Skipping the New “Welcome to Mac” Screen During Setup Assistant

When setting up a new Mac or performing a fresh installation of macOS, you’re typically greeted by the “Welcome to Mac” screen as part of the Setup Assistant. While this interface is helpful for individual users, system administrators and organizations managing multiple devices often need to bypass this process for efficiency. In this guide, we’ll explore how to skip the Welcome screen using auto-advance and welcome skip keys.

Understanding the Setup Assistant

The Setup Assistant (also known as the Out-of-Box Experience or OOBE) is designed to help users configure their new Mac with essential settings. However, in scenarios like:

• Mass deployment of Mac computers in an organization
• Creating standardized system images
• Testing and development environments
• Automated setup processes

Bypassing the initial setup screens can save considerable time and ensure consistency across installations.

Understanding the Skip Keys

Skip keys are special keyboard shortcuts or configuration settings that allow administrators to bypass specific setup screens during the Mac initialization process. These keys are particularly valuable in enterprise environments where standardized configurations need to be deployed across multiple devices.

Skip keys such as "AppleID", "Siri", or "ScreenTime" that tell the Mac to hide or skip their corresponding Setup Assistant screen. Apple has expanded this list over time to accommodate new features.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicemanagement/skipkeys

Example of Common Skip Keys

• Appearance – Skips the appearance (Light/Dark mode) selection.
• AppleID – Skips signing in with an Apple ID.
• ScreenTime – Skips configuring Screen Time.
• Welcome – New for macOS Sonoma, skips the new “Welcome to Mac” intro screen.

Current Limitations in Intune UI for Skip Keys

Microsoft Intune’s user interface for creating & updating the Setup Assistant pages provides comprehensive coverage for most skip keys needed in macOS deployment scenarios. Through the enrollment profile settings in the Intune portal, administrators can configure the majority of available skip options, such as Location Services, Privacy settings, Apple ID setup, Terms and Conditions, Display settings, Remote Management screens, Accessibility options, Touch ID setup, Screen Time configuration, Find My Mac setup, Account migration, and iCloud Analytics.

However, there are three specific limitations in the current Intune interface where skip keys are not available: the Welcome screen, App Store setup, and Payment information configuration. This means that while organizations can control most aspects of the setup process directly through Intune, these three screens require additional consideration in deployment planning. This limitation becomes particularly relevant for enterprises deploying Macs at scale, where automated setup and consistent user experience are crucial requirements.

How to Skip the “Welcome” Screen

While the Intune UI doesn’t provide direct access to the Welcome screen skip key, interestingly we can implement this functionality by updating our existing enrolment profile through Microsoft Graph API. This process allows us to add the Welcome screen skip key along with other missing keys to our deployment configuration.

To implement the Welcome screen skip key in our enrollment profile, we’ll be using Postman to make Graph API calls. Let me walk you through this process step by step – it’s simpler than it might seem at first!

Step 1: List All Enrolment Profiles

First, we need to find out which enrollment profiles exist in our Intune environment. Think of this as opening your filing cabinet to see all the folders you have. Here’s how we do it:

Open up Postman, and create a new GET request. The URL we’ll use is:

GET /deviceManagement/depOnboardingSettings/{depOnboardingSettingId}/enrollmentProfiles

When you send this request, you’ll get back a list of all your enrollment profiles, including their IDs. Look through the response to find the profile you want to modify – you’ll need its ID for the next step.

Step 2: Get Specific Profile Details

Now that we have our profile ID, let’s look at its current settings – like opening up that specific folder to see what’s inside. Create another GET request in Postman, but this time we’ll add our profile ID to the URL:

GET /deviceManagement/depOnboardingSettings/{depOnboardingSettingId}/enrollmentProfiles/{enrollmentProfileId}

When you send this request, you’ll see all the current settings for this profile, including any skip keys that are already configured. This step is crucial because it helps us understand what’s already set up before we make any changes.

Step 3: Update/Create the Profile with Welcome Skip Key

Here comes the exciting part – actually adding our Welcome screen skip key! For this example, we’ll create a POST request.

POST /deviceManagement/depOnboardingSettings/{depOnboardingSettingId}/enrollmentProfiles

If successful, this method returns a 201 Created response code and a depEnrollmentProfile object in the response body.

