How to prevent automatic login of the last user in Windows 10?

Question

There was a pretty arcane hack that worked in Windows 8.1, but it doesn't work any more. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

The following works for me on Windows 10 Pro x64. It's particularly useful if some accounts don't have passwords.

• Go into the Local Group Policy Editor (you can get there by searching the configuration panel)
• In the navigation panel, click to expand the User Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Scripts (Logon/Logoff)
• In the right panel, double click to open Logon (not Logoff!)
• In the windows that opens, click on Add
• In the Script Name field, input: C:\Windows\System32\reg.exe
• In the Script Parameters field, input: ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\UserSwitch /V Enabled /T REG_dWORD /D 1 /F
• Click OK and close the window
• Restart the PC (logging out might also suffice)

Now when you login and go to shut down the PC, you will be greeted by the list of user names at the next boot.

I have confirmed this works on my Windows accounts, but only if you put the script at the Logon, not the Logoff, which used to work for Windows 8.x. What this does is change a registry key to enable the User Switch (sets it to 1). Apparently, this registry key gets reset (set back to 0) by another process (likely during logon) and this Policy puts it back to 1.

Source: Option Two of this Eight Forums tutorial

Answer 2

I've found that enabling the user switch via HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\UserSwitch breaks UAC popups for standard (non-admin) users.

The alternative, hiding the list of users (http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/9134-sign-screen-do-not-display-user-name-windows-10-a.html) requires typing in the user name.

What worked best for me was to non-intuitively enable auto-signin (http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3539-sign-user-account-automatically-windows-10-startup.html). If you put an empty username and password, the sign-in screen will:

1. Prompt with user "Other User"
2. From here you can click OK
3. You can then click whatever family account to sign-in from the bottom left list.

The extra click for the OK was an acceptable compromise for me.

Answer 3

The problem is that your computer is set to only "show" the last user that logged in and since that user does not use a password, it simply logs in. Set it up to show all users every time instead of only the last user to log in.

Answer 4

For everyone else using a version of Windows 10 without GPO, you can do this.

1. Windows + R
2. Enter control userpasswords2 and click OK
3. Tick the box that says Users must enter a username and password to use this computer
4. Click OK

Done.