Access Denied: Configuring a Win2K System to Log On Automatically

My company has a public Web browser system that needs to log on automatically so that everyone can use it for Internet access. I loaded our standard workstation image on the computer and set Windows 2000's automatic logon registry values (AutoAdminLogon, DefaultUserName, DefaultDomainName, and DefaultPassword under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogon registry subkey). When the workstation starts, Win2K loads and displays the Logon dialog box but doesn't automatically log on. What am I doing wrong?

You're probably using a conflicting registry value: DontDisplayLastUserName under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogon subkey. Typically, the Win2K Logon dialog box displays the username of the last user that logged on, so you need to enter only a password. Some organizations, however, view usernames as secret and consider displaying them needlessly a security risk. Such companies set DontDisplayLastUserName to 1, which causes the Logon dialog box's username field to be blank. This value was probably set in your standard workstation image. Win2K can't support both DontDisplayLastUserName and AutoAdminLogon, and when you use AutoAdminLogon, DontDisplayLastUserName serves no purpose anyway. Set DontDisplayLastUserName to 0, and AutoAdminLogon should work.