Boot up Windows before you even log in
If you don’t use any Windows XP login security, then you can skip this article. Otherwise, if you are like many Windows XP users who have to enter a password every time their computer sluggishly boots up, then read this!
Ok. Here’s the scenario:
You have to wait 2 minutes while your computer turns on. You have to sit in front of your computer during this whole time because once it finally gets to the login screen, you have to type in the password. The computer then crunches numbers for another 2 minutes while it loads a wide variety of programs (MSN messenger, your Norton Antivirus, your Microsoft Office shortcut bar, etc…). Finally, after like 5 minutes, you have access to your desktop.
How would you like your computer to load all those programs *before* you ever have to enter your password? You could press the button to power up your system and go get a cup of coffee. Five minutes later, you come to your desk and type in your password. BAM! Instantly dropped to the desktop! Your programs are already running and all systems are a go!
Here’s how to do it:
- Download Microsoft’s free TweakUI tool and install it.
- Click your Start button, go to your Programs menu, and select Tweak UI from the “Powertoys for Windows XP” folder.
- In the TweakUI window, double-click the “Logon” item in the left-hand column to expand it.
- Click on the “Autologon” item underneath the “Logon” section.
- Check the box that says “Log on automatically at system startup”
- Click the “Set Password” button and enter in your windows login password
- Click OK and close Tweak UI.
- Download this .reg file and run it. When it asks you if you want to merge it with your registry, choose “Yes”.
NOTE: If you feel queasy about merging a reg file with your registry, you can also add it by hand. Go to Start > Run and type in “regedit” and press OK. Browse to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] and create a new String Value. Name it “Lock Computer on Startup“, and set the value to “rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation“
Presto! You’re done!
Now, when you boot up your computer, it will automatically log you in to your desktop and start up your programs. However, it will still secure your system, requiring you to enter your password to access it.
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Not really a secure solution. Your password will be in cleartex stored in the registry. You might also be able to hack into the computer by preventing the lock computer task from starting properly.
The previous Comment was posted on January 13, 2006 at 2:46 am
Hello,
Just a little question, the security policy request me of changing my pass every 3 month. What happen in case of autologon with out of date login ?
Regards,
Benoit
The previous Comment was posted on January 13, 2006 at 3:07 am
Dan Toresi loves this so much!
Armen the gonzo loves it too!
Nice work fella
The previous Comment was posted on January 13, 2006 at 3:43 am
Nice..but..obviously, this will only work WELL for a single-user system. For systems that are used by multiple people, this is going to load up and then lock the desktop to anyone who’s not the ‘Tweaker’ or lacks administrator privs to override the logged-in session… Still, for a purely one-person machine, good enough to get the job done I suppose!
The previous Comment was posted on January 13, 2006 at 3:53 am
Great tutorial. Thanks
The previous Comment was posted on January 13, 2006 at 4:22 am
Wicked, I’ve just done this and it works superbly!
The previous Comment was posted on January 13, 2006 at 4:27 am
Neat. That will save me 60 seconds every morning. Those seconds between falling out of bed and leaving home are the most valuable.
The previous Comment was posted on January 13, 2006 at 4:54 am
Cool tip, thanks. Tweak UI is a must-have for all of its other features too imho.
Chris
http://amateureconblog.blogspot.com/
The previous Comment was posted on January 13, 2006 at 6:02 am
What if you use multiple ID’s? As such my wife and I both have seperate logins with different startup configurations? What then?
The previous Comment was posted on January 13, 2006 at 6:07 am
Is this registry Tweak possible for Win 2000?
The previous Comment was posted on January 13, 2006 at 6:18 am
So what if someone happens to hop on my computer after it logs in automatically but before it locks and stops “undll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation” from executing?
The previous Comment was posted on January 13, 2006 at 6:46 am
Hi,
I’m having trouble getting the reg file from the link you posted.
Thanks
Ronnie
The previous Comment was posted on January 13, 2006 at 6:47 am
Although this works pretty much as advertised users should be aware that this workaround will leave your computer unprotected and unlocked during the period of time in between log on and the running of user32.dll.
