Autologon set, but doesn't stick

[Terry Pinnell]

For years I've always had Autologon enabled (via TweakUI). But
recently this XP Pro PC has started re-setting that somehow. It
insists on booting up to the Welcome screen offering me a choice of
user accounts. When I check TweakUI again, sure enough that checkmark
has disappeared again.

Anyone have any ideas why please?

In case it's relevant, a while ago I did setup a new user account,
Test', as a trouble-shooting aid.

 

[Tim Meddick]

You could always use the small utility from Sysinternals (a division of
Microsoft) called Autologon.exe available [free] to download from:

http://live.sysinternals.com/Autologon.exe


==



Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[Terry Pinnell]

You could always use the small utility from Sysinternals (a division of
Microsoft) called Autologon.exe available [free] to download from:

http://live.sysinternals.com/Autologon.exe

Thanks Tim, I'll try that if it happens again. My first re-boot after
applying TaurArian's suggestion loaded me to my surprise into an
unfamiliar and basic 'Administrator' account. Not sure what happened
there; presumably my error somewhere. Anyway, when I went to TweakUI I
then found 'Administrator' specified. I changed that back to 'Terry'
and the next re-boot happily not only by-passed the Welcome screen but
also took me to the correct user account.

If you'll excuse a different question, I assume that when I'm running
in my account in this direct logon way, no CPU activity is being used
by any other user account? (I'm trying to isolate an elusive
performance issue and want to be sure that at least I don't need to
look beyond my account!)

 

[Tim Meddick]

Terry,
Yes, that's right, no other *user* accounts will be running
anything with only you logged on.
However, there maybe other named 'users' if you were to open up the
Task Manager (Alt+Ctrl+Del) under the 'Processes' tab under the 'User Name'
column you may see the 'LOCAL SERVICE' account the 'SYSTEM' account and the
'NETWORK SERVICE' account listed along with your own named account (also, if
you allow, and are accepting, remote help at a given time, you may also see
the 'HelpAssistant' account). These are all types of system accounts, and
there may be others on your system.
Check what system accounts are on your PC by going to your
'Administrative Tools' folder on the 'Start Menu' and clicking on the 'Local
Users and Groups' shortcut.
(or type: mmc.exe c:\windows\system32\lusrmgr.msc into the 'Run' box
on the 'Start Menu' instead)

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

You could always use the small utility from Sysinternals (a division of
Microsoft) called Autologon.exe available [free] to download from:

http://live.sysinternals.com/Autologon.exe

Thanks Tim, I'll try that if it happens again. My first re-boot after
applying TaurArian's suggestion loaded me to my surprise into an
unfamiliar and basic 'Administrator' account. Not sure what happened
there; presumably my error somewhere. Anyway, when I went to TweakUI I
then found 'Administrator' specified. I changed that back to 'Terry'
and the next re-boot happily not only by-passed the Welcome screen but
also took me to the correct user account.

If you'll excuse a different question, I assume that when I'm running
in my account in this direct logon way, no CPU activity is being used
by any other user account? (I'm trying to isolate an elusive
performance issue and want to be sure that at least I don't need to
look beyond my account!)