TweakUI Auto logon

[Terry Pinnell]

On my XP Pro PC I use PowerToys TweakUI and I have enabled 'Log on
automatically at system startup'. Occasionally when I reboot I still
get the logon screen. And the TweakUI setting has become unchecked.
Anyone have any idea why that might happen please? Never happened in
5/6 years with my last (XP Home) PC.

 

[Pennywise]

On my XP Pro PC I use PowerToys TweakUI and I have enabled 'Log on
automatically at system startup'. Occasionally when I reboot I still
get the logon screen. And the TweakUI setting has become unchecked.
Anyone have any idea why that might happen please? Never happened in
5/6 years with my last (XP Home) PC.

Installing SP3 or some service packs can do this.

 

[PeterC]

Installing SP3 or some service packs can do this.

Yes, I had the same problem. In TweakUI, go in to Logon-Autologon, tick the
box, then Set Password, leave the spaces blank then OK twice. Well, it's
worked for me (but having just opened TUI to check...!).

 

[OldMan]

Why not simply set win to auto logon

 

[Twayne]

Yes, I had the same problem. In TweakUI, go in to Logon-Autologon,
tick the box, then Set Password, leave the spaces blank then OK
twice. Well, it's worked for me (but having just opened TUI to
check...!).

IMO it's not right to recommend 3rd party apps to do things that are so
easily done in the normal windows. It defeats learnign one's system and
leaves the user not knowing it was a simple key click in their log on
windows dialogs, for example.
TUI does nothing the user cannot do themselves natively, really, and
isn't the right answer to these questions.

 

[PeterC]

IMO it's not right to recommend 3rd party apps to do things that are so
easily done in the normal windows. It defeats learnign one's system and
leaves the user not knowing it was a simple key click in their log on
windows dialogs, for example.
TUI does nothing the user cannot do themselves natively, really, and
isn't the right answer to these questions.

Yes, agreed, but a). I've never managed to get it to work and b). that
mean's I'm doing something wrong.
Please educate us so that we can do this properly.

Thanks.

 

[thanatoid]

TweakUI is a MS product.

Almost NOTHING important is "easily done" in "normal" Windows.
That's why you need dozens of 3rd party apps to be able to use a
Windows machine at all, starting with a real file manager and
text editor.

(Although as I said, Tweak UI happens to be {a fairly useful}
Microsoft product which somehow slipped by.)

Can you print a directory's contents from a "normal" Windows
machine?

Right. And you never will, either.


Debatable, especially depending on who the user is.

<SNIP>

 

[Terry Pinnell]

IMO it's not right to recommend 3rd party apps to do things that are so
easily done in the normal windows. It defeats learnign one's system and
leaves the user not knowing it was a simple key click in their log on
windows dialogs, for example.
TUI does nothing the user cannot do themselves natively, really, and
isn't the right answer to these questions.

That's a separate issue, and a matter of personal preference. As it
happens I didn't know there was a simple alternative to TweakUI to get
fully automatic logon, by-passing the Logon window. Could you spell it
out please? If indeed it is simpler and does the identical job then
yes, I'd normally prefer the 'direct' method.

But the issue I've raised is that the option doesn't 'stick'. From
elsewhere I gather that the likely explanation concerns ASP.NET. The
advice I received was "Go to your User Accounts in the Control Panel
and delete the ASP.NET user account. That should solve your auto login
problem." There's more info at
http://www.mvps.org/marksxp/WindowsXP/aspdot.php

 

[PeterC]

That's a separate issue, and a matter of personal preference. As it
happens I didn't know there was a simple alternative to TweakUI to get
fully automatic logon, by-passing the Logon window. Could you spell it
out please? If indeed it is simpler and does the identical job then
yes, I'd normally prefer the 'direct' method.

But the issue I've raised is that the option doesn't 'stick'. From
elsewhere I gather that the likely explanation concerns ASP.NET. The
advice I received was "Go to your User Accounts in the Control Panel
and delete the ASP.NET user account. That should solve your auto login
problem." There's more info at
http://www.mvps.org/marksxp/WindowsXP/aspdot.php

That seems to be for dotNet 1; I have v2 and no account for it (with hidden
and system folders shown).
'Sticking' is the problem; I used TweakUI when I couldn't get autologon to
work (I hate having to 'log in' - boot and go is how I like it, so much so
that my preferred Linux distro is PCLOS as it will do this).
TweakUI wouldn't stick either, but I'd ignored the password part as I
didn't want one. After a couple boots which needed input I tried the blank
p/w - OK bit and it's stuck for over a week now.

 

[Pennywise]

That's a separate issue, and a matter of personal preference. As it
happens I didn't know there was a simple alternative to TweakUI to get
fully automatic logon, by-passing the Logon window. Could you spell it
out please? If indeed it is simpler and does the identical job then
yes, I'd normally prefer the 'direct' method.

But the issue I've raised is that the option doesn't 'stick'. From
elsewhere I gather that the likely explanation concerns ASP.NET. The
advice I received was "Go to your User Accounts in the Control Panel
and delete the ASP.NET user account. That should solve your auto login
problem." There's more info at
http://www.mvps.org/marksxp/WindowsXP/aspdot.php

Start | Run <type in>
control userpasswords2
<enter>

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Start | Run <type in>
control userpasswords2
<enter>

Thanks. But can you or anyone amplify on this topic please. It's
something I've never properly grasped. The subject of XP passwords
makes me dead nervous. First, this is what I see using that Run
command:
http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/2833/userpasswordpp2.jpg

It says I need to enter a password. But that's not so. I didn't do so
when the PC arrived (ready-built with XP Pro installed from MESH UK),
nor do I do it now with auto-logon. So that appears to be a
contradiction at the outset. And if I did need to do so, how would I
know what the initial p/w was, given I wasn't the person who installed
XP Pro on this PC?

Some more background might help.

The reason that I'm so apprehensive about changing *anything*
concerned with passwords is that I dread getting myself effectively
locked out of my own PC! My previous PC was also supplied by MESH. I
recall an exasperating conversation with their support rep on the
phone 5 years ago, on the first occasion I had to use the Recovery CD,
and had been asked for a password. This guy insisted that "we don't
allocate a password" and I didn't get much further sense from him. (I
can't recall how exactly I eventually accessed the 'recovery' screens,
but I know it was complex and followed days of research. Not something
I want to have to repeat.)

I'm also nervous in case my Scheduled Tasks are affected by messing
with the password. Is the 'password' in these User Accounts dialog the
same as the password needed to allow Scheduled Tasks to be configured
and used? On this new PC, the only way I could get tasks to be
recognised and work properly was to enter what I see often called a
'blank' password. There's worrying ambiguity in that description too:
I'm not going to try it right now but I recall I effectively placed
the cursor in the box(es) and hit Enter. Ideally I'd like to add a
normal alphanumeric password to these tasks, just as somehow I managed
to do on the old PC, but for now I'm settling for this 'null' version.

 

[Pennywise]

Thanks. But can you or anyone amplify on this topic please. It's
something I've never properly grasped. The subject of XP passwords
makes me dead nervous. First, this is what I see using that Run
command:
http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/2833/userpasswordpp2.jpg

It says I need to enter a password. But that's not so. I didn't do so
when the PC arrived (ready-built with XP Pro installed from MESH UK),
nor do I do it now with auto-logon. So that appears to be a
contradiction at the outset. And if I did need to do so, how would I
know what the initial p/w was, given I wasn't the person who installed
XP Pro on this PC?

Magic jellybean or that's what I've read in the 24hoursupport.helpdesk
group.

Some more background might help.

The reason that I'm so apprehensive about changing *anything*
concerned with passwords is that I dread getting myself effectively
locked out of my own PC! My previous PC was also supplied by MESH. I
recall an exasperating conversation with their support rep on the
phone 5 years ago, on the first occasion I had to use the Recovery CD,
and had been asked for a password. This guy insisted that "we don't
allocate a password" and I didn't get much further sense from him. (I
can't recall how exactly I eventually accessed the 'recovery' screens,
but I know it was complex and followed days of research. Not something
I want to have to repeat.)

I'm also nervous in case my Scheduled Tasks are affected by messing
with the password. Is the 'password' in these User Accounts dialog the
same as the password needed to allow Scheduled Tasks to be configured
and used? On this new PC, the only way I could get tasks to be
recognised and work properly was to enter what I see often called a
'blank' password. There's worrying ambiguity in that description too:
I'm not going to try it right now but I recall I effectively placed
the cursor in the box(es) and hit Enter. Ideally I'd like to add a
normal alphanumeric password to these tasks, just as somehow I managed
to do on the old PC, but for now I'm settling for this 'null' version.

You click on your account, you unselect "use password..." you will be
asked for your password twice.

You also don't have .NET installed, any application that uses it will
not run - I don't know if that's a bad thing or not.

 

[Big Al]

On my XP Pro PC I use PowerToys TweakUI and I have enabled 'Log on
automatically at system startup'. Occasionally when I reboot I still
get the logon screen. And the TweakUI setting has become unchecked.
Anyone have any idea why that might happen please? Never happened in
5/6 years with my last (XP Home) PC.

If you are going to auto logon, which is horrible if you are concerned
about security, then why not just drop the password on the users. Then
use the "control userpasswords2" from the run command and uncheck the
box specifying that users need to login with a password.

Now you have no password and XP does not require it. You'll run right
past that whole screen. I've also set my screen to not use the
welcome screen. It works here!.

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Magic jellybean or that's what I've read in the 24hoursupport.helpdesk
group.

Eh? Too cryptic for me.

You click on your account, you unselect "use password..." you will be
asked for your password twice.

And the contradiction I enquired about? I already apparently have NO
PASSWORD (possibly sometimes ambiguously called having a BLANK
PASSWORD), yet Win XP is saying I do in that dialog.

You also don't have .NET installed, any application that uses it will
not run - I don't know if that's a bad thing or not.

Eh? What makes you think that? Or did you mean to type "That will also
result in .NET becoming uninstalled." ?

As listed in Add/Remove, I have the following currently installed:
Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1
Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 Hotfix (KB928366)
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1
Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Service Pack 1

In short, I've no idea what you mean here really!