Windows Out of Box Experience (OOBE)

Permissions

The OOBE runs in the context of the local defaultuser0 account, which has NT Authority\SYSTEM privileges.

Task Manager Breakout { #ctrl+shift+esc }

Shortcut: CTRL + SHIFT + ESC

1. Press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC.

forced background

The taskmgr.exe process will be opened behind the Microsoft Account which is forced to the foregound. This is best paired with the CMD ESCAPE technique to enable the taskmgr.exe to be pulled to the foregound.

CMD Escape { #shift+function+f10 }

Shortcut: SHIFT + FUNCTION + F10

1. Press SHIFT+FUNCTION+F10 to open a cmd.exe process.

Note

The cmd.exe will open in the foreground.

Accessibility Breakout { #accessibility }

Shortcut: N/A

1. Click the accesibility icon at the bottom of the OOBE window.
2. Select the magnify feature.
3. Press CTRL+R to open run dialogue box.
4. Launch a powershell.exe process

forced background

The run dialogue box and subsequent powershell.exe process will be forced to the background. As long as either are the active window (ALT+TAB), the processes will accept keyboard strokes.

Windows UAC split-token

The powershell.exe process in Windows 11 be subject to the Windows 11 UAC split-token security feature.