Tutorials How To Prevent Windows 8 From Automatically Logging In The Last User

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How to prevent Windows 8 from automatically logging in the last user

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If you have multiple user accounts in Windows 8 (e.g. one for yourself and another for your family member), you may notice a new annoyance in Windows 8 - it signs in the last user automatically who shut down/rebooted the PC. Most users would not like to be signed in automatically and would instead prefer seeing a list of users at the logon screen, from where they can choose which user account to login with. Today, we are going to share a way to prevent Windows 8 from automatically signing in the last user. Let's start.


Overview

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If the "Enabled" parameter is set to 1, you will get a list of users instead of the last user automatically getting signed in. A problem however is the behavior of the LogonUI.exe process which resets the "Enabled" value back to zero at every startup, even if you set it manually to 1. Why this behavior is introduced is not known.

We need a way to prevent the "Enabled" value from being reset to 0 every time and to set it back to 1 before the next logon so that the list of users is displayed.

Here are the steps to do just that.

First, make sure that you have disabled the automatic sign in option. Press Win+R keys on the keyboard and type the following:

netplwiz
Then press Enter.
The following window will be displayed:

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Check the option called "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer".

How to prevent Windows 8 from logging in automatically to the last logged-in user
This method is based on Group Policy and uses the Logon/Logoff Scripts feature of Group Policy. It is probably the best way to keep the Enabled value equal to 1 at the end of your Windows session.

You must specify reg.exe as script name and 'add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\UserSwitch /v Enabled /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f' (without the quotes) as script parameters:

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GPO

After you do this, you will get the user list every time Windows 8 tries to log on. A quite simple trick.

But it is not so easy to provide ready-to-use scripts for you for this method because GPO settings are per-user and they are stored in the registry at a path which includes the user's unique SID (S-1-1-164699034-like thing, known as security identifier). On every machine, this SID is unique and different. So I created a tool to automate all the steps with one click.

How to restore defaults and undo this
If you are using Group Policy's Logoff script, simply remove the script. If you used my tool to enable the user list, you can disable it and restore the defaults using 1-click.

Thanks to my friend, Gaurav Kale who helped me with this research.

That's it. Please share with us if you could tweak this behavior in the comments below.

Tip: If you want to do the opposite and log on automatically to Windows, ----->

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How to logon automatically in Windows 8.1 using a Microsoft Account

Windows 8 shipped with a new feature - the ability to use a Microsoft account to sign in to a PC with Internet access. It has deep integration with Microsoft's cloud services like SkyDrive, Bing, Skype and Office 365 if it's installed. Additionally, Microsoft account users get free synchronization of their OS customizations and preferences. If you are logged in with the same Microsoft Account on each of your PCs, then you will get the same Desktop appearance (e.g. wallpaper and theme settings), Modern App settings and even the Quick Access Toolbar buttons will be synchronized with every PC from where you are signed in.


When you are signing in with a Microsoft account, it requires a password to be entered by the user:

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If you are the only user of the computer/tablet and would like to save your time and speed up the logon process, you might want to enable automatic logon for your Microsoft Account. It is very easy to do this. This method has been used for years to auto logon but many of our readers still email me how to do this. So just follow the simple instructions below.

1. Press the Win + R keys on the keyboard. The Run dialog will appear on the screen.
   Type netplwiz into the text box:
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   Alternatively, you can type control userpasswords2 and press Enter. Both of these commands will bring up the classic User Accounts applet.
3. In the User Accounts window, find your Microsoft Account. Select it in the list:
   
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4. Now untick the checkbox called Users must enter a user name and password to use this PC and click the 'Apply' button.
5. The 'Automatically sign in' window will appear on the screen. Fill both password fields with your Microsoft Account password:
   
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6. Note: In the above dialog the Microsoft Account is displayed as <your_login_name>_<some_digits>. This is absolutely normal, because Windows 8 creates a local account pair for every Microsoft account. That will be used to sign in when you have no Internet access. In that dialog box you see the name of the local account. So do not change that, just enter your password.
7. Click OK and you are done!

To disable the autologon feature just run netplwiz again and tick the 'Users must enter a user name and password to use this PC' checkbox. The next time you log on, you will be asked for the password again.

The same method can be used of course for local accounts as well but some of our readers who use a Microsoft Account were modifying the user name in the 'Automatically Sign in' dialog and then wondering why autologon failed.



ENJOY!!