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I am using Windows 7 Pro and as far as I know it is not possible to use Remote Desktop on a user without password (and that is a good thing :) ).

I want to make a second account with password that I will use only to connect to it remotely.

But at the same time I want the account without password to always automatically log in at start-up and on wake-up from sleep/hibernation. Is it possible to do this? Maybe somehow create a hidden remote desktop user?

EDIT1:

Found out it is possible to use Remote Desktop without a password, but I do not want to do this because of the security issues.

EDIT2:

The possible solution is that the same account can be used to do this. On the local machine it requires no password, but when logging on remotely, it does. Link here

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uniquenamehere
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1 Answers1

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You can automatically login a user with a password into windows. The password will be stored in the registry though, so anyone who can access your computer can access your password if they know where to look.

So my recommendation is to set a password on your computer that you do not mind people who can find out to find out, then do the following.

  1. Startmenu
  2. Search for netplwiz and start the program (Advanced user accounts control panel applet)
  3. uncheck Users must enter a username and password to use this computer.
  4. Click Apply
  5. On the login dialog, provide your username and password that you want to login with.
  6. Press OK to leave the dialog.

Now this will make sure you always automatically login. The next step is to disable the usage of requiring a password to resume a session from standby/hibernation.

  1. Go to an empty part of your desktop, right click and choose Personalise.
  2. Click the Screen saver option on the bottom right.
  3. Click Change power settings
  4. At the top left, click Require a password on wakeup
  5. Click Change settings that are currently unavailable
  6. Tick Don't require a password
  7. Click Save changes

Note that if you lock your account yourself, you will still have to provide the password to unlock it, but standby and startup will be automated. Want to login with a different user, just log out or change user. Note that if you log out, and later log back in, you will have to provide the password.

Its the most secure form for what you want to do.

The above will also work for when you are on a domain, except that you need to make the changes through the registry.

First, do the steps 1 to 6 as shown above, then modify the domain part in the registry at the following location:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
 "DefaultUserName"="usernamer"
 "DefaultDomainName"="domain"
 "AutoAdminLogon"="1"
 "DefaultPassword"="password"

The DefaultDomainName field should be the only one you still have to change. You can set these directly from the registry. If doing so, create any key/value that does not yet exists.

LPChip
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  • I have done as you said and it probably works, but I am not able to connect to the other computer. It says the credentials that were used to connect to the PC did not work. Any idea what might be wrong? – uniquenamehere May 13 '14 at 20:59
  • Do I have to log out on the target machine to be able to log on to it? – uniquenamehere May 13 '14 at 21:00
  • @LPChip everything's OK. Also mention Sysinternal's AutoLogon which does it all automatically (for them, who don't want to do manually ;) – Jet May 13 '14 at 21:08
  • I know there are programs out there that will do this for you. I did not mention these because it really is easy to do this manually. – LPChip May 13 '14 at 21:35