Posts tagged pc tips

It’s more secure and better practice to not just have your computer log on automatically. Ideally, for security reasons, you should install a BIOS password too – but that may be a step too far for some people. Instead, you can just add that extra layer of security by not running your system as the computer administrator and setting up limited user accounts instead.

Using the Control Panel to set up users is fine, but if you want to be able to force them to log in at the Welcome Screen, you need to follow these steps:

1. Click Start, then Run to get to the ‘Run’ box
2. Then in the run box execute this command: control userpasswords2
3. You will see a check box labelled ‘Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer’.
4. Ensure there is a tick in this check from this check box.
5. Click on OK.

Alternatively, if you don’t want to have to log in each time…

1. Untick this check box.
2. You’ll then be prompted to enter the user name and password you wish to automatically log on with, and then click OK.

Now anyone with physical access to your computer can use this machine. It makes your computer more convenient to use, but at the same time can pose a privacy / security risk.

If you need to start up the computer but do not want to log in automatically one specific time, then You can suppress the automatic logon by pressing the SHIFT key during the boot process.

If you want to permanently disable the auto-logon, you can execute this command from the Run box: rundll32 netplwiz.dll,ClearAutoLogon