Make Windows Load Your Desktop Before You Log In [Video]

If you like to be able to step away from your computer while your desktop and programs load, but don't want to enable the autologin feature, this script will begin loading your desktop when the login screen shows up.

Technically, this trick enables auto-login and then locks your computer as soon as it starts up, but it's a clever workaround for this particular annoyance (as long as you have Windows 7 Professional or above). All you need to do is create a new text file named LockWorkStation.vbs (or whatever else you want; just remember the name). Copy and paste this code into the file's body:

WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell").Run("rundll32 user32.dll,LockWorkStation")

Go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > Run and type in control.exe userpasswords2. Hit Enter and uncheck the box that says "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer". Then hit up the Advanced tab, and click on the Advanced button. In the left pane of the window that pops up, click on the Users folder and right click on the user for which you want this hack to apply. Click on Properties, go to the Profile tab, and type LockWorkStation.vbs in the Logon Script box (or whatever the name of your script is).

Next, drag the script to whatever folder you want to keep it in, right click on that folder, and hit Properties. From the Sharing tab, click Advanced Sharing. Check the "Share this Folder" box and type in NetLogon in the Share Name box. Set the number of simultaneous users to 1, and hit Permissions to make sure that you are the only user listed and that read access is enabled. If it is, hit OK and save all your settings.

Now, whenever you log into Windows, Windows will start loading your desktop and login programs while the login box is on the screen. So, you can start up your computer, step away from your desk, and when you come back everything will be loaded and ready when you log in. Check out the video to watch the setup in action.

Update: Apparently this doesn't seem to work with Windows 7 Home Premium as described above. If you find a way to make it work in lower-tier versions of Windows, let us know.

Update 2: MasterChi!?! mentions in the comments that you can just throw the script in your Startup folder and it will work on other versions of Windows, though you may have to do a bit of Registry tweaking to enable autologin.

Windows Autologin Lock Screen

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