How to set up auto login in Windows XP? Windows XP - Automatic login Windows xp login with user selection

This article will discuss how to set up autologin (automatic login without entering a password) on Windows operating systems. This can be useful when there is no need to restrict access to a computer/laptop so as not to waste time entering a password every time you turn it on.


One of the easiest ways, using standard Windows tools, is to use the command control userpasswords2. This is done as follows:

Click Start - Run (or Win+R keys), and in the window that appears, enter control userpasswords2 , then click OK.

In the window that appears, uncheck the “Require username and password” checkbox and click OK.

In the window that appears, you will be required to enter your username and password.


After entering, you can click OK. Now, when you turn on your computer, you will automatically log in as the user you need.

Using Autologon

Another simple method for setting up automatic login to the system is to use a third-party program Autologon, authored by Mark Russinovich. You can download it from the Microsoft website.

Using the program is as simple as possible - you need to run the downloaded program (no installation required, but upon first launch you will have to accept the terms of use), and enter all the data you need.

In field Username you should write the user name; if the user belongs to an Active Directory domain, then you should indicate his name in the field Domain. And finally in the field Password you must enter your password. After that, to turn it on, you just need to press the " Enable", and after that auto login will be configured.

The utility saves the password to the registry in encrypted form, so you won’t be able to view it in the registry after installing autologin.

Setting up via the registry

There is also a way to configure automatic login through the registry.

To enable autologin in the registry, you need to open the Start menu and select Run (or press the Win+R key combination). In the window that appears, type regedit and click OK.

Hint: in order to change the value of a parameter, just double-click on it, or right-click and select " Change".

AutoAdminLogon - We set it to one, otherwise the automatic login will not work.
ForceAutoLogon - If we want the user to be “forcibly” logged back into the system, then we set it to one.
DefaultUserName - The username under which we want to automatically log in.
DefaultPassword - Password of the user under which we want to automatically log in. Most likely, this parameter will not be available, and therefore you will have to create it yourself. To do this, right-click on an empty space and select New - String Parameter, and give it a name DefaultPassword.


DefaultDomainName - The user domain under which we want to automatically log in. If the domain is not used, leave it empty.

Now you can close the registry editor and try to restart your computer. If you did everything correctly, then immediately after loading the operating system, you will automatically log in under the desired user.



As in Windows Vista, which has a user interface for setting automatic login to skip entering passwords and directly boot to the desktop, in Windows XP there is also a convenient function that works for a computer not connected to a domain, and can be used for automation of the login process into the system so that the system can start and execute login automatically.

Typically Windows XP will automatically log you into the desktop if there is only one user on a particular system. But, sometimes, the user may need to create several accounts for different applications, for example, FTP. NET Framework, Web Server, VMWare 2.0 Web Console, etc., and with the availability of additional accounts, Windows XP will display a welcome screen or dialog box pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del to allow the user to select a user account to log in into the system. Setting up the automatic login feature will start the computer and use the configured auto login settings.

For installation in Windows XP automatic logon, follow the descriptions below. Please note that once the computer is configured for automatic By entering the Login, anyone who can have physical access to the computer can also gain access to everything that is on the computer, including the network to which the computer is connected. Additionally, the login password is stored in plain text format in the registry, which is readable by everyone who can access the console and remotely by authenticated user groups. So the function automatic login convenient, but not entirely safe.

  1. Click the button Start and then click the button Execute.
  2. Enter userpasswords2 and press the button OK .
  3. Uncheck the boxes for users must enter a username and password to use this computer and then click the button Apply .
  1. In the "Automatic login" window, in the dialog box, enter the password for the administrator in the field password, and then re-enter the password in the window Password confirmation.

As a rule, the default field Username will automatically be filled in “Administrator” using the user account in Windows XP, which does not come with any password (and is usually used as a backdoor for workers to access the system Windows XP). If you want, you can change the username to another user account.

  1. Click OK to close the Automatic Login window, and then click OK to close the User Accounts window.

Note: This guide also works in Windows Vista, to do this you need to open the Advanced User Accounts Control Panel.

If in Windows one user other than the administrator, and he does not have a password, then login is automatic. But, if the user has a password or there are several users, a user selection window appears. How to make Did Windows automatically boot under a specific user account?

If the computer is not part of a domain

In this case, configure automatic login (autologon) you can use the command control userpasswords2 or netplwiz(Windows Vista and 7 only).

  1. Press “WIN+R” and type control userpasswords2, press enter or “OK”
  2. In the window that opens "User accounts" uncheck the “ Require username and password" Click “ Apply”.
  3. In the window that opens “ Automatic login” must be entered Username: Password and password confirmation. You need to enter exactly the user whose account will be used for automatic login. Click “OK”.
  4. Close the user accounts window.

Also setting autologona can be done in the registry, as described below.

If the computer is part of a domain

Specify the domain when setting up using the command control userpasswords2 no possibility. The necessary settings must be entered into the registry using the registry editor.

