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[TUTORIAL] Enable Autologon in Windows - the right way

Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2009 3:14 pm
by Jeffrey
There are tools on the web which enables the autologon feature for Windows. There are several ways of enabling autologon. There is however a method which puts the password plain text in the registry. This is obviously the wrong way of doing it. TweakUI is such an tool which is widely used.

The method described here will also automatically remove any plain text passwords.

Here is the right way to enable autologon:
1. Start --> Run --> Type in <i>control userpassword2</i> and click OK
2. On the "User Accounts" screen that opens make sure that the "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer" is <u>de</u>selected and click Apply
3. On the Automatically Log On window enter the username and password which will be used to autologon into windows
4. Click Ok and close User Accounts
5. Reboot and check if the autologon works

Optional (but highly recommended):
To automatically lock the computer after automatically logging click Start --> Run --> Type in (or better --> copy and paste):
<i>REG add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run /v AutoLockAtLogon /t REG_SZ /d "%windir%\system32\rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation"</i>

To disable the automatic locking at logon click Start --> Run --> Type in:
<i>REG delete HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run /v AutoLockAtLogon</i>

[TUTORIAL] Enable Autologon in Windows - the right way

Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2009 3:48 pm
by Jeffrey
To autolaunch applications when the computer logs in (plugwise, homeseer, etc.) you also have a few options:
1. Create shortcuts in the Start --> All Programs --> Startup folder
2. Create a batchfile or vbscript and place it in the startup folder or the run key of the user (much like the reg add command in the starttopic)

The problem with number one is that apps will be launched in an uncontrolled way. That means that you can have timing issues as app1 has to run before app2 can be started. This can be resolved by using option 2, but that requires some scriptknowledge.

So the option is to use blade's application launched (BLAppLauncher), which takes care of any timing issues (credits go out to Chak for pointing me to this tool). You can find it on Blades homepage (http://bladeplugins.no-ip.org) or use the direct link to the download --> http://bladeplugins.no-ip.org/DownloadF ... leType=app

Please note that the autolaunching will still happen even when the autolock option is used as described in the start topic!

[TUTORIAL] Enable Autologon in Windows - the right way

Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2009 7:48 pm
by Francois
What about "AutoLogon" from the sysinternals suite by Mark Russinovich ? It does just this from the GUI without having to change the registry.

Autologon enables you to easily configure Windows built-in autologon mechanism. Instead of waiting for a user to enter their name and password, Windows uses the credentials you enter with Autologon, which are encrypted in the Registry, to log on the specified user automatically.

I use this on my homeseer server and it works like a charm. Can be downloaded from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... 63905.aspx

Francois

[TUTORIAL] Enable Autologon in Windows - the right way

Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2009 8:10 pm
by Jeffrey
That will also work Francois. Mark rocks. It's a safe bet that he uses the same manner as the control userpassword2 method, but with a gui around it.

If you add the automatically lock reg entry your set.

[TUTORIAL] Enable Autologon in Windows - the right way

Posted: Mon Nov 02, 2009 2:49 pm
by rsergio
1) article about all possible ways to perform windows autologon -- http://www.logonexpert.com/freeautologon.html
2) or shareware tool from the same website named Logonexpert

Both works perfectly :)

Re: [TUTORIAL] Enable Autologon in Windows - the right way

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 3:30 pm
by Edwin2008
Yep but windows 7 is a challenge if you want the password encrypted.

Re: [TUTORIAL] Enable Autologon in Windows - the right way

Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 9:25 am
by Jeffrey
My initial post option with "control userpassword2" is secure. This works perfect with Windows 7.

Re: [TUTORIAL] Enable Autologon in Windows - the right way

Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 4:46 pm
by Edwin2008
"control userpassword2" did not work on W7Starter. What did work was "netplwiz".