Many people that have Media Center PCs or have a dedicated Home PC want to automatically log in to their computers and not be hassled on every boot/restart up to do so.
For those of you not sure how this can be done, there are several ways to manage do this that has been the same way from the days of Windows NT.
1. Click Start
2. In Start Search/Run Command box type: control userpasswords2 or netplwiz or by running the command %SystemRoot%\system32\rundll32.exe netplwiz.dll,UsersRunDll
3. Press Continue when the UAC notification comes up.
4. Next uncheck the box for Users must enter a username and password to use this computer.
5. Click Apply
6. You will be prompted for the login name and password of the user that you want to automatically log in as. Enter that information for that user account and then click OK and then click on OK again. And you’re all set.
If have more complex login process you can also do it with a registry entry:
1. Click on Start, type in regedit and allow it to launch.
2. Head to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon (you can also do a search for AutoAdminLogon)
3. Next set AutoAdminlogon from (0) to the value of (1)
-DefaultUserName (your user name)
-DefaultPassword (your password) If this doesn’t exist you will need to create it as a ‘New String’ value by going to Edit->New->String Value in Winlogon
-DefaultDomainName (if you have a domain)
4. Close the Registry Editor and then restart your system to allow for the registry changes to take effect.
Note:
You should always have a password assigned, even if you are automatically logging in, to help prevent remote access to your machine.
Also if your machine is physically accessible to others, setting your machine to automatically login will allow others to have access to your computer. So keep this in mind when enabling.
Written by Steven Hughes - Visit Website
