Disabling Windows' Log-on Prompt or Welcome Screen

If you own and operate a home computer running Windows XP, chances are the following scenario has happened to you: You restart your computer and leave the room expecting the operating system and start-up programs to load in your absence, only to return and find that your computer has not yet started up and is sitting at the log-on screen. Fortunately, the Windows log-on screen can be disabled (or rather, configured to log in automatically) in just a few simple steps.

First, click the start button on your taskbar (the bar along the bottom of the screen on Windows PCs). This will bring up the start menu. From here, locate and click "Run." When the run prompt loads, type "control userpasswords2" (without the quotes) in the box labeled "open."

This will cause a window to open titled "User Accounts." If it's not already selected, click the "Users" tab located near the top of the window. By default, the check box next to "Users must enter a username and password to use this computer" will be checked. Leave this as it is for now. If you look below the check box, you'll see a list of usernames and which group they are in. Click the user account you want to logon with by default when restarting your computer. Then uncheck the box next to "Users must enter a username and password to use this computer."

Once, you've unchecked the box, click the apply button located at the bottom right corner of the window. Upon clicking the apply button you will be prompted to enter the password for the username you selected to logon with earlier. If there is no password associated with the account chosen, then leave both the "password" and "confirm password" boxes blank. When you've finished entering the user account's password click the ok button. Then just click the ok button on the User Accounts window and you're done!