Tutorial Thursday
One thing I hate is to restart my computer, walk away to do something, and return just to find my computer sitting at the login screen. Then I have to wait for it to load all of my programs when really I just want it to be ready to use. I could just remove the password from my account but I also share files on my hard drive and don’t want to expose them to prying eyes. It took a little searching but I was able to find a few ways to automatically have Windows login for me. The easiest way is probably to download TweakUI from Microsoft and use it to “enter” your password every time you boot Windows. Besides for just that feature it also has several other things that it does to let you customize Windows XP, so it is probably worth downloading anyways. However, I wanted a quick fix that I could do for anyone without having to download some software. It takes just a few steps and about 60 seconds:
- Go to Start->Run and type control userpasswords2 into the box.
- In the box that pops up you need to select your username (the “Administrator” username will not work for Windows XP Home Edition users). Then uncheck the box that says “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer.“
- Press OK to continue. You will be prompted with a box that asks for your password so enter it in and press OK again.
- That’s it, now every time that you start Windows up it will automatically log you in.
Even though this is very convenient you need to think of possible security risks. I use this primarily at my house because no one else has easy access to that computer. If you do this to your laptop then anyone who steals it could gain access to your system without needing a password. So think wisely before using this feature on all of your computers.
If you use regedit, you can go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, create a new String, give it a name like “Lock Windows at Startup” and then set the value to “rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation“
warning: don’t follow william’s advice.
(it, as stated, will LOCK your windows at startup, and if used with this article’s tip for autologon will create a loop you won’t appreciate)
Or theoretically anyway. The “run” is done when you initially log on to start your session, not when you unlock a locked session. That’s why all the OTHER programs in the run settiggs don’t all suddenly double launch when you unlocked a locked computer.