Windows Auto Login after Reboot

Published on: Sat, 12 Apr 2014



Sometimes we need to force Windows to auto login after reboot to specific user to allow some applications to run during startup.

Some applications can't be configured to run as a service, and unfortunately they are running some critical services on the servers. So, they won't run automatically after server reboot, unless we manually login to the server to allow login scripts to run, or run from the startup menu.


How we configure Windows auto login after reboot?

Simply, we need to add our login info (user, password, and domain) somewhere in the registry, so that Windows auto login after reboot based on configured credentials.

Open Registry, and navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

Create or update the following String values

DefaultUserName: YourUserName
DefaultPassword: YourPassword
DefaultDomainName: YourDomain (If not part of a domain type the computer name)
AutoAdminLogon: 1

Finally, reboot your server or computer to see if it works.

Settings have been tested on all Windows versions:
Windows Server 2000, 2003, 2003R2, 2008, 2008R2, 2012, 2012R2
Windows Client: Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1

If you want to disable the auto login, simply delete the previous four String values.