When Windows 7 is joined to a domain the option to automatically login is no longer available in the advanced User Management console. Since I am running a small home domain because of SharePoint and TFS, how would I go about enabling this setting?

The HowToGeek Article here covers it however the options are disabled when joined to a domain.

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From : My Digital Life Article

  1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK. In Windows Vista/7, simply type regedit in Start Search and hit Enter.

  2. Navigate to the following registry key:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

  3. Double-click the DefaultUserName entry, type the user name to log on with, and then click OK.

    If DefaultUserName registry value name is not found, create a new String Value (REG_SZ) with value name as DefaultUserName.

  4. Double-click the DefaultPassword entry, type the password for the user account under the value data box, and then click OK.

    If there is no DefaultPassword value, create a new String Value (REG_SZ) with DefaultPassword as the value name.

    Note that if no DefaultPassword string is specified, Windows automatically changes the value of the AutoAdminLogon registry key from 1 (true) to 0 (false) to turn off the AutoAdminLogon feature.

  5. In Windows Vista/7, DefaultDomainName has to be specified as well, else Windows will prompt for invalid user name with the user name displayed as .\username. To do so, double click on DefaultDomainName, and specify the domain name of the user account. If it’s local user, specify local host name.

    If the DefaultDomainName does not exist, create a new String Value (REG_SZ) registry key with value name as DefaultDomainName.

  6. Double-click the AutoAdminLogon entry, type 1 in the Value Data box, and then click OK.

    If there is no AutoAdminLogon entry, create a new String Value (REG_SZ) with AutoAdminLogon as the value name.

  7. If it exists, delete the AutoLogonCount key.

  8. Quit Registry Editor.

  9. Click Start, click Restart, and then click OK.

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I can confirm this works with a Windows 7 VM joined to the domain. I have mild concerns about how accessible the password in the registry is: no privileges are required to read those keys; but the VM is used soley by me, so hopefully it isn't too serious. – jmtd Apr 6 '11 at 14:20
@jmtd - working, and security best practices are two separate things! I would only recommend this for a kiosk/guest/similar account. – William Hilsum Apr 6 '11 at 15:30
On a kiosk, you should use Group Policy to disable registry access to prevent users from accessing the logon password. The setting is User Config\Admin Templates\System\Prevent Access to Registry Editing Tools. – Bacon Bits Apr 19 '11 at 1:34
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protected by Jeff Atwood Jun 7 '10 at 7:03

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