Wednesday, December 21, 2011

how to force windows to automatically logon to a specific username

To force windows to automatically logon you can perform one of the following ways:

1. From control userpasswords2 command- Windows XP: 1. Click Start, click Run, and type control userpasswords2. 2. Uncheck the "Users must enter a username and password to use this computer" check box. Click Apply. 3. Enter the user name and password you wish to automatically log on with, and then click OK. Click OK again and you're all done.

2. From NETPLWIZ command- Windows Vista 1. Click the Start button, type netplwiz in the search box, and then press enter. 2. Uncheck Users should enter a username and password to use this computer, and then press OK 3. Type the username and password for the user you want to automatically logon to Windows Vista when it boots up and press OK

3. Modifying Winlogon registry values: 1. Start> Run> and type “regedit” then hit enter 2. Locate the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon 3. In that key there are four values that are important:

AutoAdminLogon - A string value. Yes a string value. That is set to 0 or 1. If the value is 1, then the next time windows boots it will attempt to login with the credentials provided in the values shown below.

DefaultUserName - Username used to automatically login with.

DefaultPassword - Password used to automatically login with. Careful here. This is left in the registry unencrypted and easily read by anyone with an administrator account

DefaultDomainName - The domain name used when automatically logging in. Set to the name of the current computer name if the machine is not joined to a domain.