I got a new computer recently, and one of my first tasks was to fire up the old auto-login-to-Windows-10 trick that I had implemented on my old machine.

I couldn’t remember how I had done it, of course, but I remember it involving some registry work. However, most of the searches I’d turned up this time around involved running Netplwiz and disabling the login requirement.

That opened up a whole can of worms because I didn’t have the magic checkbox present that would let me log in automatically. Turns out a bunch of other people had the same issue – an issue that seems to stem from using a Microsoft account to log into Windows 10 instead of using a local account.

Anyhoo.

Here’s how to do it now. And who knows how long this trick will work: Microsoft’s next big update could kill it, but this works as of April, 2021.

Open up the Registry Editor and navigate to the following:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\PasswordLess\Device

Then modify the DevicePasswordLessBuildVersion key’s value data from 2 to 0 and hit OK.

Now open up Netplwiz and you’ll notice you have the stupid checkbox. Uncheck it, hit OK, and enter your password to confirm your recklessness.

The next time you restart your computer, it’ll log you in automagically. Be excellent to each other.