Windows autologin without password

It is an good idea to setup an Windows logon password even if you are the only user on the computer to protect unauthorized access to sensitive system areas and settings, however it is also not convenient to type-in your password at each logon specially when you are the only user of the computer. As an solution we have reviewed third-party utilities like Blink! for "Autologin" using face recognition technology for Windows 7 and Vista.

We have seen tricks to enable Windows autologin feature for Windows 7, Vista and XP, and while Microsoft Windows 8 comes with and excellent "Picture Login" feature here is a walk-through on how to activate the good old autologin feature.

While we covered bootable logon password bypassing utility KON-BOOT as a security nightmare, there could be genuine uses of the utility in cases where such circumvention is needed for legal uses like forgotten password, corporate usage (login to company computer after an employee leaves or is not available), parental administration or law agencies.

KON-BOOT is now updated to version 2.1, with added support for Windows 8 (non EFI support) logon password bypass with an optional sticky keys feature which allows user to spawn an admin privileged console before logging into the computer. The utility now also have an Mac OS X flavor which allows login into MAC computers with a new “root” account having username and password as "kon-boot".

Demonstration videos of both Windows and Mac OS X admin logging using KON-BOOT with root privileges after the jump.

We were one of the first blogs to have reviewed Kon Boot earlier as the easiest way to bypass login authentication passwords On Windows 7, Vista, XP, Gentoo, Debian, Ubuntu and Fedora operating-systems, the utility has now been updated to v 1.1 fixing bugs with added support for 64 Bit operating systems.

Now supporting creation of KonBoot bootable USB, CD/DVD and Floppy disk drives the utility allows users to completely bypass the Windows authentication process hooking itself during boot procedure, the utility does not make any permanent changes to files on your computer.

Imagine the security nightmare if general users are able to bypass your operating system security and logon as Administrator or root account having all privileges by simply inserting an floppy or CD, now this scary situation is possible using a prototype software KON-BOOT which hacks into Windows and linux kernel on the fly while booting, the novice friendly softwares allows users to bypass logon passwords completely by simply booting via the KON-BOOT CD or Floppy disk, in its current incarnation the software has been tested to bypass logon passwords on Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003/2008, Gentoo, Ubuntu, Debian and Fedora.

Just follow the simple steps ahead to create KON-BOOT bootable CD or Floppy and bypass logon passwords easily.

Both Windows Vista and XP supports multiple user accounts and prompt for login each time computer starts, this can get annoying and time-waster if you are the only user of the computer and do not want to get prompted for password or welcome screen, to get windows to autologin into your user account follow the steps as below:

For Windows Vista:

1. Click Start
2. Type netplwiz in the search-box and press enter.
3. Select the user you want to auto-login automatically and then uncheck the box reading “Users must enter a username and password to use this computer”.
4. Enter your password when prompted leave empty if none.
5. Click OK.

For Windows XP:

1. Press Windows Key + R (or Goto Start-> Run).

2. Type control userpasswords2 and press enter in RUN dialog box.

3. Click the username you want to autologin and uncheck the box “Users must enter a username and password to use this computer”.
4. Enter your password when prompted leave empty if none.
5. Click OK.

UPDATE: You can also use the AutoLogin utility provided by Sysinternals (now owned by Microsoft) to make the necessary changes to the registry.

Download Windows XP Auto-Login Fix >>