How to AutoLogon Microsoft Windows using PowerShell

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Added by Jason Helmick November 26, 2012

Do you ever just want Windows Server, or client for that matter, to automatically logon? This is a horrible idea in production and violates every security rule you can imagine. So don’t do this!  But…

I build a lot of test/dev environments and want my Servers to automatically logon and start PowerShell. In this blog I’ll show you the old-skool way of setting up auto logon for Windows. In the next blog, I’ll show you how to start PowerShell automatically on Windows Server Core rather than the old command prompt.

Remember I said old-skool? Yea, this comes from the old WinNT 4 days. You can setup AutoLogon in an old registry key “HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon”. PowerShell makes this a snap. You need to add the keys for Autologon, DefaultUserName and DefaultPassword. (Warning – the password will be stored in plain text in the registry)

PS C:\> New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon' -Name AutoAdminLogon -Value 1

PS C:\> New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon' -Name DefaultUserName -Value "Company\Administrator"

PS C:\> New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon' -Name DefaultPassword -Value P@ssw0rd

Of course, if you have several computers you need to auto logon you can use PowerShell Remoting. 

PS C:\> Invoke-Command -ComputerName S1, S2 -ScriptBlock {New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon' -Name AutoAdminLogon -Value 1}

PS C:\> Invoke-Command -ComputerName S1, S2 -ScriptBlock {New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon' -Name DefaultUserName -Value "Company\Administrator"}

PS C:\> Invoke-Command -ComputerName S1, S2 -ScriptBlock {New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon' -Name DefaultPassword -Value "P@ssw0rd"}

Now use your power wisely 😉

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Jason Helmick
Director of PowerShell Technologies
Interface Technical Training