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How to Automatically Login and Auto-Lock Workstation After Login

Ramesh
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Setting up an automatic login in Windows also comes with a great responsibility to safeguard the user account from unauthorized use. After configuring automatic login to your user account, you may also want to set it to lock the workstation immediately at login.

Auto-login to Windows and auto-lock the computer

Setting up Automatic Login to Your Account

To automatically login to your account at startup, follow these steps:

  1. Press WinKey + R, and type the following, and press Enter: 
    control userpasswords2
  2. Uncheck “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer.”
  3. Click OK.
  4. When prompted, type in your user name and password and click OK.

The system is now set to log in to your user account automatically. The auto-login credentials such as the username, password, and the computer (domain) name are securely stored in the registry.

The above steps work in all Windows client Operating Systems, including Windows 11.

RELATED: “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer” option missing

Automatically lock workstation at log on

You may now create a Scheduled Task to lock the workstation immediately when you log in.

  1. Start Task Scheduler, and click “Create Basic Task…” in the Actions pane.
  2. Select “When I log on” in the Task Trigger dialog, and click Next.
  3. In the Action dialog, click “Start a program” and click Next
  4. In the next dialog, type the Program name as: C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe
  5. In the “Add arguments” text box, type user32.dll, LockWorkStation

    So the command-line that would be executed is: 
    rundll32 user32.dll, LockWorkStation

    The parameter is case-sensitive; Make sure you type exactly as given. Follow the on-screen instructions and finish the procedure.

You’ve now created a task that locks the workstation immediately after login.

The task does not work?

In case the above task doesn’t work, it may be possible that it’s being triggered too early. In that case, you may set a time delay (e.g., 5 or 10 seconds) before the task is executed.

  1. Double-click the task to open its Properties
  2. Click on the Triggers tab.
  3. Click on the Edit… button.
  4. Enable the Delay task for: checkbox and set it to 5 or 10 seconds.
  5. Click Ok, Ok to complete the process.
RELATED: Automatically Turn off Monitor when you Lock your Computer

Startup folder

The same command can be run from the Startup folder using a shortcut, but items in the Startup folder are executed very late, which means your desktop would be exposed until the “lock workstation” shortcut kicks in. When you run it using Task Scheduler, the task is executed immediately after you type in your credentials and login is validated.

There are chances that the task fails to run at logon, especially if the Scheduler service doesn’t start or if the task is triggered too early. As a fallback, you may create a shortcut to the rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation command-line above and place it in your Startup folder.

The Startup folder of your profile can be accessed by running the following shell: command from the Run dialog:

shell:startup

Or by accessing the following folder directly.

C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Alternatively, creating a shortcut to tsdiscon.exe (for Pro editions and higher) would work, too.

Why auto-lock the computer?

The very reason for setting up automatic login is to avoid typing your credentials or your PIN if you’ve set up one. So, what’s the point of locking the workstation after logging in to your user account?

There are situations where it may be necessary. Many folks would want to this. Turn on the computer and come back again after a couple of minutes or so. In the meantime, the system would do the following automatically:

  • Log in to your account (Winlogon initialization phase) using stored credentials.
  • Lock the workstation.
  • Run all the startup tasks & programs (Explorer initialization phase.)
  • Run the delayed start services (post-boot phase), and get things initialized for you.

When you come back, the disk I/O and CPU usage will be normal. All you need to do is type in your PIN or password and start using the system.

Here is another case where this is needed:

Our IT department has begun pushing out periodic Automated Updates overnight which subsequently reboot my workstation. The negative result of this process is my scheduled tasks, which require my network credentials, fail because I am no longer logged into the network when the task is scheduled to run. I leave my workstation logged in and locked (for security) when unattended.

The above method(s) won’t provide you foolproof security, but it’s a far better option than leaving your system unlocked when it’s unattended. If you’re extremely concerned about security, you won’t be using automatic logon in the first place.

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