The default Windows 7 logon is fine for most users,
but there are many ways to change Windows 7’s logon behavior. This
section offers up a few tips and techniques for altering the way you
log on to Windows 7.
Logging On to a Domain
In
versions of Windows prior to Vista, when you logged on to a domain you
always used the Classic Windows logon, which consisted of pressing
Ctrl+Alt+Delete and then typing your username and password in the Log
On to Windows dialog box. (You also had the option of specifying a
different domain.) However, the Classic Windows logon was removed from
Vista and remains gone from Windows 7. To log on to a domain in Windows
7, you must specify the domain as part of the username. You have two
choices:
NetBIOSName\UserName— Here, replace NetBIOSName with the NetBIOS name of the domain, and replace UserName with your network username (for example, logophilia\paulm).
UserName@Domain— Here, replace Domain with the domain name, and replace UserName with your network username (for example, [email protected]).
Enabling the Administrator Account
One
of the confusing aspects about Windows 7 is that the Administrator
account seems to disappear after the setup is complete. That’s because,
for security reasons, Windows 7 doesn’t give you access to this
all-powerful account. I should say it doesn’t give you easy
access to this account. The Welcome screen doesn’t include an option to
choose the Administrator, and no option exists anywhere in the Control
Panel’s user account windows to enable this account to log on.
That’s
probably just as well because it keeps most users much safer, but it’s
annoying for those of us who might occasionally require the
Administrator account. For example, tools such as the Windows Automated
Installation Kit require that you be logged on with the Administrator
account.
Fortunately, you can activate the Administrator account in several ways. Here’s a quick look at two of them:
Using the Local Security Policy Editor— Select Start, type secpol.msc,
press Enter, and then enter your UAC credentials. In the Local Security
Policy Editor, open the Local Policies, Security Options branch, and
then double-click the Accounts: Administrator Account Status policy.
Click Enabled, and then click OK.
Using the Local Users and Groups snap-in— Select Start, type lusrmgr.msc,
press Enter, and then enter your UAC credentials. In the Local Users
and Groups snap-in, click Users and then double-click Administrator. In
the Administrator Properties dialog box, deactivate the Account Is
Disabled check box, as shown in Figure 1, and then click OK.
These
methods suffer from a serious drawback: They don’t work in all versions
of Windows 7, in particular Windows 7 Home Basic and Windows 7 Home
Premium. Fortunately, we haven’t exhausted all the ways to activate
Windows 7’s Administrator account. Here’s a method that works with all versions of Vista:
1. | Select Start, type command, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator. The User Account Control dialog box appears.
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2. | Enter your UAC credentials to continue.
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3. | At the command line, enter the following command:
net user Administrator /active:yes
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That’s it! Log off and you now see the Administrator account in the logon screen, as shown in Figure 2.
Caution
Right now, your freshly activated Administrator account has no password! Log on as the administrator and immediately use the Control Panel to give the account a strong password.
Note
When
you’re done with the Administrator account, be sure to disable it again
for security. At an Administrator Command Prompt, enter the follow
command:
net user Administrator /active:no
Setting Up an Automatic Logon
If
you’re using a standalone computer that no one else has access to (or
that will be used by people you trust), you can save some time at
startup by not having to type a username and password. In this
scenario, the easiest way to do this is to set up Windows 7 with just a
single user account without a password, which means Windows 7 logs on
that user automatically at startup. If you have multiple user accounts
(for testing purposes, for example) or if you want the Administrator
account to be logged on automatically, you need to set up Windows 7 for
automatic logons.
Caution
Setting
up an automatic logon is generally not a good idea for notebook
computers because they’re easily lost or stolen. By leaving the logon
prompt in place, the person who finds or steals your notebook will at
least be unlikely to get past the logon, so your data won’t be
compromised.
Follow these steps:
1. | Select Start, type control userpasswords2, press Enter, and then enter your UAC credentials. The User Accounts dialog box appears.
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2. | Display the Users tab.
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3. | Click your username (or the name of whichever user you want to automatically log on).
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4. | Deactivate the Users Must Enter a User Name and Password to Use this Computer check box, as shown in Figure 3.
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5. | Click OK. The Automatically Log On dialog box appears. The username you clicked in step 3 is filled in automatically.
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6. | Type the user’s password into the Password and Confirm Password text boxes.
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7. | Click OK.
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The next time you start your PC, Windows logs on your account automatically.
Tip
If
you have other accounts on your system, you can still log on one of
them at startup if need be. Restart your computer and, after the
various BIOS messages are done, press and hold the Shift key. This
tells Windows to bypass the automatic logon and display the logon
screen.
Disabling Automatic Logon Override
As
you saw in the Tip sidebar in the preceding section, you can hold down
the Shift key to override an automatic logon. In some situations, this
is not preferable. For example, you might have a computer set up for a
particular user and you want only that user to log on. In that case,
you don’t want the user overriding the automatic logon.
To
prevent the override of an automatic logon using the Shift key, open
the Registry Editor once again and navigate to the following key:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\
Create a new String value named IgnoreShiftOverride and set its value to 1.
