Windows (7, Server 2008) and stored passwords

Factual Questions
1

I play with Windows-based virtual machines a bit (I’m a Mac user but it’s good to have some experience with how the other folks do things).

I have two VMs for which Windows, at some point, stored what it thinks is my password. Why, I dunno, I don’t recall asking it to in either environment. At any rate, at some later point they each required that I choose a new password as the old one had expired, and I “changed” them to what they had been all along, which they permitted. BUT… the damn stored passwords now generate a “password failed” on each boot.

I’d rather they just go straight to the “enter your password” dialog instead of confronting me with an error msg about “password failed”. Silly, I guess, since it’s only one extra click, but it annoys me.

How does one clear out all vestiges of stored passwords and just request that the user input it at logon? Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7 Ultimate.

2

What happens if you press Escape rather than clicking Ok?

3

See here: Configure Windows to automate logon - Windows Server | Microsoft Learn

for documentation on Windows Auto Logon and how to enable/disable it.

4

It seems more likely to me that your VM software stored the password and is trying to log you in. I’ve never seen that behavior on a physical Windows 7 or Server 2008 box. (Does 2008 even allow auto-login?)

I could be wrong.

5

This put me in the right track. It wasn’t quite that key (cited in the link) in either OS but instead was something akin to AutoLogonAdministrator = 1; and I changed it to a 0 and now I have more conventional behavior:

Windows Server 2008: “To Log on, press Ctrl-Alt-Del”

Windows 7: [list of icons of users; you click one and then enter your password]