"Security is mostly a superstition," which might explain why com¬puter security is such a profitable business. In¬deed, security has been a major selling point for Windows Vista, despite the fact that some of its best security features are turned offby default.

For example, a password-that teensy group of characters that none of us seems capable of committing to memory-is optional in Vista, yet you can't share files on a network with¬out one. Of course, once you create a password, you're doomed to retype it
each time you power on your Pc. And thus begin the daily visits to the Wel¬come/log-in screen. Fortunately,there are a few things you can do to tweak this seemingly invariable interface, for convenience and greater system security.
Note that all these hacks require administrator-level privileges.

Log In Automatically
To keep your password intact yet skip the Welcome screen and have Vista log you in automatically each time you start up Windows, enter the User Ac¬counts window-but not the one in the Control Panel. To get to the first of two advanced User Accounts tools in Vista, open the Start menu and in the search box type control userpasswords2 and hit Enter. Select your username from the list, turn off the Users must enter a username and password to use this computer option, and then click OK. When prompted, enter your password (twice) and click OK.

Next, open the Power Options win¬dow in Control Panel. Click Change plan settings under the currently se¬lected plan, and then click Change ad¬vanced power settings on the next page. Now, under the Additional settings branch, set the Require a password on wakeup option to No and click OK.

The last step is to jump to the Per¬sonalization page in the Control Panel and then click Screen Saver. Here, turn off the On resume, display logon screen option, and click OK. With all these options disabled, you'll get to your desktop more quickly and with less typing.
Hide the List of Users

Of course, if you want to use your pass¬word to actually protect your PC and its data, take a step to make the Wel¬come screen more secure. By default, Vista shows a list of all the user ac¬counts on your PC to anyone sitting at your keyboard, but you can hide this list with a quick hack.

Open the Start menu and in the search box type secpol.msc; press Enter to open the Local Security Policy edi¬tor. On the left, expand the branches to Local Policies\Security Options. Then, on the right, double-click the Interac¬tive logon: Do not display last user name option, select Enabled, and click OK.

If you're using the Home Basic/ Premium edition of Vista and don't have the secpol.msc file, don't fret. Just open the Registry Editor and expand the branches to HKEY LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Cur¬rentVersion\Policie s\System. Double-click the DontDi spl ayLastUser¬name value in the right-hand pane and type 1 into the value data field. If the value is not there, right-click an empty area of the right pane, select New and thenDWORD (32-bit) Value,andthen type DontDisplayLastUsername for the name of the new value. (It should, but doesn't, go without saying that you should back up your Registry before making any changes to it: see go.pcmag. comlsaferegedit for instructions on safely editing the Windows Registry.)

The change takes effect right away; the next time you log out or boot your PC, you'll need to type both your user¬name and password to log in. Note that while this hack does indeed hide the user list from would-be intruders, anyone with an administrator-level ac¬count on the PC can still see a list of users by logging in and opening the User Accounts page in Control Panel.

Rotate Your Password

Want to make your PC even more secure? Think of your password as a target and keep it moving. If you're using Vista Ultimate or Business, you can set up Windows to insist that you routinely change your password. (If you have Home Basic/Premium, you'll need to rely on a somewhat less-so¬phisticated solution, such as an annoy¬ing reminder in your calendar.) Open the Start menu and in the search box type lusrmgr.msc; press Enter to open the Local Users and Groups window (the second of the advanced User Accounts tools). Open the Users folder and double-click your username. Turn off the Password never expires option, click OK, and then do the same for all the other accounts on your PC (if ap¬plicable). Close the Local Users and Groups window when you're done.

Next, go back to the Local Security Policy editor (secpol.msc) and expand the branches to Account Policies\Pass¬word Policy. On the right, double-click the Maximum password age entry, and choose a length of time before each of the passwords on your PC expires; 90 days seems reasonable.