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disable the login screen

Bob Bergmann 0 Reputation points
2026-05-26T01:39:04.6366667+00:00

how do I disable the login screen? netplwiz doesn't work.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Accounts, profiles, and login
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  1. EmilyS726 239.1K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-05-26T02:10:54.55+00:00
    1. First, go to Settings > Accounts > Sign in options, scroll down to mid page, under "Additional Settings",Make sure "For improved security, only allow Windows Hello Sign-in for Microsoft accounts on this device (Recommended). " is turned OFF.
    2. Type netplwiz in the search on the taskbar and press enter, select your user, if the "user must enter a username and password to use this computer" box is NOT checked, please check it , click Apply. Then uncheck the box and click Apply. This will bring up a pop up window.
    3. On this pop up window, this is where most mistakes happen. Very important, erase the username that's prefilled. Username should be your entire email address for your Microsoft account. Password is your Microsoft account's password. Any typo here can prevent it from working. Then click OK. And back to the netplwiz page, click OK.
    4. Restart the computer now and it should work.

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  2. AI answer

    2026-05-26T01:39:19.2+00:00

    Disabling the login screen entirely (so that Windows starts directly to the desktop without any sign-in) is typically done by configuring automatic logon. If netplwiz is not working, automatic logon may still be configured or controlled by other mechanisms (for example, policies or registry settings), or the system may already be set for automatic logon but behaving unexpectedly.

    From the available information, the following are relevant points:

    1. If the system is configured for automatic logon, logging off can immediately log back in without a password prompt. This behavior is described when a computer is set to log on automatically.
    2. To stop automatic logon (the opposite of what is desired), the documented method is to require users to enter a user name and password. This is done via the Network Identification Wizard and user settings. The presence of this guidance indicates that automatic logon is controlled by system configuration rather than netplwiz alone.
    3. There is also a separate mechanism for automatic logon via the Sysinternals Autologon tool, which configures Windows’ built-in autologon mechanism by storing credentials in the registry. This tool can enable or disable automatic logon without relying on netplwiz.

    Given this, to effectively disable the login screen and sign in automatically, use the Autologon utility:

    1. Download and run Autologon (Autologon.exe).
    2. Enter the user name, domain (or computer name), and password of the account that should sign in automatically.
    3. Click Enable. Windows will then use these credentials to log on automatically at startup.
    4. If automatic logon needs to be turned off later, run Autologon again and click Disable.

    Note: Autologon stores the password as an encrypted LSA secret in the registry. A user with administrative rights can retrieve and decrypt it, so this should only be used in environments where that risk is acceptable.

    If automatic logon is already configured but the login screen still appears, check for any configuration that disables or hides the auto logon UI (for example, Embedded/Custom Logon scenarios) and ensure they are not interfering with normal desktop automatic logon.

    References:

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