance_setup/
You've had your laptop for months, and you've always made sure it installed Microsoft updates. Then one day you boot up, and Windows 11 greets you with a confusing message: "You're almost done setting up your PC."
Almost done? What could that possibly mean? You set up your computer on Windows 11 a long time ago, but here it is telling you that your installation never actually finished. What other completed task will you next learn you haven't actually finished? Did you perhaps forget to sign your marriage license five years ago, initial the deed to your home of 10 years, or miss a critical turn in the driving test you took back in 2003? Are you sure you're named as the parent on your child's birth certificate?
. . .
What you've just experienced is Windows 11's Second Chance Out of Box Experience (SCOOBE), a deeply deceptive and unethical attempt on Microsoft's part to con you into buying more monthly services or using settings that Redmond wants you to have. SCOOBE can launch months or even years after you've first set up your PC and you can get it multiple times in your PC's lifecycle, often after a Windows update. It's the dictionary definition of enshittification, a naked attempt to cajole you into giving Microsoft more money at a moment - boot up - when you're getting ready to work or play.
. . .
Almost done? What could that possibly mean? You set up your computer on Windows 11 a long time ago, but here it is telling you that your installation never actually finished. What other completed task will you next learn you haven't actually finished? Did you perhaps forget to sign your marriage license five years ago, initial the deed to your home of 10 years, or miss a critical turn in the driving test you took back in 2003? Are you sure you're named as the parent on your child's birth certificate?
. . .
What you've just experienced is Windows 11's Second Chance Out of Box Experience (SCOOBE), a deeply deceptive and unethical attempt on Microsoft's part to con you into buying more monthly services or using settings that Redmond wants you to have. SCOOBE can launch months or even years after you've first set up your PC and you can get it multiple times in your PC's lifecycle, often after a Windows update. It's the dictionary definition of enshittification, a naked attempt to cajole you into giving Microsoft more money at a moment - boot up - when you're getting ready to work or play.
. . .
From the comments:
These shittiy tactics are a real pain. I have a lot of users that belong to very small orgs, they usually don't even have a domain controller. They just have 3 to 5 PCs. Windows 11 professional now does its best to make them ruin their setup by forcing a MS account on them, enabling bitlocker without telling the users, adding AI, etc. My users should be shielded from this, but even setting up policies is not really working. MS is always changing things so that the policies that worked before do not work anymore.
There should really be some hero that has the patience to dig into MS's deceptions and to keep a web site where we can find a reg file (updated over time) to disable all of this.
There should really be some hero that has the patience to dig into MS's deceptions and to keep a web site where we can find a reg file (updated over time) to disable all of this.