On some machines this period of time is very brief – on others it is lenghthy enough for an unauthorized person to do harm.
During this period of time the computer responds exactly as if you yourself had logged on. The keyboard, mouse, drive access, etc are all enabled.
For example – during the brief window the computer is unprotected a person walking by could create a new administrator account on your computer, edit the registry to remove the user32.dll autorun, install a keylogger, set Microsoft Office to automatically BCC every email you send out to another address, etc.
Waiting until your computer is fully locked before wandering off doesn’t help either as all a savvy user has to do is restart the machine in order to access the window of vulnerability.
In short, be wary of using this if anyone else has physical access to your computer.
The previous Comment was posted on January 13, 2006 at 7:18 am
It’s causing problems with my startup programs and I want to reverse this, how do i go about doing so?
The previous Comment was posted on January 13, 2006 at 7:27 am
To reverse the registry entry, just click your Start button and go to Run. Type in “msconfig” and press ok. Go over to the startup tab and scroll down to where it says “Lock Computer on Startup” and un-check this entry. Ok your way out, and you’re done.
The previous Comment was posted on January 13, 2006 at 10:36 am
Holy crap, man. This is all over the place.
The previous Comment was posted on January 13, 2006 at 10:45 am
One word : hibernate.
Machine comes up, every is running as you left it.
The previous Comment was posted on January 13, 2006 at 1:31 pm
every time I’ve ever used the hibernate feature, I get glitches in my programs after coming back from hibernation.
I’ve used hibernation on at least 10 different computers and they always ended up glitching from it eventually.
Basically microsoft dumps an image of your RAM to the hard drive, and then shuts everything down. Then when you turn on your computer, it loads everything back into RAM.
The only problem with this is that sometimes calculations in programs are time-based. So when you restore your computer later on, sometimes things don’t synch up properly.
Or at least that’s my theory on the subject.
The previous Comment was posted on January 13, 2006 at 2:11 pm
I’m just curious,
How does one discover these new values to add to the Registry? Since the value wasn’t there to begin with in the Registry and had to be added, it must be documented somewhere? Where?
The previous Comment was posted on January 13, 2006 at 4:24 pm
Oh never mind. I see.
It’s just a start program.
How about calling a DLL function that does a “Switch User” so that it doesn’t lock the workstation but just switches out to the Windows Welcome/Logon screen?
The previous Comment was posted on January 13, 2006 at 4:26 pm
Supposedly, if you have Fast User Switching enabled, then when it locks the computer, it will go to the user login screen, allowing any of the other users to access the computer if they need to. However, your desktop will be loaded in the background for instant access whenever you want to switch back to it.
The previous Comment was posted on January 13, 2006 at 4:45 pm
This is bad advice on so many levels. First of all, if it takes you 5 minutes to get to your desktop on bootup, and you have a relatively recent machine, there’s something seriously wrong. Contact a qualified professional (not the neighbor’s kid who’s “good with computers”) to fix your problems. It takes less than a minute for my machine to go from power on to desktop. That’s normal. Anything longer than that is NOT normal.
Secondly, putting your password in clear text in the registry is a terrible idea. Is it the same password you use for your bank’s online system? Is it the same one you use for your e-mail? Did you disable the Remote Registry service on your computer before you did it? Do you know what the Remote Registry service is? If not, you shouldn’t be following these instructions.
Finally, as somone else pointed out, your machine will be logged in with your credentials for a few minutes with this method before it actually locks the machine. A few minutes is more than enough time for someone to do some damage.
Misinformation is significantly more dangerous than any virus, trojan or hacker on the ‘Net.
The previous Comment was posted on January 14, 2006 at 10:50 am
I’m a bit curious about the remarks about storing the password as cleartext in the registry. TweakUI clearly says “the password is stored in encrypted form”. Do you folks know something I don’t?
The previous Comment was posted on January 14, 2006 at 10:37 pm
as a desktop user, how many people do hibernate their computers?
The previous Comment was posted on January 14, 2006 at 10:39 pm
You know, it never occurred to me that it can happen this way, as in boot up windows before login. Thanks I’ll give it a go.
