How to log on to Windows XP automatically

Filed under: Windows, Productivity, Microsoft, Freeware, How-Tos

How to log on to Windows XP automatically

by Jason Clarke Nov 18th 2008

While in in many cases it would be a security risk, having your Windows XP computer log in automatically can be useful. For example, I have my Windows XP instance running under a virtual machine on my Mac. The easiest way to do this would be to use the Administrator account and simply leave the password blank. However, this has two distinct disadvantages: you can't log onto a domain with a machine that is not using a password, and you cannot have a machine configured this way accept Remote Desktop connections.

I have no need to use Remote Desktop to access my virtual machine, but since my XP instance needs to access a Windows network, I do need a password set. In the past, the easiest way to configure your machine to automatically log on was to use TweakUI powertoy for XP, where there is a setting under Logon for configuring automatic logons.

But there's an even faster way do do this.

On the machine that you want to configure to auto-login, click Start, Run, then type "control userpasswords2" (without the quotation marks) and press enter. In the window that pops up, click on the user account that you would like to automatically log in, then uncheck the "Users must enter a username and password to use this computer" checkbox. You will now be asked for the password for this account. Set it, click OK and OK, and you're done.

Tags: auto-login, automatically-login, how-to, login, powertoys, tweak-ui, windows-xp, xp

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Duncan Maile said 11:26AM on 11-18-2008

Works in Vista also.

Funke, Tobias Dr. said 2:15PM on 11-18-2008

Nice tip. I didn't realize this interface was available by default in XP Home.

Rahabib said 5:22PM on 11-18-2008

so the next question for me would be, what if you have multiple accounts and you want it to not only use the password but choose the proper account? Probably too much I guess.

AHMalik said 8:17PM on 11-27-2008

Regards.
There is one thing missing:
If you are already using password it does not boot & untill you enter PW.

1st remove PW from you profile ie PW blank, Confirm Blank; OK OK
then apply the method explained.

I had blank PW in my PC it worked.
Laptop had PW it didn't. I have to leave both PW & Confim PW balak before it worked

Kind regards

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