Chris | Live Tech Support | Video Help | Add to iTunes
I decided to give Vista another go, and reinstalled it on my computer, along with SP1. Being a fresh install, I had to go through and set everything up the way I had it before, including the way Vista logs me in.
I want Vista to automatically log me in each time I start the computer up. I wasn’t sure how to do this, so I went to Google. One of the first hits I came across actually linked back to our Lockergnome.com blogging network. Thankfully, this isn’t so hard to do.
To open this in the UAC (or User Account Control) in Vista, go to the start/search area of Vista, and type in NETPLWIZ. Once you get there:
- UNcheck the box next to “Users should enter a username and password to use this computer,” and then press OK.
- Type the username and password for the user you want to automatically logon to Windows Vista when it boots up and press OK.
- Reboot the computer.
It’s that simple. Vista will remember the username and password, and you won’t have to log in every time you boot the computer.
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[tags]automatic login, help, info, information, lockergnome, password, pirillo, tech tv, UAC, video, vista, vista uac, windows, windows vista[/tags]
Great tip, Chris, and one not easily findable anywhere that I have seen. Those little Microsoft programmers, when they want to gently guide you into a certain behavior in order to avoid tech support calls or threats of lawsuits, they hide the simple procedures for modifying Windows to run the way you would like it to. Such proprietary attitudes they have towards us poor little boneheads. On the other hand, if they would occasionally listen to these complaints or pleadings, they might learn something too. You don’t suppose Bill Gates casts his godlike eye on these Lockergnome columns and comments do you? I’ll bet he does. Does he ever long for the days when he was an innocent geek, obsessing on computer stuff in a little garage, and happily ignoring the world in a sort of tech-trance? Or maybe he sometimes cancels all his appointments for a couple of hours and geeks out on the net for a while until he is ready to come back to reality.
Glad to hear that you decided to give Windows Vista SP1 Beta another try. I am not beta testing Windows Vista SP1 because I don’t have as many computers as I used to when service packs for Windows XP came out. In the past, I have had similar negative experiences with beta Windows service packs and when I reformatted and started over, everything was fine.