Summary

This article describes the new Group Policy setting Display information about previous logons during user logon in Windows Vista.

Display last logon information during every logon

In previous versions of Windows, to view previous logon events, users needed audit successful, failed logon attempts and check the results in the Event Viewer - Security log. In addition to this option, Windows Vista introduces a new Group Policy setting which helps you view information about previous logons and logon failures.

Warning: For domain user accounts in Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 native, or Windows 2000 mixed functional level domains, if you enable this setting, a warning message will appear that Windows could not retrieve the information and the user will not be able to log on. Therefore, you should not enable this policy setting if the domain is not at the Windows Server “Longhorn” domain functional level.

This warning comes right from the Group Policy Editor. (Explain tab). Here is the complete information.

Description about the "Display information about previous logons during user logon" setting

For local user accounts and domain user accounts in Microsoft Windows Server ”Longhorn” functional level domains, if you enable this setting, a message appears after the user logs on that displays the date and time of the last successful logon by that user, the date and time of the last unsuccessful logon attempted with that user name, and the number of unsuccessful logons since the last successful logon by that user. This message must be acknowledged by the user before the user is presented with the Microsoft Windows desktop.

For domain user accounts in Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 native, or Windows 2000 mixed functional level domains, if you enable this setting, a warning message will appear that Windows could not retrieve the information and the user will not be able to log on. Therefore, you should not enable this policy setting if the domain is not at the Windows Server “Longhorn” domain functional level.

If you disable or do not configure this setting, messages about the previous logon or logon failures are not displayed.

The above information is from the Group Policy Editor.

Windows Vista standalone systems

However, this Policy setting works fine in Windows Vista standalone systems. To enable this Policy, follow the steps:

  • Click Start, Run and type GPEDIT.MSC
  • Navigate to the following branch:

Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates | Windows Components | Windows Logon Options

  • Double-click Display information about previous logons during user logon
  • Set it to Enabled
  • Restart Windows

When you logon to your user account, you'll now see the information about previous logon attempts made in your system. Here is a screenshot:

You'll need to click OK button at every logon, in order to proceed to your user account desktop.

Equivalent registry edit for the above setting

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"DisplayLastLogonInfo"=dword:00000001