windows Auto logon alternatives

Question

Hi, I have been using windows auto-login feature in which creds are saved in registry and are used to login automatically when the server restarts. This enables registry key HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows Nt\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\CahcedLogonsCount. Now my management wants to disable this cached logons due to security reasons. Is there any alternative way to login into windows machine other than auto-login feature ?

Answer 1

Maby try the Sysinternals https://learn.microsoft.com/de-de/sysinternals/downloads/autologon In most cases this is because of an Software that have no such features as run as a service? You could try to run it with the https://nssm.cc/ to let the Programm exe or whatever run as a Service, so you don´t need a user to logon?

Answer 2

Hi Anubhav,

Thanks for your post. You can configure Windows to automate the logon process by storing your password and other pertinent information in the registry database.

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type Regedit.exe, and then press Enter.
3. Locate the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon subkey in the registry.
4. On the Edit menu, click New, and then point to String Value.
5. Type AutoAdminLogon, and then press Enter.
6. Double-click AutoAdminLogon.
7. In the Edit String dialog box, type 1 and then click OK.
8. Double-click the DefaultUserName entry, type your user name, and then click OK.
9. Double-click the DefaultPassword entry, type your password, and then click OK.

If the DefaultPassword value does not exist, it must be added. To add the value, follow these steps:

a. On the Edit menu, click New, and then point to String Value.

b. Type DefaultPassword, and then press Enter.

c. Double-click DefaultPassword.

d. In the Edit String dialog, type your password and then click OK.

1. If you have joined the computer to a domain, you should add the DefaultDomainName value, and the data for the value should be set as the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the domain, for example contoso.com..
2. Exit Registry Editor.
3. Click Start, click Shutdown, and then type a reason in the Comment text box.
4. Click OK to turn off your computer.
5. Restart your computer. You can now log on automatically.

Reference: Configure Windows to automate logon - Windows Server | Microsoft Learn

Best Regards,

Ian Xue

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