The previous Comment was posted on January 14, 2006 at 10:40 pm
Windows indítás belépés előtt…
Hogyan lehet úgy elindítani a Windowst, hogy a belépés után már ne kelljen megvárni a saját programok indítását? Ez szerintem egy nagyon izgalmas kérdés. Tipikus…
The previous Trackback was posted on January 15, 2006 at 6:55 am
“Not really a secure solution. Your password will be in cleartex stored in the registry.”
Well, at least TweakUI says different:
“The password is stored in encrypted form”
Thx for the tip, saves a lotta time for me;)
The previous Comment was posted on January 16, 2006 at 1:04 am
Why must there always be nay-sayers to everything?
Un-informed Statement #1: “Tweak UI saves your login in clear text. This is a horrible security risk!”
Reply: Uh. Have you actually done any research on this claim or are you going off of paranoid rumors? Try opening up Tweak UI and go to the autologon section. There is is, plain as day, “The password is stored in encrypted form”.
Un-informed Statement #2: “This is so insecure! All anyone has to do is hold down their Shift key while they’re logging in and it will bypass the automatic lock.”
Reply: Once again. Has anyone actually tried this? Sure, the Shift key, when held, will skip automatic start-up processes. But here’s the beauty of it… If you hold down the Shift key, it doesn’t process your automatic login. So you’re still stuck behind a password box. Verdict: still safe!
Un-informed Statement #3: “While your desktop is loading before the computer locks itself back up, users can click around and get around your security.”
Reply: This may be the case on some computers out there, but my experience with Windows is that while it’s loading the desktop, everything is pretty much completely un-responsive. I try to click the start menu and nothing even happens until everything is loaded and cached up into memory. And the second the computer is loaded and finally becomes responsive… it’s instantly locked. Foiled, once again. Now, this is just my experience that I’ve had with the 10 or so computers that I’ve used this technique with, so I could be wrong. If your computer is responsive while loading your desktop and you are able to click around for a minute or so before it locks, then yeah. Maybe you shouldn’t use this tweak.
Un-informed Statement #4: “Man, this tweak is so stupid! It doesn’t make my computer go any faster! It still takes 5 minutes to load!”
Reply: This tweak isn’t supposed to make your computer boot “faster”, per se. All it does is change that point at which you have to log in. Instead of having the login point half-way during the boot process (requiring you to sit in front of the computer during the whole process), now it’s at the very end after everything is finally loaded. Some people (such as myself) will find this extremely useful. Other people, maybe not so much.
Let me give you an example of one of the ways why I find this tweak useful on my computer at home. My computer at home has a number of programs that run when it boots up. I run a total of 5 different servers on my computer… Apache, Microsoft IIS, my custom home security system, etc… These programs and servers run 24 hours a day. If my computer ever bogs down and crashes for some reason, it automatically reboots. When it re-boots, it automatically logs itself in and locks down.
The previous Comment was posted on January 16, 2006 at 1:40 am
how do i remove the reg file now that it has merged with my registry?
The previous Comment was posted on January 17, 2006 at 2:15 pm
Dream mode on :
I boot, the boot process asks me for a login/password, and it passes them to the OS.
Dream mode off.
The previous Comment was posted on January 17, 2006 at 2:36 pm
Thanks for the tip man. Good work
The previous Comment was posted on January 17, 2006 at 7:13 pm
how do i remove the reg file now that it has merged with my registry? TIA
The previous Comment was posted on January 18, 2006 at 6:44 am
Just browse to the key in your registry and remove it. The key is at:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]
The previous Comment was posted on January 19, 2006 at 11:27 am
Nice job, Tom!
This is so cool, maybe I won’t let you beat at COD2 next time.
Joey (aka “BigMamma”, aka “LiquidG”, aka “unknown soldier”)
The previous Comment was posted on January 20, 2006 at 12:31 am
Nice one Thomas!
First of all an answer:
Q :”Is this registry Tweak possible for Win 2000?”
A
efinitely YES. I use Win2K and I use this command in a batch file.Running it from the registry is the same.
———–
And to back-up Thomas:
Misunderstanding :“Your password will be in cleartex stored in the registry”
My opinion : Not the case.Win2K and WinXP have the autologon feature.If you go to Control Panel under Users there is an option to enable it.If you enable it,it asks for the name and password of the user you want to autologon.
TweakUI just enables this option and passes the name and password to Windows.Windows then encrypts the password.
So your password encryption is just as strong as Windows’ is.
I don’t consider this a “horrible security risk”.
Don’t take my word for it!Try a search in the registry with your password, try a file search for files containing your password…You shouldn’t find a thing.I didn’t.
Keep up the good work!
ZaC
The previous Comment was posted on January 20, 2006 at 7:19 am
I just read all the above comments going back and forth about plaintext passwords in the registry.
Rather than debate this, I’ll refer you to a Microsoft Technet article that comments on this feature and then show where in the registry that this setting is stored in plaintext.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;234562
Location of plaintext password:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\DefaultPassword
What is even worse is that the system restore feature of windows makes copies of the registry hives on a regular basis. So adding it all up, if you now decide to turn off this option, your password is still in plain text on the hard drive.
Sincerly,
Chad Woznick
http://www.nearlyclever.com
The previous Comment was posted on January 24, 2006 at 1:51 pm
Hello Chad,
Thank you for your security concerns.
However, one thing you may not be aware of is the fact that the insecure “auto-login” method on Technet is actually unrelated to the method used by TweakUI and my article.
The latest version of TweakUI for Windows XP does *not* store your password in the registry in plaintext.
I encourage you to download Regmon from sysinternals. It is a free utility that will let you monitor your windows registry as programs manipulate it. Turn on TweakUI and go to the auto-login feature. Open up the “Set Password” box, type in a password, and save it with the registry monitor recording everything. You won’t find a clear-text password anywhere.
The previous Comment was posted on January 24, 2006 at 2:07 pm
Thomas,
Sorry about the previous post. I followed up and verified what you mentioned above regarding Tweakui storing the password in a “more” secure method. It’s funny that you mention regmon, because that is the tool I used to check out what the new version of tweakui is doing.
However, my recommendation still stands that this is an insecure method for domain logons based on what I found out about Tweakui’s new method.
Tweakui calls the local windows security service and the local windows security service stores the password in an area of the registry that is not normal accessible, even from the admin account.
Being curious, I elevated a cmd.exe window to system status, and ran regedit as the system account.
The security service stores a hash at the following location: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SECURITY \ Policy \ Secrets \ DefaultPassword \ CurrVal]
I’ve only played around with it for a little bit, but it looks like the method Microsoft is using to store the password is reversable. That is, everytime Tweakui is used to modify this value, it produces the same result. It doesn’t look like it changes on use.
So, based on this, and the easy way to bypass the lock feature with task manager (I re-tested that), this quick way to logon does not seem secure.
Once again, I am sorry for referring to the old way TweakUI worked in the earlier posts.
Respectfully,
Chad Woznick
http://www.nearlyclever.com
The previous Comment was posted on January 24, 2006 at 3:10 pm
So basically… the tweak ui password is encrypted in a hidden area of your registry that is technically just as secure as the place that your windows password itself is located.
The only thing you have to worry about, then, is someone bypassing the automatic lock when the computer boots up through some sort of hack.
I will not deny that this is a possibility. However, I *did* try, and wasn’t able to replicate the technique that you mentioned.
So in conclusion, people, if you work in a high-risk environment and your co-workers are all highly knowledgable computer administrators and/or hackers, I recommend that you don’t use this time saving auto-login trick.
However, for the average computer user in a low to medium security environment, I think you will still find this auto-login and lock trick to be useful.
The previous Comment was posted on January 24, 2006 at 3:51 pm
[...] If you wait couple minutes after turning your computer on to log in Windows and after log in you wait still some more minutes before Windows is ready to go, this tip is for you and it will save you minutes every day. After booting up to login screen Windows will login automatically and lock the desktop right after that. So, you boot up your computer and next you unlock the desktop and can start surfing the web right away. Note that for security reasons this really probably suitable only for home computer with singel user. [...]
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