How to Automatically Login in Windows 10 without Password?

In order to login to Windows 10, a user has to enter password for local or Microsoft (online) account every time. This guarantees a certain level of data protection against access by third parties but it is inconvenient for home users as it increases the time to access the device’s desktop. In this manual we’ll tell you how to remove the password request on Windows 10 (Windows Server 2016/ 2012 R2) Login Screen and how to configure autologon under a specific account.

Disabling the password dialog on the Windows 10 login screen doesn’t mean that your account should have no password. It will just be entered automatically by the system during Windows 10 startup. In all other cases, for example, when accessing your PC via the network (SMB) or connecting to a remote desktop (RDP), the user password must be specified manual.

How to Disable Password Login in the User Account Settings?

The easiest way to disable password login is in the settings of user accounts.

1. Press Win+R;
2. In the Run dialog box, enter netplwiz or control userpasswords2 command;
3. In the next window with the list of local user accounts, uncheck “User must enter a username and password to use this computer” and save changes (OK);
4. A window appears where you have to enter your current password twice and click “OK”;
5. Restart your computer and make sure that the Windows boots directly to the desktop without entering a password.

How to Turn On Automatic Logon in Windows Using the Registry Editor?

Let’s consider a more common way to disable password request on Windows 10 login screen using the Registry Editor. This way allows to skip login screen for a Microsoft account, as well as domain or local Windows 10 account.

1. Press Win+R and type regedit;
2. Go to the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon;
3. Change the value of the registry parameter AutoAdminLogon from 0 to 1;
4. Create a new string parameter DefaultDomainName, specify the domain name or a local computer name as its value.
   Tip. Computer name can be found in System Properties or using hostname command.
5. In the DefaultUserName parameter you need to specify the user account name, which should be used to login (replace it with another username or don’t change it);
6. Create a string parameter DefaultPassword where you must specify the password for the account in plain text;
7. Close the Registry Editor and restart your computer;
8. After the Windows restart, you will sign in automatically with the specified account and with no need to enter the password on the login screen;
9. To enable autologon through the registry, you can use the following commands. (replace root and P@ssword with your username and password, WORKGROUP should be replaced with the name of your AD domain if the domain account used):
   reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v AutoAdminLogon /t REG_SZ /d 1 /f
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v DefaultUserName /t REG_SZ /d root /f
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v DefaultPassword /t REG_SZ /d P@ssword /f
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v ForceAutoLogon /t REG_SZ /d 1 /f
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v DefaultDomainName /t REG_SZ /d WORKGROUP /f
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v IgnoreShiftOvveride /t REG_SZ /d 1 /f
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v AutoLogonCount /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Disable Password Request in Windows 10 After Waking from Sleep

You may want to disable password request when your computer wakeup from the sleep mode. The easiest way to do it is to use modern Control Panel interface.

1. Click a notification icon in the tray and select All Settings;
2. Go to Accounts -> Sign-in options;
3. In Require sign-in section, select Never;
4. You can also disable login screen password after waking up or exiting hibernation using the Local Group Policy Editor. To do this, start the gpedit.msc console (in the home versions of Windows 10, you can run the local policy editor console like this). Go to the policy section Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Power Management -> Sleep Settings. Disable the policies “Require a password when a computer wakes (on battery)” and “Require a password when a computer wakes on battery (plugged in)”;
5. Now, your computer will not require a password after a wakeup from sleep or hibernation.

Secure Automatic Logon Using SysInternals AutoLogon Tool

For more secure automatic logon to Windows 10, you can use the AutoLogon for Windows utility. The utility was part of the system utilities pack Sysinternals and is now available for download on the Microsoft website (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autologon).

1. Download and run Autologon.exe as an administrator;
2. Accept the terms of the license agreement;
3. Specify the user account, domain and user password under which you want to perform autologin and press the Enable button;
4. A window will appear in which it is indicated that the autologon is enabled. Encrypted password is stored in LSA format in the registry key HKLM\SECURITY\Policy\Secrets and technically any local computer administrator (but not the user) can decrypt it.

In this manual we looked at how to skip the Windows 10 login screen disabling the password login and booting the computer directly to the user’s desktop. To temporarily disable autologon in Windows and manually select a user credentials under which you need to log in, you must hold down the Shift key while Windows is booting.