Change default user at login

[kvfelton]

I just bought a used laptop with W2k-pro installed. There was one user pre-installed, named user, which automatically logged into W2k. I deleted the user account and added myself, but every time I boot the machine up, it tries to login as user and gives me an error message. How do I change the login configuration so that the User Name field is blank when I login?

 

[bcastner]

Edit the registry:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=234562

 

[aznluvsmc]

Just to make bcastner's post clear, you're going to do exactly the opposite of what the article tells you.

Basically, delete the following keys AutoAdminLogon and DefaultPassword.

"It's about the journey and not the destination" - The quote of those who never make it

 

[kvfelton]

Thank you, that worked great!

 

[bcastner]

Thanks for the clarification asznluvsmc. The article points out: "NOTE: If no DefaultPassword string is specified, Windows automatically changes the value of the AutoAdminLogon key from 1 (true) to 0 (false). This disables the AutoAdminLogon feature. This behavior also occurs if the DefaultPassword string is specified but the password is left blank or null."

Thus, if manually:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Value: ForceAutoLogon
Type: REG_SZ Data: 1

Is changed to 0, it will stop the autologon. You can just edit the this value directly from 1 to 0, and or remove the DefaultPassword key or set it to an empty string.

Bill Castner