When I boot up my computer, it automatically brings up the Administrator user. Then I have to immediately log out and log back in as myself. Is there any way to set Windows so that it defaults to me on boot up?
It seems like it should be really easy but I can’t find the setting.
What version of Windows are you using? (XP or Vista, XP Home or Professional edition, etc.)
My first suggestion would be to give the administrator account a password. That’s just a good idea anyway, and it would probably prevent it from automatically logging in at the same time.
It’s usually in something like Control Panel > User Accounts (that’s for XP). I don’t have multiple accounts set up on this machine, so I can’t play with it and tell you the exact procedure.
I’m using XP Home. When I go to User Accounts in the control panel, my personal account is the only one there. The Administrator account is not even listed there, but it always logs on to that one on startup. My personal account is set as the system administrator.
The normal XP control panels don’t provide an option for automatic logon, on the grounds that it’s a bad security practice, even for a single user machine. They have a point, though it can seem a tad silly when we’re talking about the machine sitting in your house.
Google “automatic logon xp”, and you’ll find a number of directions for enabling this feature on XP machines:
The MS knowledge base instructions:
If you’re nervous about messing with the registry, and you are not connected to a domain, you can also run a command line program to bring up something that will let you do it (also referenced at the end of the MS KB article):
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/06/14/enable-automatically-logonlogin-into-windows-xp/
The Tweak UI Powertoy for XP has an automatic logon that lets you choose which User to be the default.
I think it works for XP Home, but I have XP Pro so I can’t say for sure.
Use the PowerToy that GuanoLad mentioned. I use it all the time on machines, and it allows you to pick a default user as well as to hide accounts you don’t want visible.
For example, if you set up machines in a small office, you might want a single admin user, but you don’t want people to see that user in the list of available users, so you can hide it.
I am a little concerned that the computer is logging you in as Administrator on an XP Home box since XP Home disables the Administrator user unless you are starting up in safe mode. I have seen this happen before, though, and it was on a machine that had other issues (i.e. high school kids had had a go at it for a while), so it would be wise to run a full virus scan on your machine.
Thanks, that’s a great little tool.
And I checked, I have XP Pro, not Home.