Autologon Broken

Just did a fresh install of W7 Pro 64 on my 6 yr old laptop. I’m the only (admin) user and it’s set up to log me on automatically.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon = "AutoAdminLogon"="1"

But after I set up the laptop to be able to share files, etc over my wireless router with my desktop machine the autologon stopped working. What happens is before the logon screen would appear (if it were not set to log me on automatically) another screen appears that claims that: “The User Name or Password is incorrect”. I click “ok” and a normal logon screen appears and I have to enter my password.

How do I fix this?

The link townsbg gave you uses userpasswords2 (aka netplwiz) and is the best way to set up auto log on. Its use is also described here on the forum in this tutorial.

Log On Automatically at Startup

"The link townsbg gave you uses userpasswords2 (aka netplwiz)"

Thanks but that's already set. That's what sets "AutoAdminLogon"="1" in the registry.

The problem isn't that I don't have Autologon set but that something else is causing the OS to barge in before the logon screen would (or wouldn't) appear. The fact that i'm seeing the “The User Name or Password is incorrect” screen before any normal logon screen is evidence that something else is going on because, if you think about, we should never see that screen until after a failed logon. And obviously my password is not incorrect since i'm able to successfully log in by using it.

OPti3020 said:

...The fact that i'm seeing the “The User Name or Password is incorrect” screen before any normal logon screen is evidence that something else is going on because, if you think about, we should never see that screen until after a failed logon. And obviously my password is not incorrect since i'm able to successfully log in by using it.

You can easily create that 'The User Name or Password is incorrect' screen with Autologon. Just set it up with an incorrect password.

Either you have changed the password since setting up autologon, or something has corrupted the autologon password held in the registry. Try setting it up again.

Bree said:

You can easily create that 'The User Name or Password is incorrect' screen with Autologon. Just set it up with an incorrect password.

Thanks, Bree.

As an experiment 1st I went into my User Act and changed "Users must use a password to log in" from unchecked to checked. Then I rebooted, signed in and then went back to the User Act screen and unchecked "Users must use a password to log in". Rebooted once again and Volia! - problem gone!

OPti3020 said:

Thanks, Bree.

As an experiment 1st I went into my User Act and changed "Users must use a password to log in" from unchecked to checked. Then I rebooted, signed in and then went back to the User Act screen and unchecked "Users must use a password to log in". Rebooted once again and Volia! - problem gone!