16

With Windows 7, if you have multiple accounts (and there are no passwords on those accounts), Windows will give you a welcome screen on boot to let you choose which one to log in.

With Windows 8, it will just log you straight in to the last logged in account. How can I make it act like Windows 7?

1

12 Answers 12

6

I got it working, but in an less than perfect way. This way Windows would ask you to type the username every time. Would still like it to show a welcome screen with icons you can click on every boot though.

Run secpol.msc > Local Policies > Security Options > Interactive logon: Do not display last user name > Enabled

2
  • 1
    secpol.msc doesn't appear to be available on Windows 8 Home.
    – jmort253
    Jun 23, 2013 at 23:54
  • 1
    So know it does not log automatically but you will need to type in the username to log in, so it does not show the icons like in Windows 7 ?
    – Devid
    Dec 22, 2013 at 13:10
6

How to Disable automatic Last User Login and always provide Select a User to Login in Windows 8 without downloading software or using any autorun scripts.

  1. open command prompt and enter/run netplwiz
  2. make sure the "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer" has a check mark. If not put a check mark in the box and hit apply
  3. in command prompt enter/run regedit
  4. goto: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\UserSwitch
  5. on the right side select the "Enabled" in the list and change the value data to 1 and then click OK
  6. right click on the "UserSwitch" on the left side and select "permissions"
  7. click on Advanced button
  8. in the Permission entries list highlight the one named "SYSTEM"
  9. click "Disable inheritance", and in the dialog box that appears, select "Convert inherited permissions into explicit permissions on this object"
  10. now double click on each Permission entries one at a time and un check "Full Control" and then click OK. You will not be able to do this for "Authenticated Users" and that is ok
  11. All permission entries should now be listed as "Read" under the Access category except the Authenticated Users
  12. click Apply
  13. click OK
  14. click OK
  15. restart Windows 8 and your done !
2
  • 1
    please provide the source of your information. Sep 26, 2013 at 18:26
  • 1
    I can't find option 9. Where is it ? Sep 25, 2014 at 2:20
3

The only way to make it work is to set a password on all the accounts. You can choose a normal or picture password which may help the transition.

I have looked for a long time on this and went through many articles on how to bypass the lock screen hoping it would lead me to a way, as I could find only a few articles on forcing the lock screen none of which worked. But there is not. Windows attempts to bring up the last logged in account. If that account doesn't have a password it will log it in. So, if you have multiple users and you do not want them to login automatically then they have to set a password.

I don't like the answer either, but it is true. I have 4 users, (wife, 2 kids and myself). I set a password on mine, but the others do not.

A waste of time since the other 3 are locked down and can't do anything. It is like asking for a password at a kiosk.

1
  • I did find a way by enabling "Do not display last user name". See my answer below.
    – Felix
    Nov 27, 2012 at 0:41
3

There is a DWORD key in the registry to set this, it worked perfectly for me: I have two users with no password, Lock Screen is disabled. Upon restart it doesn't auto-logon (that's what I wanted...) check it out: How to prevent Windows 8 from automatically logging in the last user

Also, you need to prevent Windows 8 to reset the key to 0 at every restart, this is how: Help with multiple users login screen!

1
  • 2
    Welcome to Super User! Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference.
    – slhck
    May 19, 2013 at 14:44
3

Shutdown in W8 is not really a full shutdown, its a form of hibernation...make a command shortcut to do a full shutdown should solve it...

Open notepad and copy this into it

shutdown /s /t 0

you can change the zero to 5 if you want a 5 second delay after you launch the command, zero is immediate shutdown.

save it to your desktop as "Windows full shutdown.cmd" (change the file extension from txt to cmd)

Use this command shortcut to shutdown the PC, hopefully this will allow you to pick a user on next boot.

1
  • 2
    Doesn't work, it still does the auto logon.
    – Felix
    Sep 30, 2012 at 6:05
2

But I worked out how to fix this with out causing any other issues. This is what I did.

