Despite the fact that at first many were against all this, over time most of us have realized the usefulness of this integrated security system by Microsoft. Even more so if we take into account that our computer is increasingly working with a greater amount of sensitive or private data that we do not want to fall into the wrong hands. Hence precisely all the authentication facilities that Microsoft makes available to us in the operating system.
This makes the password of the PC is the password of the Microsoft account. In exchange, it gives us more security and access to company services, such as settings synchronization and access to OneDrive.
When we use our Microsoft account to log in to Windows 10, we are automatically configuring our email and password as the credentials of our user of Windows. This forces us to have to enter the password of our Outlook account every time we turn on the computer. And this is very annoying especially for users who use strong passwords.
Also, if we share our computer with other people (with family or friends), if the person needs to unlock the computer, and for some reason Windows Hello doesn’t work, we will have no choice but to give you the password of our user. And this account is the one that gives access to mail, OneDrive and all other Microsoft services. A catastrophe speaking from security and privacy.
Luckily, although Windows 10 does not show us the option as such, it is possible to configure the operating system to automatically log in when you turn on the computer. In this way we will not have to enter our password or any PIN. The only advantage that deactivating this security method offers us is going to be found if our computer uses a traditional storage unit, HDD instead of SSD, since we avoid that, during the loading process, there is a pause that forces us to to be in front of the computer so that it can continue its work, instead of going to have a coffee while it fully boots, since the boot time using a traditional HDD is several minutes instead of the seconds that an SSD drive takes.
How to enable automatic login
This setting is available in all versions of Windows. We can use it without problems from any version and edition (both Home and Pro). It is clear that this is an advantage that we can take more advantage of and that will be more useful in corporate or more professional environments. In fact, system administrators at these companies can use autostart to start all computers at a certain time.
However, the end user can also take advantage of all of this, for example, to launch certain programs such as P2P clients and start downloading the scheduled content. With everything and with it, let’s see how we can implement this Windows feature and thus benefit from all this in a matter of a few minutes.
Using netplwiz
To do it by this method, what we must do is execute the command “netplwiz” in our managed by Windows 10 or Windows 11. We can do this from the Windows search engine by writing the command as such or opening the window Run (Windows + R) and running the command from there.
A new user account configuration window will open. From here we will be able to create new users, modify the existing ones and manage all the accounts we have on the computer to, for example, force change password to a user at login.
In addition, we will be able to customize the way in which users log in to our team. For example, those mentioned before, system administrators, will be able to benefit a lot from this feature.
To enable automatic login, all we have to do, in this window, is uncheck the box «Users must enter their name and password to use the equipment«. If this box is not displayed, it does not resort to other available options. This is because we have the Windows Hello protection measures activated, so we must first deactivate them as we show you in the following section.
As we can see, the team user box has remained grey. We apply the changes, we enter our password (for security) for the last time and that’s it. Now, when we restart the computer, we can see how we automatically log in without having to enter our password.
Of course, something that we must keep in mind if we activate this functionality is that the security of that equipment is reduced. From that moment it will not be necessary to enter the authentication credentials of the Microsoft system to access the equipment. This means that any other person who has access to see the computer at that moment of power-on, will be able to manage it or access the data stored here. In most cases this is not the most desirable, and at the same time it is something that we must keep in mind if we are going to use this automatic ignition.
“Users must enter their name and password to use the computer” is not displayed
Depending on whether it is a desktop or laptop computer and if we have Windows Hello authentication enabled, this box may not be displayed. In order for this box to be displayed and to be able to activate or deactivate it according to our needs, we must make a series of changes in the Windows configuration options to deactivate the Windows 10 and Windows 11 login options.
In order for the “Users must enter their name and password on the computer” box to be displayed when running netplwiz, we must access the Windows configuration options, using the Win + io shortcut from the start menu. Within the start menu, click on Accounts and then on Login.
Within this section, in the section on the right, we must deactivate the switch Require Windows Hello sign-in for Microsoft accounts. Furthermore, in Require loginwe must click on the drop-down box and select the Never option if we do not want the window where we must enter the Windows password to be displayed when we resume the activity of our PC.
These same options are also available in Windows 11, regardless of whether it is the Home or Pro version, so this box is not displayed either, we must perform the same steps.
Using Autologon
If we don’t want to complicate ourselves, there is a very small and simple program, created by Microsoft itself, that will allow us to do the same. What this program does is, instead of having to enter the username and password, it automatically loads the ones that we specify in order to log in. The data is saved, encrypted, in the Windows registry, so it is completely safe.
This program is part of the Sysinternals, and we can download it from . Once downloaded, we run it and fill in the information that it asks us to configure the automatic login. As in the previous case, all this affects the security of the operating system. However, thanks to this application that we are talking about, we will have much more convenient access to change the power-on state of the computer, so we can change it more quickly if necessary and disable this automation.
Using the “Enable” and “Disable” buttons we can activate or deactivate this automatic login. We can even use it on the command line using the following statement:
autologon user domain password
modifying the registry
And we also have a third way to do the same in Windows 10: by editing the registry. The result will be the same as with the two previous methods, but it is a more complicated process (and dangerous, if we do not have experience with registration).
The first thing we will do is open the “regedit” window using the Windows taskbar search engine.
Once opened, we must go to the following directory:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SOFTWARE>Microsoft>Windows NT>CurrentVersion>Winlogon
Inside this directory we will find a registry value called “DefaultUserName”. If it doesn’t exist, we create it as New > String Value. We double click on it and enter the name of our user, the one we want to start by default. Then we look for an entry called “DefaultPassword” or, if it doesn’t exist, we create it as New > String Value. Once created, we double click on it and enter our password.
Finally, we look for the “AutoAdminLogon” registry entry, and change its value from “0” to “1”. Ready. We restart the PC and we can see how it automatically logs in with the account that we have specified.
Disable lock screen
If we are going to configure automatic login, the lock screen that Windows 10 configures for us does not make sense. Thus, if we do not plan to use it at all, we can deactivate it. To do this, we must go in the registry editor to the following section:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SOFTWARE>Policies>Microsoft>Windows
And, there, create a new 32-bit DWORD value, giving it the name “NoLockScreen”. Once created, we open it with a double click and give it the value “1”.
After reboot, the lock screen will be history. Of course, we will continue to see the login screen whenever it is necessary to authenticate ourselves to enter the system.
Other ways to protect our computer
Although when we turn on the computer we automatically log in, without a password, it is still activated in our Windows, so we continue to have some security.
For example, yes we block the computer with Windows + L, to use it again we will have to type the password of our Microsoft account. Either that, or enter the PIN code if we have Windows Hello activated to be able to unlock the computer and use it.
Also, if we restart the computer Safe Mode it will not log in automatically. To be able to enter we will have to write the password of the user account, that of the Microsoft account. From Windows 10 May 2020 Update We can also enter Safe Mode with the Windows Hello PIN code
Another resource that we can resort to, especially if we have already updated our computer to Windows 11, is to activate data encryption. Microsoft has a very powerful encryption tool called BitLocker. When we activate it, all the data on the hard drive is encrypted so that, to access it, we must enter a password. When we turn off the computer, the data is protected (even if the hard drive is disconnected and connected to another computer), and when it is turned on, before starting Windows, it will ask us for a password. In the end we are in the same, since the password will be requested before starting Windows instead of at login. But our data…
Facebook Comments
Disqus