Son Gregory is back from college for the summer, bearing his Lenovo ThinkPad X390 Yoga laptop. Its 8th-gen i7-8565U CPU, 16 GB RAM, and 500 GB Intel SSD are entirely adequate for his mobile computing needs. But I couldn’t see his device on the LAN when he first joined back in. Indeed, an X390 network return required discovery tweaks to make itself entirely visible. A couple of quick, minor toggles in “Advanced sharing settings” made everything OK.

Understanding X390 Network Return Requires Discovery Tweaks

I’m still getting used to digging into Advanced sharing settings inside the Windows settings app. That’s where I made sure the following toggles were in the “On” position:

Once I made sure discovery was working, Presto! the X390 (computer name = “DinaX390” as shown in the lead-in graphic) appeared. Sometimes, it’s the little things that mean alot.

The X390 Gets a Thorough Once-Over

I’m glad to see the machine is running Windows 11 22H2 (Build 22621.1702). SUMo also gives its paltry 17 identifiable programs a clean bill of health, update-wise. I have to say that it looks like Gregory took excellent care of his laptop while away at school. Good for him!

Now that it’s showing up inside Advanced IP Scanner, I can see what it’s doing on the network, too. All’s well that ends well.

Every now and then, I step back from the day-to-day Windows routine. I like to reflect on what I’ve seen and done. Looking at my Update History, I see 30 problem-free upgrades since July 2022. It’s end-of-April, so that means 30 updates in 9 months (3.33 updates per month). And nary a lick of trouble with any of them either in the Dev or Canary channels. Remarkable!

What 30 Problem-Free Upgrades Since July 2022 Means

This is on the 2018 vintage Lenovo ThinkPad X380 Yoga. It’s an 8th-gen Intel i7-8650 CPU, 16 GB DDR4, 1 TB (nominal) Toshiba SSD. On my newer X12 Hybrid ThinkPad (11th-Gen i7-1180G7, 16 GB DDR4, 1TB (nominal) WD SSD), I had to clean install Canary after my initial attempts to upgrade from Dev Channel to Canary failed. That was a pain!

But the X380 Yoga keeps chugging along. It’s a little slower than the X12 hybrid — as you’d expect, given the age difference (2018 vs 2020) — but it’s proved rock-solid and completely reliable. My son has an X390 Yoga (2017 model,  i7-8665U CPU, 16 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD) that’s been equally reliable as his carry-around, note-taking machine for use in class.

ThinkPad, ThinkPad, All the Way…

Looking around the house right now, I have 6 laptops here (plus the one in Boston with son, Gregory). 5 of 7 are ThinkPads, one’s a Lenovo Legion, and the last (and soon-to-be-retired) is a 2014 vintage Surface Pro 3. I have come to be a big believer in ThinkPads because:

1. I like the keyboards
2. The maker provides easy access to technical manuals for DIY upgrades
3. These laptops have handled everything I’ve thrown at them and just keep working
4. Shopping around delivers amazing buys (I paid under $1K each for the two X380 and one X390 Yoga I currently own; ditto for my former X220 Tablet and T25 Notebook machines, now retired).

You may not be able to judge a book by its cover, but you certainly can judge a notebook/laptop brand on a decade-plus of mostly stellar experiences. I’m completely sold on the ThinkPad brand.

Personal Note…

I’ve been quiet since April 28 for good reason. We flew to Boston on May 1 to pick son Gregory up after his first year at college (move-out day was May 4). Then we spent the next 4 days in NYC on a family adventure that included more walking than I thought I could handle. It was great! We’re all glad to be back at home, and I’m glad to be resuming a normal work schedule tomorrow. I wrote this blog post just before I left to have something to post immediately upon my return home. Let the games resume!!!

Windows 11 is a little trickier to install with a local account and no working Internet link than was Windows 10. That said, there’s a “trick” you can use to take a Windows 11 Install network bypass. It relies on a specific command file in the %windir%\System32\oobe folder named BypassNRO.cmd. See the lead-in graphic for this small but weighty 1KB file.

Warning! Do NOT open this file to “see what happens…” Let me tell you instead and skip it for yourself: it reboots your PC (as it would during install to change modes). To open the file, visit it in Explorer, right-click with left Shift key depressed, and choose “Copy as path” from the pop-up menu. Then paste that path specification into Notepad, Notepad++, or your favorite text editor. It’s a three-liner that turns off input echo, adds a registry key (to bypass the network requirement), and then restarts the PC instantly.

How-to: Taking the Windows 11 Install Network Bypass

Start the install process with the Internet disconnected (this is key). When the Windows 11 installer tells you “Oops, you’ve lost Internet connection” don’t press the Retry button. Click Shift+F10 to open a command prompt instead. Type OOBE\BYPASSNRO, then hit enter (no spaces, because it’s a file specification — the installer runs in %windir%\system 32).

The PC will restart, and you’ll see a different screen that reads  “Let’s connect…” (see below). Notice the link at lower right that says “I don’t have internet.” Click that.

At that point, you’ll be prompted to create a local account for login post-install. The OOBE process will complete without having to use an MSA (Microsoft Account, with associated e-mail address) during the process. This can be helpful for all kinds of reasons (including easier scripting for automated installs).

Credit Is As Credit Is Given

I have to thank user SproutTheRobot at MS Answers for providing the screenshots and instructions for using oobe\bypassnro. I’d also like to thank the users at ElevenForum.com in the thread What is “oobe\bypassnro”? for their illuminating discussion of this process. It’s what led me to the MS Answers item cited here. Thanks, people!