Enable Autologon in a Windows Virtual Machine

With Autologon, you can save your login credentials and bypass the login dialog box when you power on a Windows virtual machine. The guest operating system securely stores the password.

Use the Autologon feature if you restart the guest operating system frequently and want to avoid entering your login credentials. You can also use the Autologon feature to grant users access to the guest operating system without sharing your password.

Prerequisites

• Verify that the guest operating system is Windows 2000 or later.

• Verify that you have an existing user account to enable Autologon. The account must be a local machine account, not a domain account.

• Verify that the latest version of VMware Tools is running in the guest operating system.

• Power on the virtual machine.

Procedure

1. Select the virtual machine, select VM > Settings.
2. On the Options tab, select Autologon.
3. Click Enable, type your login credentials, and click OK.

   If you type an incorrect or expired password, you must type your login credentials when you power on the virtual machine.

4. Click OK to save your changes.

   When you enable Autologon or change your login credentials, the Autologon settings are saved immediately. Clicking Cancel in the Virtual Machine Settings dialog box does not affect the changes applied to the Autologon settings.