Auto Logon NT4 box w/ a blank admin password

I am looking for a way to auto logon an NT 4 machine from the logon prompt.

I have used the registry hack for AutoAdminLogon = 1, DefaultUsername = "administrator", DefaultPassword = "", DefaultDomain = "computer_name".

Only problem is that because the current password is blank, NT will always turn the AutoAdminLogon = 0, thusly disabling the autoadminlogon.

Oh, and changing the admin password from blank is apparently not an option.


While on the subject, can win9x do this also, but this time on a domain rather than locally?

Thanks,
xmaddness

xmaddness:

Show last logon must be enabled or autologon will be disabled. Sorry can't help with 9x.

Quote:

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Windows NT/2K provides Registry settings that can be set so that a user is automatically logged in the next time the system would otherwise put up the logon dialog box. However, the Registry values are hidden very deep, and are a pain to configure. This program, Autologon, will do the Registry configuration for you, and allow you to enable and disable auto-logon when you want.

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Attached is the utility...which I downloaded from MS years ago

This is specifically for an NT4 machine.

Disclaimer......

Download and use at your own risk!!!!!

(although...it works great) ;)



HTHs

MLF

does TweakUI handle this for Windows 9x?

Thank you for the program. Here is a bit more info to the story.

I am able to make the changes, and reboot the machine, and it works perfectly the first time it is booted up. Although once it is started and up, NT must then make the change in the registry to autoadminlogon = 0. Can I write a .reg file to set this to one, and execute this with a logon.bat file? Without having it prompt to accept the change in the reg?

Are you part of a network.....??

I used this for an autologon...locally...and had a program startup....the machine didnot require network access...and was a standalone.

I never had to reset...just disabled when I didnt require anymore or I needed to logon to the network.

Sorry cant help out anymore......

Your domain policys may be interfering???

MLF

We are part of a network, but this box is a local server to the machine. It only has share access to some network shares.

I read on MS's website there is no password, then windows will disable the autoadminlogon, which is exactly what it is doing.

thinking of adding this to the logon.bat file.


REG UPDATE HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\AutoAdminLogon=1

Will that work correctly?

I don't think you can edit the registry with a log on script in nt4. OR more to the point, logon scripts run immed after logging on. There is a registry hack to allow this, but I never got it to work.

Since you have autologon enabled. Give the administrator a password.

Reboot and hold down the shift key until you have a logon screen. Administrator should be listed in the user name box.

Enter the password and reboot. Should log on automatically

Or create a user with admin privledges...with a password and use that to login??

Something doesnt sound right...why can you not change the admin password???

MLF

MLF:

Must be a "Security Feature" in NT4 Server. You cannot edit the registry with a blank password i.e. password=""

You have to use usrmgr to set the password to blank, then logon as administrator once. After that, it will work. Unless display last username is disabled.

"Security Feature" I crack myself up :D

I cannot change the admin password beacuse I was told by the Director of IT not to. xD

Well, I got it figured out now. Here is what I did.

1) Enabled autologon in the registry.
2) Made all shares /persistent:no
3) Created a batch script to reconnect all the shares on startup w/ no persistent.
4) created an update.reg file that switches the registry to autoadminlogon = 1 (back on) and placed this in the startup folder.



This seems to work. I can turn on the autoadminlogon to work in the reg, and it will reboot fine one time. Because after the auto logon, it turns it back off in the registry (autoadminlogon=0). But it will still make it thru because I had forced it to on before the reboot.

So now once the machine logs on, and resets it to off, the batch script then turns it back on.

Hopefully this will work for now.



I still am looking for a solution to the 98 logon problem. We have a very old legacy server that still runs 98 software. I am looking to have this box auto logon also. The only problem though is that it needs to logon to a domain. I have seen no place where I can store the defaultdomain info and have it automatically do it. Most places have the script to do it only into the local machine.

Can tweakUI do this? Any help is greatly appriciated.

I've never done so in a Domain, but I've used TweakUI on XP, ME, 2000, and 98 boxes to log into samba servers automatically on startup.

Can't remember the specifics right now ( don't know if it is age or alcohol ) but usually set up the logon accounts to the box first ( locally the default account had no password ), then set up the accounts on the server ( with passwords ) then installed TweakUI and installed the necessary info to log on automatically on startup.

Again ( as I recall ) there was a problem with 95 and earlier ( and maybe some 98 ) concerning how they handle sending the passwords: something about they sent in plain text, NT4 and above sent encrypted. It was a simple reg hack if needed, but something to consider.

Be advised, this is not the most secure method! Besides the lack of local logon password to boot, as I recall the passwords are stored in and can be pulled from the registry ( plain text ).