How-To Geek
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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Comments (58)
Programmer by day, geek by night, The Geek, also known as Lowell Heddings, spends all his free time bringing you fresh geekery on a daily basis. You can follow him on Google+ if you'd like.
- Published 01/25/07
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/28647/windows-7-automatic-login-when-on-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.
very usefull
Windows XP: Start –> Run –> Control userpasswords2
@ hadlyever, I also had the same problem after following all of these steps. I am the only user of my computer, and just for the heck of it, I added a password, restarted, removed the password, restarted, and now it logs on automatically. Hope this helps.
Thanks! It’s simple and worked perfectly =)
Grassy-ass. Just the “ticket” for what I have been needing. I like Win7 much more than I though I would, but I still miss the Tweak UI tools that would handle things like this.
Doesn’t work on Windows 7
thanks, useful.
Thanks, goood. :-)
but it doesn’t work, unchek the box in “Control userpasswords2″ and then will be the same again either restart, or just go back to the mentioned window above.
Do I need to tipe any pwd or could it be empty? (tried both) Strange thing is, it was working without any login (user selection) for me before, but 5 days ago keep me select the user (me) without any pwd seted up.
Anyone has got some ideas?
thanks.
sorry other info, I have no WINLOGON reg key on the specified place….
Thank you very much. This really helped me to get signed in automatically. Windows 7 doesn’t make it easy.
Several other places on the web incorrectly directed end-users to “search” for “control userpasswords2″. You had the correct information Start, run command, enter “control userpasswords2″. Or search for netplwiz.
NICE!
I want to mention that although you proceed with the above steps for Windows 7. If you have an account that uses a password and are then trying to bypass the login screen, you must first go to your user accounts and remove your password. Otherwise it will try and authenticate based on the stored password.
Thanks I just started using my old vista again thats boots slow. Now i can just press the button take a shower and when I get back my computer is on. One thing you forgot to mention. When you change your password you have to log in manually and type in netplwiz again check and uncheck the box and reenter your new password. (I guess this is an artical for the intermediate users so its fine.
Great article thanks alot
Thanks
When I joined a domain the checkbox disappeared. Had to edit the registry key listed above
Uh…just don’t put IN a password when setting up your account??
Just enter a username and no password…this has always worked just fine for me using XP and Windows 7…
work perfectly in windows 7
thanx a lot man
thanks buddy
exactly what i wanted
saves the startup time as i hit the button of cpu and run to take my coffee
and now the pc is ready when i return!
cheers!
sorry i had not tried it before commenting
but the comment by jd2066 works thands to jd2066 !
gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood!
I am come from
I.R.Iran
FYI. If anyone uses the reg hack, make sure to put the domain name in.. ie.. /domain… before the user name in there or it won’t pick up the domain and wont work right.
This method worked for me. The windows search did not!
I searched using “everything” with the keyword: “netplwiz”
I found both versions for x86 and 64bit. Double clicking on my version it opened.
Following the procedure the second box opened. Since I do not have a password, I just clicked OK.
Done! I restarted the computer without the windows log-on screen! It worked! Thank you!
For some reason my standard user account that I use most of the time does not show up on that screen, only the Adminstrator account does.
Nerrmind! I figured it out. My standard user account had a different account name than full name, that is what caused the confusion.
for windows 7 this is the way to change login.but in xp go to user account,in user name there somewhere is “”change the way windows login” just check it to change,that’s all.
Question:
Will it still show the username and password screen if I lock the computer?
auto log in is so much easier to setup in linux, but will try it on windows vista and see if it works. thx
This is great.
Thank you, exactly what I was searching for.
Like!
Hi Agree this is great but I have a problem.
Good: No login on turn-on start, no login on restart great.
screen saver “on resume display login screen” is not checked – tested after a few minutes and works correctly.
If computer is left for some time with the screen saver running I get the login screen. I have no idea why this happens does anybody have any ideas?
Thanx for your energy, sustain the nice operate Excellent perform.
Thanks, you just gave me extra credit points in my Windows OS class.
Very nice indeed! Thanks.
When the computer turns on it the users pop up so that you can pick one and sign on. All users have a password. If you wait for about 3 minutes the computer automatically logs on to a users account eventhough a password has not been entered. How do I fix this?