No user account computer

You were making things harder for yourself by listening to what people were trying to explain. As for "tosh" that could easily mean Comedy Central or Orthopedic there! But I think what Ix07 was meaning was simply put "rubbish"! as far as any Windows or even installations for other OSs requiring an email account or phone number with the exception of smart phones, IPhonies, netbooks, etc. where the carrier is the ISP.

Now for either laptop or desktop internet access at least temporary since XP is required for activation and updates only unless downloaded on another machine and transferred over that is connected for a totally stand alone once activated. That would certainly rule out the need for having any email account!

As for softwares I wasn't specifying Libre Office but the total number of programs you were leaving on or putting back on when going to sell that laptop. That was a general statement about how licensing varies between software companies. With paid programs already registered you would likely need to contact support while with most a new license would be required for the new owner to continue to be able to run each. You have to go by the EULA for each software as well with Windows.

Jerry Delacruz said:

When installing win10, I can't find a way to complete the installation beyond the query for a user account. I'm selling this computer and don't want any history on it, but I also want the new owner to be able to create their account and have access to the "public" software.

NavyLCDR said:

Windows 10 Image - Customize in Audit Mode with Sysprep - Windows 10 Forums

I think this tutorial I wrote on our sister site the Seven Forums is better in this case, showing how to do exactly what the OP wants to: Windows 7 Installation - Prepare PC to be Sold - Windows 7 Help Forums

It applies to Windows 10, too, only difference being in Phase Two, Step 2; In Windows 10 you need to enter the Audit Mode with CTRL + SHIFT + F3 when after the last reboot Windows 10 installation arrives to Settings screen, the one shown in screenshot below:

Other than that you can follow the instructions in that Seven Forums tutorial to install Windows on your PC without any user accounts which when booted first time will look and feel exactly as a new computer, letting the buyer / end user start by creating the initial first admin user account.

If Windows 10 is already installed and you do not want to reinstall but would like to achieve the same, open the Run dialog and type %windir%\system32\sysprep\sysprep.exe and hit Enter to reboot to Audit Mode. As soon as you enter the Audit Mode, use the Settings app to remove all user accounts from that PC, apart of the built-in admin account, and reboot. When rebooting in Audit Mode, Windows automatically returns to Audit Mode. Now after a reboot to Audit Mode, follow the instructions in the above mentioned tutorial from Phase 2 Step 4​.

Kari

One thing I could also advise besides using the DiskPart tool to simply nuke the primary or primaries as far as all partitions on the one or more drives you will be leaving in while a laptop typically only has the one some can see two would a special security tool that securely overwrites the data with binary zeros where no recovery program can be used later for that other someone to retrieve whatever personal data you have or did have on it. You want a tool that literally nukes everything.

These options however are generally seen provided with 3rd party drive partitioning and imaging softwares. A good 2012 PC World article provides one list of secure data erasers on seen at: Free Tools to Wipe Your Drives Securely | PCWorld

Night Hawk said:

These options however are generally seen provided with 3rd party drive partitioning and imaging softwares. A good 2012 PC World article provides one list of secure data erasers on seen at: Free Tools to Wipe Your Drives Securely | PCWorld

I've done this as told in that Seven Forums tutorial countless times, I have always been happy with simply using the Windows setup disk tools and delete all partitions on all disks before installing Windows the final time to the machine I either sell or give away.

Then simply select first disk, click Next and Windows setup formats the disk as as one system partition (plus system reserved in BIOS systems or various recovery partitions in UEFI systems) and install Windows, finally entering Audit Mode to prepare the PC to be sold.

But most of the time you know the person it will be going to like a family member or friend not a total stranger since the OP hasn't provided that type of information or whether he ordered online for example while using the laptop being sold. When there was ever any change of sensitive personal data involved you never leave things to chance since the recovery tools available now have been improved over the years!

The one absolute option of course would be replacing the drive entirely if not ruining it by running a magnet over it! Then nothing could even be recovered the drive either! Data and Identity theft are two primary concerns and putting security first these days counts. People are often a bit too lax and can end up with a situation real fast. This is why the advice still has to be given.

Anyway, the tutorial I linked to in my first post in this thread shows the procedure. How and with which tool to wipe the HDD is up to user.

Many many moons ago it wasn't FDisk but a Dos zero fill utility that would take a good 8hrs. to see a drive wiped. For simply seeing a drive cleaned off however rather then installing Ubuntu or another Linux distro before seeing a clean install of Windows you could simply use the Gparted option(Gnome Partition Editor) if not some other Windows option besides the Disk Part command prompt method or the drive tools on the Windows media. GParted will format in NTFS as well as Fat 16 and 32 as well as the VFat used for Linux in Ext 4, 5, 6. One shot deal without two OSs being installed just to see one go on.