Automatic Logon for Windows 9x

Oops, I meant
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

AFAIK, automatic logon in Win98/Me allows you to start Windows bypassing the logon prompt.

Is that what you want?

If it is, the easiet way to do that is searching the system for files with the extension *.PWL and rebaming ALL the files extension to *.OLD.

After that reboot and you will be prompted to logon.

This time DON'T type anything, just press enter.

The logon prompt should not appear again.

If this is not what you want, please post a few more details.

Zee

...with the extension *.PWL and renaming ALL those files to *.OLD.

Zee

Zee,  Thanks for your response.  I need to have the computer logon to the domain.  So, I need to use the DomainName, UserName, and Password to logon.  I also need to do it programmatically.  I realize that TweakUI will do this, but it does use its own service.  I have to do it programmatically for those clients who are still using Win 9x.

A bit out of my reach... but maybe worth reading:

Logon, Browsing, and Resource Sharing
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/98/all/reskit/en-us/part3/wrkc18.mspx

Hope this may help.

Meanwhile, maybe some other experts may help.

Zee

Applying Restrictions or Permissions using Registry Modifications.
Listed in order of relevance.

Windows Security:
http://www.winguides.com/registry/category.php/4/

Windows Security: Login and Authentication
http://www.winguides.com/registry/category.php/47/

Windows Security: Network
http://www.winguides.com/registry/category.php/44/

Windows Security: System
http://www.winguides.com/registry/category.php/46/

Automatic Logon to Windows 95, 98 and Me
http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/125/

Display Domain Logon Confirmation
http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/133/

Require Alphanumeric Windows Password
http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/123/

Start Windows Without Prompting for a Password
http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/272/

Require Validation by Network for Windows Access
http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/130/

Force Users to Logon to Windows 95, 98, Me
http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/629/

Disable Caching of Domain Password
http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/134/

Remove Log Off from the Start Menu
http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/9/

Hide the Last User Name
http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/1/

Create the required settings in a .reg file and run it once on the target machine to write the changes to the registry.

TweakUI should work fine on Win95/98/ME computers.
Just make sure "Clear last user at logon" checkbox under "Paranoia" tab is clear ( unchecked).
Also make sure your local user profile will overwrite user profile settings stored on ( authentication) server.

good luck
nedvis

BillDL, Thanks for the list of articles.  I had, in fact, implemented the procedure in http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/125/, but it does not work.

Nedvis, I need to do this programmatically in an application, which logos on under different local and domain names supplied by the client to setup a particular application.  So, TweakUI is not available.  Nonetheless, I ran TweakUI and compared the registry results.  They are the same as the ones I had tried.  TweakUI runs a windows service to render the automatic logon.  I do not know what the service does.

By the way, "Clear[ing] last user at logon" checkbox under "Paranoia," in TweakUI is equivalent to setting "DontDisplayLastUserName" to "0" under the same key value.  I have done that, again to no avail.

I try these procedures repeated on fresh installs of Win 98 & ME.

Thank you to all of you.  Please let me know if you have ever encountered this problem before.

TweakUI should only be changing the Registry.

I would use a fresh install, and compare the registry before and after the TweakUI changes using one of the many registry compare tools, or manually.

I hope this helps !

Tweak UI USUALLY only alters registry settings, but there ARE a few instances where it MUST run at startup for the setting to be applied each time.  THIS is one of those settings, and ecc204 is perfectly correct in saying that Tweak UI runs as a "service" when the "automatic logon" is applied.

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices]
"Tweak UI"="RUNDLL32.EXE TWEAKUI.CPL,TweakLogon"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"AutoAdminLogon"="1"
"DefaultUserName"="BillDL"

Note:  I didn't apply a password, because I have never had a password on THIS machine, but presumably it would also add an additional StringValue:

"DefaultPassword"="billspassword".

SysExpert, I use a fresh install every time I test this.  TweakUI does set its own service.  That is why those entries work.  BillDL, thanks for verifying this.  At this time it seems my only option is to setup TweakUI's service and remove it after the logon.  I still need to do this programatically without using TweakUI.  Any ideas?

SysExpert, What do I do with the following key?

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\Microsoft\windows\current version\network\real mode net\autologon

Anything I need to put under this key?

Other sources:

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/11807678/unwanted-password-window.html

It's always confusing when people quote a "Value" tagged onto the end of a registry key as if it is a directory path.

I've got this working on one of my 98 systems.  I did this a long time ago so I'm just looking over my notes. I did whats in this link.

http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/125

then under network properties I changed the network provider to windows login. I may have done something with passwords in the control panel but I'm not sure. This system logs into a domain and Netware server.

I did what SysExpert, BillDL, and JMontaine have suggested.  None worked.  Actually I had done these before I wrote here for help.  I have also done various combinations of these suggestions.  They did not work either.  Of course, everything would work perfectly, according to specs, in NT4, 2K, and XP.  My problem, and this thread, is about the 9x family.  

I am still without a solution.  I thank you all for your time and advice.  Let me know if you have any final thoughts.

Upgrade to XP???
;-)

Cheers,

Zee

blue_zee,  I am not doing this for myself.  I am supporting a vriety of client computers on different platforms and configurations. :)

I know, but you asked...

Just trying to keep frustration away.
;-)

Zee

SysExpert and BillDL provided answers that according to the documentations should work on a 9x platform.  I have tried these suggestions on fresh installations of 98, 98SE, and ME.  They did not work.  Needless to say, the procedure did not work and, for the time being, I have given up on the solution.  It is important for other people to see these answers.  However, the descriptions provided by SysExpert and BillDL seem to be the only possible answer (that I can dig up too).  So, I split the points between the two of them.

Thank you, ecc204.  It's a great pity that the proposed solutions didn't work on your system.  They are certainly widely quoted as "tried and tested", and it is quite puzzling that they didn't work.

The only thing I can think is that there is another registry restriction or policy that takes precedence over them, as is often the case.  What you sometimes find is that some security patches or updates provide a new tick box that changes a registry setting (or just forces a new registry setting), but the setting differs from one that has been most  commonly used.

By "different", I mean that it may well appear in a different key, and may well be a Binary data type whereas there is already a DWord or StringValue setting telling it to do the same thing.  You sometimes also get conflicts like those "double-negative" statements.  You know the type of thing, eg.

"Don't Force Restriction"=dword:00000000 or 00000001

where there is another StringValue elsewhere that says:

"Force Restriction"="yes" or "no"

Policies uniformly created by the "Policy Editor" may also differ from those suggested for manual registry edition, and you can sometimes find that a "Current User" setting is the one applied rather than a System-Wide one in certain applicatiuons like Internet Explorer UNLESS the System-Wide policy is enforced:

eg:
http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/1133/