Safely auto-logon to your computer

1.       Start… Run … “control userpasswords2” (without the quotes)

It’s smart to start up your computer and walk away until it’s ready.

But then you have to  type your name and password and walk away again.

Then put your email program and your browser in your startup group and everything will be ready for you!

Here is an autostart and autolock procedure that can save you cumulative hours:

Part I shows you how to autologon.

Part II shows you how to deal with the resulting security issue by locking your screen at startup.

 

Part I: Autologon

1.       Start… Run … “control userpasswords2” (without the quotes)

2.       Highlight the user you want to autologon and Uncheck “Users must enter a user name and password…”

3.       Then fill in the username and password.  If a corporate domain is involved use domain\username format

 

 

4.       If you are in a corporate ‘Domain’ you may not see the checkbox.  

In this case you must use MS Powertoys (Tweak UI) to help you

MS Powertoys (Tweak UI)

(info) http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/Downloads/powertoys/Xppowertoys.mspx

(download) http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/c/a/fca6767b-9ed9-45a6-b352-839afb2a2679/TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe 

Once installed, start it and set your logon info:

 

 

Part II: Securing your system

 

Obviously in a corporate or shared area, leaving your desktop open while you are away is not good.

The answer here is to put a “Workstation Lock” icon in your startup so it locks the screen (and everything keeps running in the background).

 

1.       Right-click on your Start Button and choose Open.  Then go into the Programs\Startup subfolder. (Note: Don’t choose Open All Users just Open)

2.       Drop the Workstation Lock icon from the attached zip into this folder.  (Note: DON’T PUT THE RESTART ICON IN THIS FOLDER)

-or-

3.       Create the Icon from scratch

a.       Right-click and choose New… Shortcut

b.      Type the location of the item: %windir%\system32\rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation

c.       Type a name for this shortcut: Workstation Lock

d.      Right-click the Shortcut and choose Properties

e.      Click ‘Change Icon’ on the shortcut tab and browse this file: %windir%\system32\rundll32.exe