If you’re the only user of your computer, and you don’t have to worry about other people sitting at your computer and reading your e-mail or abusing your account, you might want it to automatically log you on each time the computer starts.

You can do this using the registry, but it requires you to put your password in plain text, where someone might be able to find it. Here’s a better way: the AutoLogon.exe tool provided by the Microsoft Shell developers. It’s not officially supported, but it’ll do the job. Instructions after the break.

You’ll need to run the tool from an administrative command prompt. To do that, click Start, type cmd, right-click cmd, and then click Run as Administrator.

Then, at the command prompt, run the following command:

Autologon.exe /Set /Username:<YourNameHere>

If you upgraded from Windows XP and you had configured autologon using the registry, run the following command to move your password out of the registry and into LSASecret, which is a much safer place:

Autologon.exe /Migrate

Thanks to the Shell Blog!