Efficiency Tip #82 – Auto-Login

Here is something that can speed up your Windows login.  It’s called auto-login and you may already be using it. It is the default setting on a Windows machine with just one configured user account.

When you boot Windows, it has the ability to automatically login with user credentials that have been preset.  To make these settings, click Start, Run and type

control userpasswords2

This will open the User Accounts window.  Uncheck the box in front of “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer.”

As soon as you click OK, you will be prompted for the user credentials to use for auto-login.  Enter your username and password.  The next time your computer reboots, it will automatically login using this user account and password.

This is an efficiency tip I don’t use very often.  To me, it is more important to have a secure computer where someone cannot get to the files without knowing a username and password.  Good security is rarely efficient.

I have a computer that is a build-it-yourself Tivo that I use to record television so that I can watch programs on my computer.  I have login scripts that handle the scheduling of what gets recorded.  I setup auto-login on this machine because it gets rebooted a lot and does not have a keyboard, mouse or monitor.  Any configuration is done via VNC.  The auto-login is useful on a machine like this.

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