How do I fix auto login in windows 11 after upgrading to version 24H2?

Question

Hello,

I work for a school district that is using smart panels in the classrooms with PCs in them for teachers to use. Since these are big touch screen devices, we have them auto-login to a specific Active Directory account so that the panel can be used without having the teacher sign in using the on-screen keyboard and showing what their password is. This has been working fine for years until last week when we pushed the 24H2 update. Now, any panels that were upgraded, no longer auto-login to the system. Every 30 seconds or so you can see the screen flash like it is trying to login but nothing ever happens. All the panels running 23H2 work just fine and we even tested re-installing 23H2 on two of the panels that were upgraded to 24H2 and the auto-login is working fine. We use a GPO to push the registry for auto-login to these devices and now that this feature is no longer working, we are not sure what we are going to do when school is back in session after summer break.

Has anyone experienced this and is there something that may have been added to 24H2 that is causing this problem? I've looked at articles and online resources but found nothing that relates to 24H2 specifically. Any help or guidance will be greatly appreciated.

Here is what we have tried that yielded no changes:

• We tried using the ForceAutoLogon registry key
• We have tried disabling LSA
• Since these devices connect via WiFi, we tried disabling the Ethernet Adapter and even uninstalling it to force it to only see the WiFi
• We have tried using netplwiz.exe
• We have tested this on other computers and they all show the exact same behavior as the panels at the schools

We know for sure it is 24H2 causing the problem because we can replicate the issue every single time by installing a previous version of Windows 11, either 22H2 or 23H2, verify it works, and as soon as we install 24H2 update, the auto login breaks upon reboot. Even installing 24H2 from scratch on a panel we are unable to get auto-login to work.

I also want to add that we have manually checked all the registry settings manually and for testing, we installed Windows 11 22H2 on different computers, even some that do not have WiFi, and they all behave the exact same way. Auto-Login works in 22H2 and 23H2, but stops working on 24H2.

Thank you for your time.

Answer 1

Hello Luis,

Thank you for posting question on Microsoft Windows Forum.

Based on your query of the auto login breaks upon reboot soon after installing 24H2 update. This might probably stem from Microsoft's introduction of "new security enforcement for auto-logon" in 24H2 update. You can try the following potential troubleshooting steps to see if it could resolve the issue.

On a testing machine that has been updated to 24H2 and exhibits the problem,

1.Manually verify the auto-logon registry keys.

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
• AutoAdminLogon should be "1"
• **DefaultUserName, DefaultPassword, DefaultDomainName** should be set appropriately.
• If they are missing, the GPO might not be applying. If they are present, try setting them manually and rebooting.

2.Network Connectivity at Boot

• Since the device uses WiFi, it might not have network connectivity by the time auto-login is attempted. This can cause domain authentication to fail. To test:

1. Temporarily connect the device via Ethernet to see if auto-login works.

3.Test with a Local Account

• Try setting auto-login to a local account (create one if needed) to see if the issue is domain-related. If local account auto-login works, then it might point to an Active Directory authentication issue specifically with 24H2 or with domain authentication.

4.Check Event Logs

• Look in Event Viewer for event IDs related to logon failures (like 4625) or other authentication events.

5.Disable Fast Startup

• While you mentioned testing this, it's worth re-confirming that "Fast Startup" (also known as Hybrid Shutdown) is disabled on these panels. This feature can cause issues with auto-login and network connectivity on boot. It can be configured via GPO by using gpedit.msc and navigate to this path Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > System > Shutdown > Require use of fast startup.

6**.**Try adding the ForceAutoLogon registry key (if not already present)

• Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
• Value: ForceAutoLogon (REG_DWORD) = 1
• Please note: making sure to back up your registry before making any change to it by following the instruction of this article. In case, something go wrong. You can swiftly reverse it.
• https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-back-up-and-restore-the-registry-in-windows-855140ad-e318-2a13-2829-d428a2ab0692

Hope the above information is helpful!

Answer 2

We have seen the same issue occur on Windows 24H2 devices with the autologon registry keys set.

Adding "ForceAutoLogon" does not work.

According the logs the "DefaultPassword" and "AutoAdminLogon" keys are being deleted or set to 0 by C:\Windows\System32\LogonUI.exe process on logoff.

I cannot find any Microsoft documentation on the security hardening changes or options for a workaround.

Answer 3

I am having the same issue. I am a library IT guy. I set a PW policy to a device to test. Now that win 1124h PC will NOT login. I've set this up before but what gives? I did an windows restore, started from scratch. Still wont work.