{"id":24393,"date":"2021-10-11T12:05:49","date_gmt":"2021-10-11T06:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.58.113.91\/blog\/?p=24393"},"modified":"2025-02-25T08:39:54","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T03:09:54","slug":"auto-login-user-account-windows-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/auto-login-user-account-windows-11\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Automatically Login to your Account in Windows 11 and Earlier"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every version of Windows, from Windows 2000 to Windows 11, allows you to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/how-to-automatically-login-to-windows-and-then-lock-the-workstation\/\">automatically log in<\/a> to your user account without typing the password. This is possible by securely storing the user account credentials using the Netplwiz.exe utility.<\/p>\n<p>However, on Windows 10 and Windows 11, some more steps are necessary to enable automatic sign-in to your user account using stored credentials.<!--more--><\/p>\n<div id=\"toc\">\n<p><strong>Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#hello\">Step 1: Disable Windows Hello and Remove\u00a0Stored PIN<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#autologin\">Step 2: Enable auto-login by storing the credentials securely<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Enable Automatic Login to your Account in Windows 11<\/h2>\n<p>Note that if you have enabled PIN sign-in, fingerprint, or facial recognition, the automatic login using stored credentials <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/pin-sign-in-changes-password-windows-10\/\">won&#8217;t work<\/a>. So, disable Windows Hello mandatory sign-in requirement and also remove the stored PIN (if any).<\/p>\n<h3><a id=\"hello\"><\/a>Step 1: Disable Windows Hello and Remove the PIN<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>Launch Settings (<kbd>Win<\/kbd> + <kbd>i<\/kbd>), and select &#8220;Accounts&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Scroll down the page and then disable the option named &#8220;<strong>For improved security, only allow Windows Hello sign-in for Microsoft accounts on this device (Recommended)<\/strong>&#8221;<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-24396\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/w11-auto-login-1.png\" alt=\"automatic login userpasswords2 netplwiz windows 11 - disable windows hello\" width=\"696\" height=\"293\" \/><\/li>\n<li>In the right pane, expand &#8220;PIN (Windows Hello)&#8221;. On Windows 10, this option would be &#8220;Windows Hello PIN&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Click on the Remove button near the &#8220;<strong>Remove this sign-in option.<\/strong>&#8221;<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-24395\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/w11-auto-login-0.png\" alt=\"automatic login userpasswords2 netplwiz windows 11 - disable windows hello\" width=\"699\" height=\"454\" \/><\/li>\n<li>Click Remove when you&#8217;re asked for confirmation.<\/li>\n<li>When prompted, type in your user account password to authenticate.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div class=\"qt\">\n<h4>PIN: Remove button grayed out?<\/h4>\n<p>If the Windows Hello (PIN) <strong>Remove<\/strong> button is grayed out, you need to first disable the setting &#8220;<strong>For improved security, only allow Windows Hello sign-in for Microsoft accounts on this device (Recommended)<\/strong>&#8221;\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> The screenshots are from a Windows 11 computer. However, the instructions in this article apply to Windows 10 as well.<\/p>\n<h3><a id=\"autologin\"><\/a>Step 2: Enable auto-login by storing the credentials securely<\/h3>\n<p>Next, we need to securely store the credentials of the user account to which you want to log in automatically.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Right-click Start, click Run.<\/li>\n<li>Type the command <code>netplwiz.exe<\/code> or <code>control userpasswords2<\/code> and click OK.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-24394\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/w11-auto-login-2.png\" alt=\"automatic login userpasswords2 netplwiz windows 11\" width=\"463\" height=\"510\" \/><\/li>\n<li>In the User Accounts dialog that opens, select your user account from the list.<\/li>\n<li>Uncheck &#8220;<strong>Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer<\/strong>&#8221;\n<div class=\"qt\">\n<strong>Note:<\/strong> If the option is already unchecked, it means auto login is already enabled. You may want to clear the stored autologon credentials and reconfigure automatic login. To do so, <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Enable the &#8220;User must enter a user name and password to use this computer&#8221; checkbox.<\/li>\n<li>Click Apply.<\/li>\n<li>Uncheck the User must enter a user name and password to use this computer checkbox.<\/li>\n<li>Click Apply.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>Click Apply.<\/li>\n<li>You&#8217;ll be prompted for the user account password. Input the password and click OK.<\/li>\n<li>Click OK to close the dialog.<\/li>\n<li>Restart Windows to check if the automatic sign-in is working.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> The &#8220;Users must enter a user name&#8230;&#8221; checkbox would be missing if the &#8220;Windows Hello sign-in&#8221; requirement is not disabled in Step 1. You can read more about that in the article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/users-must-enter-a-user-name-and-password-to-use-this-computer-missing-windows-10\/\">&#8220;Users must enter a user name and password&#8221; option missing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"rp\"><strong>RELATED:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/how-to-automatically-login-to-windows-and-then-lock-the-workstation\/\">How to Automatically Login and Auto-Lock Workstation After Login<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"qt\">\n<h4>Alternate way: Using Autologon.exe from Windows Sysinternals<\/h4>\n<p>You can also enable automatic login using the Windows Sysinternals Autologon.exe utility. This utility is an alternative to the <code>netplwiz.exe<\/code> or <code>control userpasswords2<\/code> method described in Step 2.