  1. Press “WIN+R”. We are recruiting regedit. Press Enter or “OK”.
  2. In the registry editor that opens, find the registry key - “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogon.”
  3. In this registry section you must fill in the values ​​of the following parameters. If they don't exist, you'll have to create them.

Parameter Parameter type Required value Note
DefaultUserName string Autologon username
DefaultPassword string user password for autologon If there is no password, leave the parameter value empty
AutoAdminLogon string 1 Autologon enabled
DefaultDomainName string Domain The name of the domain that the computer belongs to
How to change user when autologin is enabled

If you need to change the user while the autologone or boot under another account, then when selecting “Logout” or when booting the PC, hold down the key Shift.

In the registry section described above there is another parameter related to autologon - ForceAutoLogon. If “1” is written in its value, you can change the user only by holding down the key Shift.

In password protected Windows XP Home or PRO version of the system, each user logs in with their own username and password in order to have full access to the computer running the operating system Windows. But also, user Windows or the administrator can login from the machine Windows XP, without knowing the original password, if they have lost or forgotten the username or password, through various bypasses or hacking methods.

Such as use DreamPackPL,bypassing the need login using a valid account or password, hacking or brute force to extract from Windows, passwords for different users or administrator accounts with Ophcrack2, or using the services of third parties such as login recovery into the system,search and recovery of username and password Windows. However, there is one simple way hack Windows XP system, if the computer owner is set to Windows XP, and forgot or did not set the password for the administrator account.
By default when installed, Windows XP has a built-in administrator account, which is equivalent to privileges in Linux or Unix, which do not contain a password. In other words, a hacker or any other person can simply enter Administrator as the username to log into Windows bypass the welcome screen lines with an empty password and get the full administrative access How administrator to PC from Windows. Even worse, most computer owners don't even know what administrator account and does it actually exist, it is not even mentioned when they create or set a password for administrator account.

So, this security vulnerability flaw provides an easy way to hack any computer with operating system Windows XP, even if the user forgot or simply did not set a password for the user ID administrator. The problem is that in normal welcome screens Windows XP where you select the username that is required to login, username Administrator not displayed or displayed. If you can't choose or choose administrator from the Login screen, then how are you going to login with the account administrator? Basically, the welcome screen in Windows XP Welcome , you can bypass it, just press the Ctrl-Alt-Del keys together twice in sequence, and you will be shown Login to Windows, a menu where you can specify a username and password. In the Username text box, enter "Administrator"(without quotes) and leave the Password field blank. Then click Enter or click on OK. If there is no password to protect the administrator account, or a blank password is set, you will be able to access Windows, with full administrator administrative rights.

On a separate computer that is not a member of any Active Directory (AD) or Windows NT domain as a member, the user can configure it in such a way that the operating system automatically will enter the console area or desktop immediately after booting (see how to do this). But, if the computers are members of a domain and are configured to log on to the domain, auto login feature can be configured using a graphical user interface (GUI). IN Windows XP and Vista, Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer hidden in the user account window on a domain system, even if the user belongs to the local user or has local administrator group privileges.

In the computer domain, Windows XP can still be installed automatic login in the selected user account by setting parameters in the registry.

Please note that the username and password credentials for automatic login will be saved and stored in the registry Windows, and can be read by anyone who can physically access the computer or remotely connect to the registry to check the user group. Hackers and intruders can also gain access to everything on the computer, including any network or network to which the computer is connected. Thus, Turn the auto login feature on or off into a system on a domain environment, a serious compromise in network security.

Follow the following procedures to force Windows XP to skip and bypass the prompt for the user to enter username and password:

  1. Click the button Start, select Execute, enter regedit command and press the button OK. IN Windows Vista, just enter regedit command V Start – Search and press Enter .
  2. Go to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

  1. Double click DefaultUserName, enter username to login and then click the button OK .

If the registry value DefaultUserName name is not found, create a new string value (REG_SZ) with the name value DefaultUserName.

  1. Double click the entry DefaultPassword, enter the account password below the field Meaning and press the button OK .

If not DefaultPassword values, create a new parameter: subkey (REG_SZ) with DefaultPassword as the parameter name.

Note that if there is no line DefaultPassword, system automatically changes value AutoAdminLogon registry from 1 (true) to 0 (false) to turn off the automatic login feature

If DefaultDomainName does not exist, create a new String value (REG_SZ) registry key with the name value DefaultDomainName.

  1. Double click AutoAdminLogon, in field Meaning put 1 and press the button OK.

If there is no AutoAdminLogon entry, create a new string entry (REG_SZ) with AutoAdminLogon as the parameter name.

  1. If they exist, remove the key AutoLogonCount.
  2. Close Registry Editor.
  3. Click the button Start, select an item and press the button OK.

After restarting the computer and Windows XP, the systems start and you can login automatically to a user-defined or previously specified key in the registry.