HOWTO: Make Windows XP Login Automatically (Using User Accounts)

Introduction:

In one of my previous articles,  Make Windows XP Login Automatically (Using Regedit), I described how to prevent Windows from prompting user with the username and password login prompt on boot.

Editing the registry is sometimes tricky and makes folks a little nervous as it can cause all sorts of problems if handled incorrectly and is not that easy to restore or fix.

Luckily, there is a safer and easier method to disable the Windows Login prompt.

To this we must access a hidden User Accounts dialog that you can’t get to from Control Panel.

This HOWTO tells you how to make Windows XP log in automatically and therefore prevent Windows from showing the login window or even from showing the Welcome Screen so you can just switch on, walk away, make tea, come back and see your desktop loaded and ready to go!

Here’s how to do it:

Steps:

1. Click Start > Run
2. Type control userpasswords2 > Click OK
   
3. The User Accounts dialog should appear. Uncheck the check box that says Users must enter a username and password to use this computer.
   
4. Click Apply
5. The Automatically Log On dialog should appear.  Enter the username and password that you would like Windows to log on with automatically and click OK
   
6. Now click OK twice more and restart Windows.
7. If you find that it didn’t work for you, you may want to try the alternative method which is to use the Windows Registry Editor as described in this article:  Make Windows XP Login Automatically (Using Regedit)