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One of the most common questions that people these days ask me regarding their home PC’s is how to have it startup and go straight to the desktop.  This used to be the only option, and when Microsoft did us the favour (!) of allowing us to have multiple accounts, very few people embraced this enhancement.In my opinion, ignoring the option of multiplt desktops can often be missing out on a trick - especially if your PC is used by several different people in your family.  Think about what having your own login can mean:

• You can have your own e-mail account, without just relying on webmail
• You can have your own instant messenger accounts, without having to constantly switch users
• You can personalise the look and feel of your desktop
• You can keep your personal files seperate from the rest of the family

On balance, roughly half the people that I explain this to decide to stick with multiple users and once they get used to it, they find it a real boon.  For the rest, we have to look at how to introduce autologon.

The remainder of this post will describe how to enable autologon for Windows Vista, as that’s the most prevalent opersting system being sold for the home market.

There are two main ways of handling autologon.  The first, and simplest, is used when there exists only one user on the system.  Quite simply, go into the Control Panel and select ‘User Accounts and Family Safety’, then click on ‘Change your Windows password’.  This will bring up a new window, with the option to ‘Remove your password:

Once this has been removed, you should find that your computer will automatically logon whenever you start Vista.

The next option is for systems where you want to keep multiple users, but have one of them logon automatically by default.  To do this, click on the start button and type ‘netplwiz’ into the search box:

Clicking on this brings up a different version of the User Accounts window.  In this window, un-check the box marked ‘Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer’, and select the default user from the list below.  When you then click on OK, it will prompt for that users password, and autologon will be diabled.

I hope that some of you find this useful, and that it prompts you to return in the future.  If you have any specific comments or suggestions for John’s Tech Blog, please either use the comments below or contact me via the Contact page.