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[RELEASE] Auto Logon & Lock v1.0

LocutusEstBorg

Active Member
Download: Auto Logon & Lock v1.0

You can have your Windows PC automatically login to a user account on boot and then lock the desktop so a password is still required.

Some of the reasons you might want to do this are:

* Faster boot time. The additional post-logon start up items are also started after Windows boots. Which means when you press the power button on your PC and come back after a few minutes, its completely booted up. No need to wait for additional software to load after you logon.

* Automatically resume downloads etc. when your PC reboots due to a power failure or crash. On XP you could do this by installing the application as a system service. In Vista and 7, Session 0 Isolation makes using a system service a pain, not to mention it's insecure. Just put your applications in the regular Windows Start Up folder and they will be launched after the auto logon.

* It password protects Safe Mode as well. Existing auto logon methods leave Safe Mode unprotected.

* It locks the desktop before Explorer is started. Other methods auto-lock using an autorun/start up entry which leave the PC logged on and unlocked until the autorun entries are executed (which can even take several minutes).

Installation:
Supported on Windows Vista (32-bit & 64-bit), Windows 7 (32-bit & 64-bit).

1) Run "Lock.exe" from the archive to test if the application runs without errors. If all is well your desktop should lock. Logon again and Windows Explorer should be open. You might want to create a System Restore Point before proceeding just to be safe.

2) Copy the files "Lock.exe" and "LockCMD.exe" to your Windows directory. (Ex: C:\Windows)

3) Run "lockcmd.reg" from the archive and click Yes in the dialog box. You must run this while logged on to the account which you want to enable auto logon for.

4) Click Start and type "netplwiz.exe" (Without the quotes) and press Enter.

5) Uncheck the box "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer" and click OK. Enter the Username and Password of the account you want to enable auto logon for.

6) Reboot your PC to test it.
 

Adiuvo

Active Member
This sounds amazingly useful.

Come to think of it, everything you make is useful >_>

Thanks Torch.
 

LocutusEstBorg

Active Member
I was searching for a way to lock the desktop immediately after configuring auto logon but everything I could find was just calling the LockWorkStation function via rundll32.exe via some shortcut placed in Start Up or registry. That takes a while to lock depending on how bloated your Windows is and till then it just sits on the desktop. And Safe Mode didn't get lock since the Start Up items don't run in Safe Mode.

More importantly using rundll32 for these functions causes a stack corruption which will eventually crash the system or worse. So I made a replacement shell (Windows starts lock.exe instead of Explorer) which locks first and then launches Explorer in the background. It also handles Safe Mode with Command Prompt and detects and launches the x64 cmd.exe on an x64 system.
 
nicely done.


Works great on my end. Messengers already login. :D


Update: install on all 3 windows 7 64 bit computers. works without a hitch.
 

LocutusEstBorg

Active Member
If you want to run something at start up that needs UAC approval such as PeerGuardian, you can use Task Scheduler to bypass the UAC prompt.

Create a new task in Task Scheduler.

Under General select:
* Run only when user is logged on
* Run with highest privileges

Under Triggers click New and choose At Logon from the drop down box.

Under Actions click new and choose Start a Program. Select the program to run without UAC.

Under Power uncheck everything.

Under Settings uncheck Stop the task if it runs longer than...
 
Thats cool. usually my computer sometime randomly crash. (Probably bad drivers on my printer. USB_Bug_Error)

but anyways besides the point, your autologin starts up my megaupload manager to finish the rest. which is great while I'm fast asleep and on limited ineternet.
 

LocutusEstBorg

Active Member
The auto logon is part of Windows. The only thing I made is the custom user shell that launches instead of explorer.exe.
 
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