Verifying Profile Settings in Intune Admin Portal

When working with Graph API changes, it’s always a good practice to check the results in the Intune portal – this gives us a visual confirmation that everything is working as expected.

However – and this is the important part – you won’t see our the Welcome key listed in the portal. Don’t worry! This is completely normal and exactly what we expect. These skip keys are actively working in our profile, but because they’re not supported in the UI, they remain invisible here. Think of them as our “behind the scenes” settings that are doing their job quietly in the background.

Auto-Advance Setup Assistant

In addition to skip keys, Apple also introduced the concept of auto-advancing Setup Assistant with certain MDM configurations. When autoAdvanceSetupEnabled is true, the Mac tries to move through Setup Assistant screens automatically if there’s nothing for the user to configure. Pairing auto-advance with the correct skip keys can produce a near-zero-touch setup, letting users land on the macOS desktop that much faster.

Below is a simplified JSON snippet for a depMacOSEnrollmentProfile in Intune’s Microsoft Graph beta endpoint showing both the autoAdvanceSetupEnabled flag and the skip key for “Welcome.”

{
            "@odata.type": "#microsoft.graph.depMacOSEnrollmentProfile",
            "displayName": "MacOS DEP Profile",
            "description": "DEP profile",
            "requiresUserAuthentication": true,
            "configurationEndpointUrl": "https://example.com/configurationEndpointUrl/",
            "enableAuthenticationViaCompanyPortal": false,
            "requireCompanyPortalOnSetupAssistantEnrolledDevices": false,
            "isDefault": false,
            "supervisedModeEnabled": true,
            "supportDepartment": "IT",
            "isMandatory": true,
            "locationDisabled": false,
            "supportPhoneNumber": "000000",
            "profileRemovalDisabled": false,
            "restoreBlocked": true,
            "appleIdDisabled": true,
            "termsAndConditionsDisabled": true,
            "touchIdDisabled": false,
            "applePayDisabled": true,
            "siriDisabled": true,
            "diagnosticsDisabled": true,
            "displayToneSetupDisabled": true,
            "privacyPaneDisabled": true,
            "screenTimeScreenDisabled": true,
            "configurationWebUrl": true,
            "enabledSkipKeys": [
                "Registration",
                "iCloudDiagnostics",
                "iCloudStorage",
                "Appearance",
                "Accessibility",
                "UnlockWithWatch",
                "Restore",
                "AppleID",
                "TOS",
                "Payment",
                "Siri",
                "Diagnostics",
                "DisplayTone",
                "Privacy",
                "ScreenTime",
                "TermsOfAddress",
                "Intelligence",
                "EnableLockdownMode",
                "Wallpaper",
                "Welcome"
            ],
            "enrollmentTimeAzureAdGroupIds": [],
            "waitForDeviceConfiguredConfirmation": true,
            "registrationDisabled": true,
            "fileVaultDisabled": false,
            "iCloudDiagnosticsDisabled": true,
            "passCodeDisabled": false,
            "zoomDisabled": false,
            "iCloudStorageDisabled": true,
            "chooseYourLockScreenDisabled": true,
            "accessibilityScreenDisabled": true,
            "autoUnlockWithWatchDisabled": true,
            "skipPrimarySetupAccountCreation": true,
            "setPrimarySetupAccountAsRegularUser": true,
            "dontAutoPopulatePrimaryAccountInfo": true,
            "primaryAccountFullName": "",
            "primaryAccountUserName": "",
            "enableRestrictEditing": false,
            "adminAccountUserName": "",
            "adminAccountFullName": "",
            "adminAccountPassword": "",
            "hideAdminAccount": false,
            "requestRequiresNetworkTether": false,
            "autoAdvanceSetupEnabled": false
        },

End User Experience

To be absolutely certain everything is set up correctly, we can create a test device enrolment and watch as it smoothly skips past the Welcome screen during the setup process. This real-world testing is the ultimate verification that our Graph API configuration is working as intended.

Wrapping Up

The “Welcome” skip key offers a straightforward way to bypass Apple’s updated “Welcome to Mac” screen—ideal for large-scale deployments and faster user onboarding. Paired with auto-advance, it helps create a minimal Setup Assistant experience, saving time and reducing user confusion.

If your organization prioritizes a frictionless setup, review your MDM’s release notes or documentation to see if it supports the Welcome skip key. A little bit of configuration can go a long way in creating a more seamless deployment process.