Use Tweak UI To Automatically Log Into XP
One of the annoyances some people have with XP is having to log in every time you reboot. Don’t get me wrong, if you have a computer that is easily accessed by anyone, having that first layer of security if vital. However, there are many times when you are the only one who is the main user of your machine. This is where using Tweak UI to automatically log into XP comes in handy.
The first thing you want to do is download Tweak UI from Microsoft’s batch of PowerToys. Installation is very straight forward. Launch Tweak UI and from the lefthand menu expand Logon and highlight Autologon. Enter in your username the click Set Password. Type the correct password in twice and click OK. Now, once you restart your machine the login password is automatically inserted so the login screen is bypassed.
Now, if you are logged onto the computer you can still hit “WindowsKey +L” to lock your computer if prying eyes come about. Also, this is definitely not a best security practice so definitely use your own judgement.
There are a numerous amount of tricks we can do with Tweak UI to customize XP. I will be covering some of the more advanced features of this utility in the coming weeks. If you are going to stick with XP until the absolute dying days, then these will be great articles for getting the most out of it. Who said XP is dead?
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One thing to note here is that the password is saved in the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon where all users can read it.
You can use the program Autoruns at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963905.aspx and it will save the password in a key that only Administrators can read which is a little more secure.
and anyone can stole your plain text password from registry locally or via network… you should just use something like autologon expert tool http://www.logonexpert.com