In this guide, we shall discuss “How to disable auto login in Windows”. The autologin feature is provided as a convenience. However, this feature may be a security risk. If you set a computer for autologin, anyone who can physically access the computer can access all the computer’s contents, including any networks it is connected to. Please see Disable or Enable Auto log on in Windows, Enable Automatic Logon on Windows 10, and How to manage automatic login on Ubuntu Linux.
Additionally, when autologin is turned on, the password is stored in the registry in plain text.
The Authenticated Users group can remotely read the specific registry key that stores this value. Using the Sysinternals tool is necessary in order not to have the password displayed in plain text in the registry.
Please see Leverage Azure Blob Storage as an Object Storage Repo in Veeam, PXE Boot Failure: “Access Denied or Aborted” with Secure Boot on [Part 4], and Advanced Tape Troubleshooting: Diagnosing Veeam LTO Drive Issues with ITDT.
Disable Auto Logon
There are various ways to achieve this. You can turn the auto-logon off via the registry or netplwiz (user Account settings, I will be discussing how to disable autologon via the Auto Logon Tool (SysInternal Tool).
Nonetheless, Follow these steps below to turn off auto logon using one of the Sysinternal Tool called Auto Logon.
- Launch the Autologon.exe as shown below, the parameters will automatically be populated.
- Then click on Disable.
Alternatively, if the shift key is held down before the system performs an autologon, the autologon will be disabled for that logon.
I hope you found this blog post on how to disable auto login in Windows helpful. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comment session.
