Enable Autologon for Windows Server 2008

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On Windows based WinSol/Enterprise and E-Commerce servers, the software runs in foreground mode. This means that you must log in on the main console to start the NTHOST for WinSol/Enterprise or the web server for E-Commerce. The actual start up programs are in the Windows Start Up Group.

It is often helpful to have a given user automatically log in after a reboot.

To enable automatic logon, follow these steps:

  1. Log in as a user with Administrative privileges.

  2. Click Start Run and enter control userpasswords2.

  3. Clear the checkbox for 'Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer' and click OK. (If this checkbox is missing, see the notes below.)

  4. Enter the user name and password that will be used for Autologon and click OK.

When the computer is restarted the account you specified will be logged in automatically.

Once a server is joined to a domain, Windows will automatically delete the AutoAdminLogon value from the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon registry key. This causes the userpasswords2 control to hide the 'Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer' check box shown above.

Notes:

  1. Here is how to get the missing checkbox back:

    • From a CMD prompt enter the following (all on one line):

      reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ Winlogon" /v AutoAdminLogon /t REG_SZ /d "1" /f

  2. Here is how to manually set a default Domain name:

    • From a CMD prompt enter the following (all on one line):

      reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ Winlogon" /v DefaultDomainName /t REG_SZ /d "domain_name" /f

 
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