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Autologon&#8221; from Windows Sysinternals enables you to easily configure Windows&#8217; built-in auto-login mechanism. Instead of waiting for a user to enter their name and password, Windows uses the credentials you enter with Autologon, which are encrypted in the registry, to log on the specified user automatically.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-24397\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/w11-auto-login-3.png\" alt=\"automatic login sysinternals autologon\" width=\"370\" height=\"229\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The currently logged-on user account name and the domain (or computer name) are filled in automatically. All you need to do is type the password and click <strong>Enable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Download Autologon.exe from:<\/p>\n<pre>https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sysinternals\/downloads\/autologon<\/pre>\n<div class=\"rp\"><strong>RELATED:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/duplicate-users-windows-login-screen\/\">[Fix] Duplicate User Accounts Appear on Windows Login Screen<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Additional Information<\/h3>\n<p>In addition to the above methods, there is also another way to enable auto-login using stored credentials. It&#8217;s done by inputting the <code>AutoAdminLogon<\/code>, <code>DefaultUserName<\/code>, and <code>DefaultPassword<\/code> registry values manually under the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/duplicate-users-windows-login-screen\/\">Winlogon<\/a> registry key. That method is <strong>not recommended<\/strong>, as the password is visible in plain text, and any non-admin user can see it.<\/p>\n<p>Please use the Netplwiz.exe or Autologon.exe tools instead, as they&#8217;re much safer because they store the user account password securely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every version of Windows, from Windows 2000 to Windows 11, allows you to automatically log in to your user account without typing the password. This is possible by securely storing the user account credentials using the Netplwiz.exe utility. However, on Windows 10 and Windows 11, some more steps are necessary to enable automatic sign-in to &#8230; <a title=\"How to Automatically Login to your Account in Windows 11 and Earlier\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/auto-login-user-account-windows-11\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about How to Automatically Login to your Account in Windows 11 and Earlier\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,869],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windows","category-windows-11"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19346,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/duplicate-users-windows-login-screen\/","url_meta":{"origin":24393,"position":0},"title":"[Fix] Duplicate User Accounts in the Windows 10 or 11 Login Screen","author":"Ramesh","date":"October 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"When you start your Windows 10 or 11 computer, the error \"The user name or password is incorrect\" appears. Also, duplicate user accounts may appear on the login screen. The user name or password is incorrect. Try again. After you click the OK button, you're prompted to enter the correct\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows 10&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows 10","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-10\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"two user accounts (duplicate) appear at lock screen","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/duplicate-user-accounts-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5219,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/pin-sign-in-changes-password-windows-10\/","url_meta":{"origin":24393,"position":1},"title":"Default Sign-in Option Changes to Password from PIN Automatically in Windows 10","author":"Ramesh","date":"January 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"When you sign-in to your user account or unlock the workstation, the last used sign-in method (PIN, Password or Windows Hello) is saved to the registry, and the same will be used the next time. However, you may notice that the default sign-in option reverts to password at every restart,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows 10&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows 10","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-10\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"windows 10 login screen header","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/login-screen-2-header.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/login-screen-2-header.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/login-screen-2-header.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":179,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/how-to-automatically-login-to-windows-and-then-lock-the-workstation\/","url_meta":{"origin":24393,"position":2},"title":"How to Automatically Login and Auto-Lock Workstation After Login","author":"Ramesh","date":"April 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"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. Contents Step 1: Setting up Automatic Login\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"auto login and lock scheduler time delay","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/autolock-pc-scheduler-time-delay.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/autolock-pc-scheduler-time-delay.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/autolock-pc-scheduler-time-delay.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/autolock-pc-scheduler-time-delay.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18534,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/users-must-enter-user-name-and-password-missing\/","url_meta":{"origin":24393,"position":3},"title":"&#8220;Users must enter a user name and password&#8221; option missing","author":"Ramesh","date":"September 12, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"When you open the User Accounts dialog by running control userpasswords2 or netplwiz.exe to configure automatic login to your user account, the Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer option may be missing in that dialog. 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