XP: Disabling the Welcome Screen / Forcing CTRL+ALT+DEL

Contributed by AlexTheBeast December 20, 2003  
Tagged: Windows

XP’s welcome screen shows the users’ names. In certain environments this can decrease security; and therefore, thie feature should be disabled.

The XP welcome screen is a bit of eye candy. It allows the user to select his/her account name from a list. As often happens this time-saving feature can be a security risk. Getting into a system is twice as easy if somebody already has half of the username/password combo.

Now, if you are like most of us and are running your system at home, why bother with this? However, if you are the type of person who needs additional security, this should probably be disabled.

This will revert windows to the previous style of requiring CTRL+ALT+DEL before logon.

1. Goto Start Menu
2. Select Control Panel
3. Select User Accounts
4. Click Change the way users log on or off
5. Clear the Use the Welcome screen checkbox
6. The Use Fast User Switching option will become disabled as well.
7. Click the Apply Options button