  1. Backup/export HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\UserSwitch
  2. Change the UserSwitch Enable value to 1
  3. F5 to refresh registry, then delete the UserSwitch Key
  4. From the Parent Key 'LogonUI', right-click it and select Permissions
  5. [Disable Inheritence] and select 'Remove'
  6. Now edit each User, Advanced Permissions and uncheck/untick 'Create Subkey' (This stops the key being recreated).

Reboot to test.

If there is an issue you can just merge the Userswitch.reg file you backed up and then re-edit 'LogonUI' key and check create subkey. But I haven't had any issues at all with this method. Works in Windows 8 and 8.1, Pro and Core.

Good Luck

1

You can enable/disable autologon by clicking windows key and R to open Run dialog, or just type in the search bar netplwiz and on the User accounts panel check the mark by Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer

3
  • That's the first place I checked. It is checked.
    – Felix
    Sep 29, 2012 at 10:53
  • Try signing out before you shutdown windows, or put some password on your account, it seems that if there is no password on the account and the computer was shutdown with user logged it logs on automatically to that user. There should probably be some registry tweak, but I'm not able to find it
    – ralz
    Sep 29, 2012 at 11:06
  • Signing out before shutting down doesn't change it. It still logs in automatically.
    – Felix
    Sep 29, 2012 at 11:53
0

Felix, please try Logonexpert autologon tool, it should work (declared Win8 compatibility)

2
  • 1
    While this may technically answer the question, it would be more helpful if you added more information about the website you've linked to.
    – user3463
    Oct 12, 2012 at 19:05
  • I tried disabling autologon using Logonexpert, but it doesn't work either.
    – Felix
    Oct 20, 2012 at 2:34
0

found this somewhere else hope it helps::Go to Control Panel > Personalization > Screen Saver and un-check On resume, display logon screen .

1
  • That just deals with being awoken from the screensaver, not from a Shutdown/Restart call.
    – Kruug
    May 28, 2013 at 23:01
0

Having read all these answers, here's what ultimately worked for me (Windows 10 also):

Set up a scheduled task to do the following, for each user which logs into the machine:

Script:

reg.exe

Parameters:

add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\UserSwitch /v Enabled /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Trigger:
One minute after login, current user

I also ticked, "Run with highest privileges", but I don't know whether that was necessary.

0

This is the approach I ended up using, and that finally worked for me. I learned about it in an eightforums.com post by NiFu, which was immensely helpful to me.

Here's what to do, paraphrased from that post:

  • In regedit, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\UserSwitch.

  • Right click the "UserSwitch" folder and click "Permissions...".

  • Click "Advanced", then "Disable inheritance" and select "Convert inherited permission into explicit permission on this object."
  • Next to "Owner: SYSTEM", click "Change...", type Administrators in the box at the bottom, click "Check Names" to expand the name, and click "OK".
  • Check the box that says "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects".
  • Select "Administrators", click on "Edit", and make sure that "Type" is set to "Allow" and that "Full Control" is checked.
  • Select "SYSTEM", click on "Edit", set "Type" to "Deny", click "show advanced permissions", and make sure the "Set value" box is checked and all the other boxes are not. Also check the box that says "Only apply these permissions to objects and/or containers within this container".
  • Click "OK" and similar buttons until you're back to the first dialog you opened.
  • Now confirm you did things right: Click "Advanced" again, in the "Effective Access" tab, click "Select a user", type "SYSTEM", click "OK", and click "View effective access".
  • Verify that there's an X next to "Full Control" and "Set Value", and that all the other entries still have a green checkmark.

Now set the Enabled key to 1 again. This should be the last time you have to do that, as SYSTEM can no longer interfere now. The next time you start your computer now, you should see the regular login screen with user icons and all, regardless of who last used the computer.

Answer copied from How to stop auto login on Windows 8 - SuperUser

I would like to say that Engineer's answer is great however as soon as you reboot your computer that value is reset so next time after that when the PC is turned on then it will auto logon again.

(I also tested this solution and it works a charm.)

-1

Tak a look here: How to disable the Windows 8 swipe-away screen lock, without disabling the password?

It is probably the best solution (same as in W7). It disables both the lock screen and auto-login of accounts without password.

1
  • This does not disable auto login for accounts with passwords.
    – Jay Elston
    Apr 3, 2015 at 15:55

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .