Windows 10 2004 and the alleged 'lost' auto-logon

[German]A few hours ago, some media reported that Microsoft was probably experimenting in some kind of A/B test with kicking car registration out of Windows 10. Meanwhile it is clear that there is nothing to it and that the whole thing has to do with settings.


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Auto-login, what's that?

In Windows, users can press Windows+G and then type netplwiz in the Run dialog box.

netplwiz aufrufen

Windows then starts the properties window for managing the user accounts that have been set up.

Benutzerkonten verwalten

On the Users tab, there is a User must enter user name and password check box. When you select an account and clear the check box, Windows prompts you in an additional dialog box for the password to automatically log in to the selected user account. If the user enters the credentials, he will be automatically logged in to this account later when Windows starts.


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I had covered this 'old hat' in my article Windows 8 Autoanmeldung in 2012. Personally I don't recommend this approach, because I've been repeatedly confronted with cases in forums where the auto-registration has led to problems during the upgrade. After the upgrade, users could no longer log in to their account. 

Auto-login silently removed?

Now suddenly the message based on this Winaero article went through the Internet that Microsoft has removed the check box Users must enter user name and password from Windows 10 in the Insider Preview Build 19033 (from the 20H1 development branch).

However, users who tried to  tested this behavior were offered this option again. This led to the theory that it might be a Microsoft A/B test, so not all users would see the variant with the missing checkbox.

None of these assumptions are true. At askwoody.com I came across the post Autologon is NOT being removed in Windows 10 2004.The title already says it all: Microsoft doesn't remove the car login at all. Martin Brinkmann has addressed it in this article. The riddle has been solved.

It turns out that the availability of the Users must enter user name and password check box is associated with Windows Hello:

  • If Windows Hello is selected, the check box no longer appears.
  • If Windows Hello is disabled, the check box appears again in the display.

his means that nothing has changed compared to the previous Windows 10 builds.


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2 Responses to Windows 10 2004 and the alleged 'lost' auto-logon

  1. JacFN says:

    I just installed Win 10 Pro 2004 build 19041.264 on public release day, May 28 2020. The "User must enter user name and password check box" is not there on netplwiz. I do not use Windows Hello and the Windows Hello option is not checked because the "Require Windows Hello sign-in for Mocrosoft accounts" option doesn't appear in my Sign-in options. There are the standard Hello options (Face, Fingerprint, PIN, etc); under that is Require sign in (drop down for choices 'Never' or 'When PC wakes from sleep'); below that "Dynamic Look", the "Privacy", "Related settings", and "Have a question"?" That's it

  2. Moro says:

    I made a clean install today to my old laptop and had the same issue. I don't have Windows Hello because there is no camera on that laptop.

    I've completed those steps and now autologin works.

    1. Open the Registry Editor on Windows.
    2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
    3. Create or modify the String Value AutoAdminLogon and make sure the value is set to 1.
    4. Create or modify a String value called DefaultUserName and put the username that you want to be signed in automatically as the value.
    5. Create or modify a String value called DefaultPassword and add the account password as the value.

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