Enable "Ubuntu Style" Logons in Windows Vista

If you like the way Ubuntu requires you to enter your username and password instead of clicking on an icon, you can enable the same thing for Windows Vista in a somewhat similar style logon process. This is really most useful for home users, as domain users should already see this screen.

It’s not precisely the same style as Ubuntu, but it’s the closest we’re gonna get.

Warning: Don’t make this change unless you are sure of what your username is, because you’ll have to type that in manually in order to login.

Manual Registry Tweak

Open regedit.exe through the start menu search box and navigate to the following key, which you might have to create.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

Create these two new 32-bit DWORD values, giving them both a value of 1:

• DisableCAD
• DontDisplayLastUserName

To remove this tweak just delete the two keys.

Note: It’s not a requirement to use the DisableCAD key. What this does is prevent the “Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete” screen, which is really quite ugly in Vista. If you’d rather use CAD you can omit that key.

Downloadable Registry Tweak

Download and unzip, and then double-click on UbuntuLogonVista.reg in the file. There’s another registry file to remove it.

Download UbuntuLogonVista Registry Tweak

Warning: Don’t make this change unless you are sure of what your username is, because you’ll have to type that in manually in order to login.

Extra Credit

To actually make it look somewhat similar to Ubuntu you could customize your logon screen.