BetaWiki:Featured article/2025-03
The Out-of-box experience (OOBE), sometimes referred to as the First Time Setup, is a setup wizard related to Windows, macOS, and other operating systems which launches after the user installs/resets the OS. The OOBE allows the user of the computer to setup their account, choose their keyboard layouts, and other important information the OS requires.
In most Windows NT-based systems, the files for the "Microsoft Out-of-box experience" are located in the oobe directory in %WinDir%\System32, with the main file being msoobe.exe. OOBEs are generally customized by OEMs to set up particular settings the user may be allowed to change and/or offer additional options to select or applications to be run. Starting from Windows XP, an OOBE would be made available in retail releases.