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On my Windows 10 Home pc I have two users, both without password. To disable the automatic login feature, the usual hack was to alter the registry and set Enabled to 1 in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\UserSwitch. See for instance here: How to prevent automatic login of the last user in Windows 10?

This has been working for some time, but after the recent Fall Update, it no longer works, and the last user is automatically logged on again. Even when logging off before powering off the pc.

Does anyone know of a (new) workaround, preferably not involving passwords?

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  • Have you checked that the registry hack you made was not simply changed or removed by the update?
    – techturtle
    Nov 16, 2017 at 16:58
  • Yes. Actually the value was reset by Windoes every time, but I run a task at logoff that sets the value to 1 again. I just confirmed it's still 1.
    – Berend
    Nov 16, 2017 at 17:03
  • I feel for you. I just gave up and started using passwords. If Microsoft doesn't implement that simple switch, and (perhaps inadvertently) breaks the workarounds, there isn't much that I can do. I mainly use Linux, which I can bend to my will to a much greater extent. I can't be bothered to play catch with Microsoft.
    – hayalci
    Dec 26, 2017 at 20:41

2 Answers 2

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This blog posts suggests disabling "Use my sign-in info to automatically finish setting up my device after an update or restart" in user account options.

https://keegansdiet.wordpress.com/2017/11/09/login_auto-dis/

Possibly this would need to be done for all user accounts.

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  • Sorry, but that's not it. That setting was already disabled.
    – Berend
    Dec 31, 2017 at 13:32
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Four years later I stumbled upon the answer here. The registry hack I mentioned in my question in fact still works, but upon logoff, Windows always resets the value of Enabled to 0.

To prevent this, the Set Value permission of the UserSwitch key should be denied for the SYSTEM user:

  • Right click the registry key UserSwitch and select Permissions
  • Click on Advanced and then on the Disable inheritance button; if you are prompted with two options now, choose the first one (Convert inherited permissions into explicit ones for this object)
  • At the top of the dialog, change the owner from SYSTEM to the group Administrators.
  • Select the group Administrators and give it full control
  • Edit the entry for SYSTEM, select Type: Deny, and Applies to: This key and subkeys.
  • Click on Show advanced permissions. Click on Clear all, and then check only the Set value checkbox

Another user reports having to remove the UserSID string value from UserSwitch as well.

The identical answer is here as well.

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