Win 2000 AutoAdminLogon

 Keywords:  auto logon login automatically

Question:

We use winbatch to periodically do some stuff and reboot the machine. Of course, then no user is logged in at the machine, and our stuff stops. Thus we would like the machine to log a user on, so all our other cool stuff starts running again.

However, I was under the impression that there was no way at all to autologin W2K Advanced Server.....

Answer:

I did some searching in the Microsoft KB and out on Google.

M$ specifically says that the AutoAdminLogon feature does not work on Win2K Server & Advanced Server and that in the Win2K family, only the Pro version supports this feature.

I did some testing with a Win2K Advanced Server SP2 system and here's what I learned...

If you enable the AutoAdminLogon feature via the well documented registry settings, and you logoff, the AutoAdminLogon kicks in and presents the logon dialog box and it prompts you for a password. It would appear that the feature is effectively crippled on the server & advanced server versions of Win2K. However, if you enable this feature and you *restart* the server, the AutoAdminLogon works like a charm. The feature is only partially crippled on the server & advanced server versions of Win2K. You can get it to work 1 time when the server initially boots up, but it will not work to do another automatic logon while the server is still up & running. You must do a restart in order for it to automatically logon again.

So, in this situation, as long as you were planning on rebooting the server, the AutoAdminLogon feature will work sufficiently well.

On Windows 2000...

NOTE: If you want to bypass the automatic logon to log on as a different user, hold down the SHIFT key after you log off or after Windows restarts. Note that this procedure applies only to the first logon. To enforce this setting for future logoffs, the administrator must set the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

Value:ForceAutoLogon
Type: REG_SZ
Data: 1

Referenced article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;234562

NOTE : For the automatic administrator logon to work, the Administrator account must have a password. a null passwords is allowed only one time before the AutoAdminLogon value is set to 0 (disabled).

Also...

In the registry,make sure domain name, account name, and password, are specified using the values you would normally type when logging on. You should assign the following values in the winlogon key:


DefaultDomainName

DefaultUserName

DefaultPassword

NOTE: The DefaultPassword value may not exist. If it doesn't,create it. Set the Value to "DefaultPassword" (without the quotation marks).

Also, if no DefaultPassword string is specified, Windows NT automatically changes the value of the AutoAdminLogon key from 1 (true) to "0" (without thequotation marks) (false), thus disabling the AutoAdminLogon feature.

Referenced MicroSoft Tech article : http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;234562

Article ID:   W14887

File Created: 2006:05:17:11:18:14

Last Updated: 2006:05:17:11:18:14

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