Virtual Machine Log on

Hello paulhm Welcome to the Seven Forums!

First off and note this option may not work on the XP Mode as it would on a normal XP Windows install to a physical hard drive you can try going for an automatic "FixIt" download directly from MS at How to turn on automatic logon in Windows XP

There are two downloads found there with the first above the second being the turnon automatic logon registry mod tool. The second is for turning off and requiring the password prompt be answered.

The old method most familiar requires a manual edit of the system registry simply to add a new string value in at the right location which will then bypass the user account/password prompting automatically. First you open up the registry editor and proceed to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" and then double click on the DefaultUserName, type your account user name and click ok.

Then you find the DefaultPassword item and double click on that too. If that is not found then you would need to create it. From there you go upto the Edit option on the menu bar and click on the "New" option and point to "string value". Type DefaultPassword and press enter folllowing that.

(Or if you were in a normal install without any password assigned which isn't the case with the XP Mode where one is required you would folow the same steps but type in "AutoAdminLogon" and once that was creeated go back to Edit with the new entry highlighted and click the Modify option to add 1 to enable it.)

The full MS article for this can be seen at How to turn on automatic logon in Windows

Log in to XP Mode using built-in administrator profile. To do this, you need to first be sure that integration is disabled, and that XP Mode is really shut down instead of being hibernated as is the default close mode. This is because when integration is enabled you can not login to XP Mode or any other Virtual PC virtual machine using a username without password, and the built-in administrator account does by default have no password set. Instructions on how to set up a password for XP Mode built-in administrator account can be found in this post (method 2): can't run programs as administrator in xp mode

To check that XP Mode is really shut down, close XP Mode and then check the folder %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Virtual PC\Virtual Machines. If it is hibernated you will find the hibernation file Windows XP Mode.vsv (Virtual Machine Saved state file). Delete this file, so next time when XP Mode is launched it does not find hibernation information and is therefore forced to boot normally.

Now log in with username Administrator without password. Go to Control Panel > Users and add password to every account. You can also create new user accounts but remember to create password for every account. Due to restrictions in Remote Desktop Protocol you can not use XP Mode or any other VPC vm without password, as already mentioned.

Shut down XP Mode, re-enable integration features and you are ready to go.

Kari

P.S. You might want to read this post, too, although it's not directly answering your questions.

You'll also find that if you make any changes in the XP Mode itself while in it you will be prompted for the password you assigned when setting it up or when you have added another user account. Even with other OSs on other vm programs a prompt for the default password assigned for a specific vm will often be the case.

Here I never save the power or other state and always see the XP Mode load right upto the desktop. One tip for running into the logon prompting would be answering no when asked if you wish to save the present state when going to shutdown and no longer have to worry about seeing the Windows XP Mode.svs file created.

OK.

When you installed XP Mode it most definitely asked you to set up a password for default userprofile XPMUser. XP Mode installation does not let you to continue without setting up a password, nor does it let you to use any other initial username than XPMUser, so the fact remains that an XP Mode virtual machine always has a user XPMUser with the password user set up when launching XP Mode first time.




Checking your original post once more I noticed you are talking about user XPSUser. If that's not a typo then you are using wrong username. Default XP Mode username, created when XP Mode is launched first time is XPMUser.

So: try to remember what password you set initially up when you installed XP Mode, then log in using username XPMUser and the password.

Kari

The registry value I mentioned before doesn't have anything to do with the user or password used. It sets the mode to automatic when the XP Mode first starts and loads right to the desktop. As will you will note from the screen here the AutoAdminLogon value in the registry is highlighted.



The XP Mode still requires that reg entry be present there but the value is set to 0. The logon here to grab this screen was automatic pointing to what Kari has been explaining about the power state also playing a role. One reference that may help you follow what Kari is explaining as far as the prompting for the XPMUser password can be seen at: Prompt for XPMUser password - Windows 7

That is for a normal Windows installation not the XP Mode. You can't run the XP Mode at all without an assigned password. Any change of settings made in the XP Mode itself while running will often a password prompt appear for entering the default password. This is a security protocol for the VM. You wouldn't want to be trying to remove the password provided for the default user account

In fact you will often see password prompts appear on other VM programs as well as other OSs run on them. (See image attached below)

The XP Mode is a different ball game there over any typical XP or other version's install to a physical drive with the original MS intention of this allowing businesses to upgrade to 7 and still run their older XP desktop apps. For this MS included an additional layer of security where a password is a requirement.

If you look back at my last post at the screen there that's how that section of the registry should look by default in the XP Mode unchanged. You'll note the AutoAdminLogon entry is seen at "0" meaning it is disabled. The XP Mode's admin account likely sees that it stays that way!

The XP Mode still loaded directly to the desktop here however mostly since I always shut it down with saving the present state at the time. Looking back a few times I did and had to logon with the password not see it load the desktop right from the start. I never had to disable the Integrated Components afterwards to see the XP Mode auto load however from having saved any state. But deletion of the svs file as Kari instucted should insure results as far as seeing it logon automatically again.

Another update here to show that the XP Mode is rather unique as far as VMs are concerned. Just finished customing installing a Linux Distro on another program to see the password prompts just to logon as well as go for the updates.