How-To Geek

There is a description in the tips section on how to turn automatic logon on, and judging by comments made that works. I have the opposite problem. Automatic logon seems to have been turned on on my machine since I installed Vista (on a new machine). I would prefer it be off since two of us use it and it would be helpful to have the so-called welcome screen to choose the user. We do not want to use passwords (no one else around). The box to require a password is therefore unchecked. I can get no further dialog boxes giving me the option to turn on the welcome screen with user choice. The machine always starts as the user that was first created.

Bottom line: how does one get the welcome screen so one can choose a user without having to establish passwords for the users.

Thanks in advance.

First, sorry for the double posting. Didn't see it uses the name of the last reply poster.

Yes, one could check the password box, but we don't want to do that. Basically we want the screen that you get when you hit switch user. Minor point since one could make the password a blank, but causes an extra step (I have an impatient significant other).

That seems logical. So I am exceptionally dense tonight - after mucking around for 15 minutes I can find where to set or unset passwords for each user, but where is "control user passwords"? That is a global setting, right? Even a search in help didn't bring up that nugget.
Thanks.
Enno

Thank you, and I now see that the Geek actually said that. Sorry for being dense. So for everyone else, yes it works. So two steps:

1. In start menu, control userpasswords2
2. Check the box saying a password is required
3. For individual users who you do not want to require to use a password, as an administrator go into "add or remove user accounts" in control panel, choose the accounts you want to edit, and remove the password if there is one.

Result is that you get a welcome screen, click on whoever you are and it logs in; those who want to have a password can still do so. Obviously no password setups are only for safely located machines, not an office environment.

General question that this posting brings up - on this forum, is it considered polite to say thank you, or is that considered wasting space? Nothing in the FAQ.

Thanks again,
Enno