Make Windows 7 or Vista Log On Automatically
If you are just running a home computer for gaming or something unimportant, you might not want to have to log in every single time you reboot your computer. There’s an easy tweak that will let you autologin.
First, we’ll need to get to the Advanced User Accounts Control Panel to get to this setting. I think there’s a registry tweak as well, but that seems like too much work.
Type in netplwiz into the start menu search box, hit enter, and you’ll see this screen:
Note: If that doesn’t work, you can type in control userpasswords2 instead.
Uncheck the box that says “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer”, and then hit Apply. You’ll see a username and password box. Enter in the appropriate information here and hit OK:
Note that these steps work perfectly on XP as well.
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Very useful
Thanks a lot
Thanks for this.
However, it doesn’t seem to work when you hibernate. You still have to log on. Any workaround for that?
Hi!
For hibernate/sleep; go to advanced settings for power saving schema, ther you can set that logon isn’t nessesary after sleep.
I found this in the help as well, but how do you do the reverse? 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. The box to require a password is already unchecked (we don’t need that in our home). 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.
Thanks in advance.
Fantastic article, you can also get to it by typing “control userpasswords2″ from the run box.
Is there something similiar for XP?
same as above is true for xp
It doesn’t work for me !!
The screen “User accounts” does not have a box to be ticked “users must enter username and password to use this computer” ! I can’t find it anywhere!
Can you help?
I had the same problem, but I ended up using regedit to get the box visible, then selected the correct account to login through ‘control useraccounts2′. Restarted and works great
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Modify the ‘AutoAdminLogin’ value to ‘1′ to enable the checkbox.
The only other thing I needed was to change ‘DefaultDomainName’ AFTER I had set a user to auto login through ‘control useraccounts2′ since I had a local user and a domain user with the same name.
BTW, I don’t take responsibility if you foobar your PC, so use at your own risk.
You ought to change your instruction to send your advisee to start, run, then control…… I found the search didn’t find the program in index, but using run worked fine.
I cannot check the the box “logon isn’t nessesary after sleep”
What to do about that?
this article gets me halfway there. yes i dont have to enter a password, but i still have to click on the button to logon. how do i get windows to simply go straight to my desktop on startup and when it comes out of sleep mode?
@hadlyever: Goto Power Options in Control Panel, Click “Choose what the power buttons do” on the left, click “Don’t require a password” and click “Save Changes”.
Note: If the password radio buttons are grayed out click “Change settings that are currently unavailable” and click Continue for them to appear.
Just a note: This works perfectly on Windows 7, too!
I had the same problem, but I ended up using regedit to get the box visible, then selected the correct account to login through ‘control useraccounts2′. Restarted and works great
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Modify the ‘AutoAdminLogin’ value to ‘1′ to enable the checkbox.
The only other thing I needed was to change ‘DefaultDomainName’ AFTER I had set a user to auto login through ‘control useraccounts2′ since I had a local user and a domain user with the same name.
BTW, I don’t take responsibility if you foobar your PC, so use at your own risk.
DUDE, That works….
THX….
Hi I have windows 7 rc on an acer aspire one. I didn’t put a password on the admin account I set up in windows setup and as expected on loading windows, it automatically logged on to my user account. Then about a couple of ours when I restarted after installing an update it required me to click the account button to log on?! Now my first thoughts were un install the updates, which did not work. I have then done all suggestions mentioned above. I am usually pretty succesfull in trouble shooting these kind of problems but I am at my wits end and my next step is looking like a clean install but I would be very grateful for any sugestions. Thanks in advance!
if you cannot open advanced user accounts with “control useraccounts2″ like me and registry trick does not work try this:
open control panel > click on the arrow in adress bar > select All Control Panel Items
Is there a way to have the computer see what Wifi connections are available, and if there is a certain connection with let’s say “Home” as the name, have it automatically logon. Then if that wifi connection is not available, it would not automatically logon?
I’m assuming probably not. haha.
Thanks for your time.
What about the Win XP feature “Change the way users login” feature where the username and blank password field option were available instead of the Welcome screen? Anyone know how to enable this for Win 7?
I have a HPTouchSmart computer which I just turned on and the first screen (Windows Vista Ulitmate) says’ Press CTRL + ALT + DELETE or use the Windos Security button to log on’, the only other items that I can see are two icons on lower left- one for keyboard language and the other an ease of access feature.
Does anyone know how to log on as pressing Ctrl+ Alt+Delete does nothing??
None of the keys do anything?
If your machine is part of a domain, you will have to tweak the register. Here’s a great article on how to do that.
http://superuser.com/questions.....n-a-domain
Well that didn’t work in windows 7 at all !
instead it made the guest log in invisable ???
lucky for me it was reversable.
this was my first and last time trying this
“How to Geek” that’s for sure.