Set default user at logon - XP SP2

  • Thread starter Thread starter xenophon
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xenophon

On my ThinkPad running XP SP2, when the Welcome screen comes up my default
user account (only account other than Guest, which is disabled) is already
selected and the cursor is in the password entry textbox awaiting input. On
my desktop, also running XP SP2, when the Welcome screen comes up it says
"Click your user name to login," even though there is only one user shown.
Both machines are side-by-side at the moment and I can't see a bloody thing
different in the User Accounts setup in Control Panel.

I would like to have my desktop logon be the same as my laptop, defaulting
to the password entry box for the only enabled user on the system, so that I
don't have to click the user name or press Tab twice to get the entry box. I
have Googled, but although I found a ton of Registry tweaks, and now know
how to change the LogonType (which only switches between Classic and Welcome
screens), I can't find out how to obtain this behavior. Can anybody give me
a pointer to a KB or something, or a better search term than I've been
using, or perhaps explain the process? Thanks.

Scott
 
JS said:
Try Power Toy's Tweak UI from Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
Install, run and under Logon you will find check boxes to select the
accounts you want displayed and other options

JS
Click to expand...

???
I have TweakUI installed on both machines. It has no effect in this case. As
I said, there is only _one_ account on each machine, and that is the only
one displayed on the Welcome screen. The problem is that, on the Thinkpad,
the text cursor is automatically placed in the password entry text box when
the screen appears, ready for entry, while on the desktop it requires either
two tab presses or a mouse-click on the (only) user name to display the
password entry textbox and place the text cursor in it.

Granted, this may not seem like a major issue, but it can be quite
irritating. I spend about 65% of my time working on the Thinkpad, and become
accustomed to simply beginning to type my password when the blue screen
appears. I have on many occasions, out of habit, done this on the desktop
only to look up and realize that the keystrokes were going into the void
because the entry box was not active.

On machines running the same operating system, with the same service packs
and update patches, similar functions on each machine should behave the
same, and I'm curious as to why they are not in this case and how to make
them do so. I would appreciate any suggestions as to how to address this
issue.

Scott
 
In
xenophon said:
On my ThinkPad running XP SP2, when the Welcome screen comes
up my
default user account (only account other than Guest, which is
disabled) is already selected and the cursor is in the
password entry
textbox awaiting input. On my desktop, also running XP SP2,
when the
Welcome screen comes up it says "Click your user name to
login," even
though there is only one user shown. Both machines are
side-by-side
at the moment and I can't see a bloody thing different in the
User
Accounts setup in Control Panel.
I would like to have my desktop logon be the same as my
laptop,
defaulting to the password entry box for the only enabled
user on the
system, so that I don't have to click the user name or press
Tab
twice to get the entry box. I have Googled, but although I
found a
ton of Registry tweaks, and now know how to change the
LogonType
(which only switches between Classic and Welcome screens), I
can't
find out how to obtain this behavior. Can anybody give me a
pointer
to a KB or something, or a better search term than I've been
using,
or perhaps explain the process? Thanks.
Scott
Click to expand...

Are you sharing folders or a printer from the desktop system?
That would account for the difference in behavior.

On a system with a single password protected account that is
not configured to logon automatically, you get the Welcome
screen acting the way it does on your laptop. The password box
is active with the cursor blinking. As soon as you enable file
sharing, the behavior changes to what you're seeing on your
desktop system. You now have to click on the icon to activate
the password box.

Whether you can change this behavior depends on what version of
XP you're using. If the desktop system is running XP Home
Edition, you can do the following, but it will disable file
sharing between your computers. You can either share files or
have the Welcome screen the way you want. You can't do both on
XP Home Edition.

On your desktop computer, go to Start -> Run and enter cmd.exe
in the Open box.
At the command prompt, enter the following command.

net user guest /active:no

Hit Enter.
Restart or log off to see if you get the desired results.

If you're desktop system is running XP Professional, you can
restore the Welcome screen and still share files as long as the
user accounts on the laptop and desktop are identical in both
user name and password. If they are, you can disable simple
file sharing (Start -> Control Panel -> File Options -> View
page -> Uncheck "Use simple file sharing (Recommended)"). Once
you've disable SFS, run the procedure outlined earlier to make
the Guest account inactive. Log off or restart to see if you
get the desired results.

Good luck

Nepatsfan
 
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