I need to set up Windows devices that will use Microsoft 365 sign-in, but the end users haven't been assigned yet. Is the correct process to sign in with an administrator during OOBE and have the eventual user choose "Other user" later? I've heard that doing this can associate the device with the administrator's Entra ID account and may also run into the per-user device limit. We need a practical temporary process until we can move to Business Premium licensing.
4 Answers
Provisioning packages created with Windows Configuration Designer can also work for this kind of staging. They let you apply the required settings without using an employee’s account during setup, which is useful when the destination user hasn’t been decided yet.
Using a global administrator account for every unassigned laptop is a poor workaround. Besides associating the devices with that account, you may hit the limit on how many devices one user can register. It’s better to use Autopilot device provisioning or a configuration package until the appropriate licensing is available.
If the devices are registered with Windows Autopilot, use device provisioning from OOBE instead of signing in with an admin account. Press the Windows key five times on the setup screen, provision the device without assigning a user, and then ship it. The employee can sign in with their own account and finish the enrollment process.
For devices that aren’t using Autopilot, complete the setup and enrollment with an admin only as needed, then remove that account and assign the actual user as the primary user before handing over the laptop. That avoids leaving the administrator tied to the device.
That makes sense—the main concern was avoiding any registration or device-limit problems tied to the staging administrator.