Windows Vista: Disabling Login Screen

Hi all,

I'm sure some of you gave a thought to this, why does Vista always show the login screen when booting? In XP there was an option somewhere in control panel to "assume this user always login to the computer" or something like that. That way if you used the same user 99% of the time and wanted to keep a second user as say an administrator you could do so by setting that option. If you ever wanted to switch to the "hidden" user you could do so with Log Off or Switch User in Start Menu.

Now this is not possible in Vista, the user is given the login screen no matter what. I know this is not a big deal, it is just annoying having to look after the computer when it boots in order to provide that always-the-same click, instead of just pushing the button and coming back in a few minutes with the system ready to work...

Anyone knows of a tweak to get rid of that issue?

Thanks.

The only way to do this would be to have your account as the only account on the computer, with no password.

1. Goto Control Panel > User Accounts.
2. For your account, click "Remove Password"

When you reboot again, it will show the welcome screen for a few seconds, then go directly to your desktop.

Thanks darkpsy... so is that really the only way? having only one user without a password?

Well maybe I am asking too much, that "assume this user always login to the computer" was just an extra feature on XP and it's not supposed to be the norm. Thinking about Linux I think I've never seen that, it always prompts you for username and password, but I'm not an experienced Linux user

Even with XP if there is a password on the account windows will always prompt you to logon. There is no way to bypass that. However, you can REMOVE the password as darkspy said and as long as it's the only account on the computer it will login to that one automatically.

Actually my I just noticed that my step-mum has this feature because I realized I had never had to sign in when using that computer. Everyone shares that computer you see.

Well it's a good feature, definitely if you don't really take your computer anywhere or no one else uses it, it just speeds up the already painstakingly slow process for most computers.

Linux requires you to be logged in to do anything. However, most distributions contain an option somewhere to set a 'default' user to be logged in automatically when the machine boots. There are also options to disable the requirement for a password and other such things. However, it is generally strongly advised not to use these options, simply because they compromise system security.