No WiFi but LAN driver on bare metal hardware

[KatzWo]

Does anyone know how come when I bought my bare metal laptop, upon installation of Windows 10 (just the basic windows.ISO back then), I couldn't connect to WIFI during the OOBE phase; however, I could connect to the Internet via Ethernet?

How come the bare metal laptop had the LAN driver but not the WIFI driver installed? Do all bare metal hardware have the required LAN driver but other than that, no other drivers whatsoever?

 

[Hellbovine]

I think this is probably by design, and normal. I'll try to explain my reasoning:

- On Windows 10 it will try to force you to make a microsoft account if you have a cord plugged into your ethernet. However, if it's unplugged or if you do not have ethernet like in the case of a laptop, it will not try to force this on you. I imagine the reason it doesn't force laptop users to sign in, even though they have a working wifi available is because of this issue you presented (drivers, or lack thereof).

- This probably varies greatly based on the vendor of the laptop. In general Laptop's have easily twice the number of drivers as desktops do, like in my laptop it's got a driver thats only purpose is literally just to enable the keyboard wifi button to work. Nothing more. So a lot of laptop stuff I think doesn't really have a microsoft basic version to install while the OS is waiting for a better one.

But, if I'm wrong, someone please feel free to correct me, I'm curious about this too because I don't know how this works on W11. Does a wifi only laptop (no ethernet) get forced to make an account on W11?

 

[garlin]

Unless you remove them, Windows has generic driver support for many different chipsets. The generic drivers operate at the most basic level, your video card only does SVGA graphics, etc. No advanced driver features or settings are available.

Basic LAN support is far easier than WiFi compatibility, due to chipset differences. It's the same problem as why AHCI/SATA & USB support doesn't work right out of the box.

The requirement for MS signup exists regardless of your network type, but Windows puts extra effort to make OOBE do WiFi setup to remove any excuses for not connecting. If OOBE finds a visible WiFi network, it thinks you're avoiding it.

When Windows detects at least one working network (LAN or WiFi), OOBE won't exit to local account. You must have no "working" networks for it to skip signup. To avoid this, use the BypassRNO setting (W11) or the disable NCSI hack.