Accounts Enable or Disable Automatically Sign in Account at Startup in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable automatically sign in to a specific account at startup to boot directly to the desktop in Windows 11.

By default at the startup of Windows 11, you need to dismiss the Lock screen, select the account you want to sign in to on the Sign-in screen, and sign in to the account using the selected sign-in option (ex: password, picture password, PIN (Windows Hello), facial recognition (Windows Hello), or fingerprint (Windows Hello).

You must be signed in as an administrator to enable or disable automatically sign in to a specific account at startup.

If you entered an incorrect password (not PIN) into netplwiz, you will get a The user name or password is incorrect. Try again. message at startup, then requiring you to click/tap on OK and enter the correct password or other sign-in option.

If you ever change the password of the account you have Windows set to automatically sign in to at startup, then you will need to repeat the steps in this tutorial again using the new password to update it for what is used to automatically sign in with.

If you enable automatically sign in to an account at startup and ever change the computer name afterwards, then you will see a Other user at sign in that fails to sign in, and you must manually select your account and sign in instead. To fix this, you will need to repeat the steps in this tutorial again to update it.

Other user can also show on the sign in screen if you set to do not display user names.

EXAMPLE: Windows 11 sign-in screen







1 Open netplwiz or control userpasswords2.

2 Do step 3 (enable) or step 4 (disable) below for what you would like to do.

If you turned on For improved security, only allow Windows Hello sign-in for Microsoft accounts on this device (aka: passwordless sign-in), you will not see the Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer check box until you turn off For improved security, only allow Windows Hello sign-in for Microsoft accounts on this device.

If your PC is currently joined to a domain, then the Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer. box will not be available, and you will need to use OPTION TWO below instead.

If a selected local account does not have a password, then leave the password fields empty.

A Microsoft account will always have a password.

This is the default setting.

If you turned on For improved security, only allow Windows Hello sign-in for Microsoft accounts on this device (aka: passwordless sign-in), you will not see the Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer check box until you turn off For improved security, only allow Windows Hello sign-in for Microsoft accounts on this device.

If your PC is currently joined to a domain, then the Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer. box will not be available.

This option is not secure like OPTION ONE above.

It is recommended to use OPTION ONE above if you are able to instead. OPTION ONE will save the password in the Credential Manager where it's encrypted and cannot be viewed by anyone.

This option (OPTION TWO) will save the entered password (step 5H below) in the DefaultPassword string value in Registry Editor where it can be seen by anyone with access.

See also: How to turn on automatic logon in Windows | Microsoft Support

1 Open Registry Editor (regedit.exe).

2 If prompted by UAC, click/tap on Yes to approve.

3 Navigate to the key location below in the left pane of Registry Editor. (see screenshot below)



4 Do step 5 (enable) or step 6 (disable) below for what you want.

This is the default setting.

7 When finished, you can close Registry Editor if you like.


That's it,
Shawn Brink