Resolved Windows logon appears unexpectedly

My wife turns her laptop on every day and it boots into Windows automatically. No logon required. She has XP.

About two weeks ago, for no apparent reason, she found that every time she turned the laptop on she was presented with a Windows logon box which had her name in the username box with the password box blank. She has never set a password, so she just clicks OK and it boots into Windows. All this has happened since we changed our ISP, if that has any relevance. While its no more that a minor irritation, I wonder how we can bypass this logon box again?

I have ran control userpasswords2 and cleared the [Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer] check box. However, when I rebooted I was now presented with an Administrator logon box and a message saying that I couldn't logon on due to a restriction. I could go no further and had to turn off the laptop.

Rebooting and pressing F8 enabled me to go into Safe Mode where I accessed System Restore and returned to yesterday's restore point, but I'd still like to eliminate the need to logon at startup. Any ideas, please?

 

1. Click on the Start Menu
2. Click Run
3. In the open field type: control userpasswords2
4. Click OK
5. An User Accounts Dialog Box will open.
6. Select the Users Tab
7. Clear the Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer checkbox
8. Select the Advanced Tab
9. If it is not already, clear the Require users to press Ctrl-Alt-Del before logging on checkbox
10. Press Apply
11. A dialog box will open asking you for user name and password
12. Input the information into these fields
13. Click OK
14. Click on Start Menu again
15. Open your Control Panel
16. Open User Accounts
17. Click Change the way users log on or off
18. If it is not already, clear checkbox for Use the Welcome Screen
19. If it is not already, clear checkbox for Use Fast User Switching
20. Click the Apply Options button
21. Reboot to see your results

10 and 11 asks me to input the username and password. As I've said, she's never used a password before so I won't be able to go beyond that stage in the process because there is no password known for me to use?

 

The dialogue box mentioned above asked for the administrator password rather than the username password, but even when I entered the correct Administrator password I got the response "Unable to log you on because of an account restriction ".

I changed 'Administrator' in the logon box to my wife's Username and was successful in passing stage 13 above. I then progressed to 17 but then found that 18 and 19 were greyed out and inaccessible. There was a message saying that Fast User Switching had been disabled by a utility.

So, it appears that even with the correct password for Administrator I cannot logon because of some account restriction. I therefore went into Safe Mode again and restored the computer to a previous state. Everything works fine, but I still have to press the Enter button to bypass the logon. I can live with that.

Thank you for your suggestions nevertheless.

 

I've found a solution to the problem.

I installed a free Powertoy from Microsoft, TweakUI, which by ticking a box instantly allows the computer to boot into Windows, bypassing the logon. It does other things as well. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/downloads/windows-xp

I rebooted the laptop a few times to ensure that it worked and it was successful every time.