May be helpful w/autologons

[JosephRB]

I created an admin autologon account and intended to delete it after the installation was complete. This caused problems that Windows would freeze on startup thereafter. I resolved this on my own. However a better description can be found at:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_wel_screen.htm

The relevant information from there is:

The Administrator Logon Dialog Box May Be Hidden

The Administrator Logon dialog box may be hidden under the Welcome screen when the AutoAdminLogon feature is enabled and the user account is either deleted or missing.
-or-
The Log On to Windows dialog box may be displayed with incorrect credentials after the Autologon feature had been unsuccessful, and you received the following error message:

The system could not log you on. Make sure your user name and domain are correct, then type your password again. Letters in passwords must be typed using the correct case.

This problem can occur because the Autologon feature is attempting an automatic logon for a user account that does not exist. Either the account has been deleted or removed, but the registry settings for that account are still intact.

To work around the problem that concerns the hidden Administrator Logon dialog box, press ALT+TAB to bring the dialog box to the front of the screen so that you can log on to the computer with valid credentials.

To work around the other problem, remove or update the appropriate registry key if the Autologon feature is required for an existing account. If you do not need or you do not want the Autologon feature, change the setting of the Autologon feature so that Autologon=0.

The symptoms that are described in this article may occur if the following conditions are true:

- The AutoAdminLogon feature is enabled for an administrator account.

- The account for which the AutoAdminLogon feature is set, is either deleted or does not exist, but the registry settings for the Autologon feature for that account are still in the registry. The symptoms occur whenever you delete an account for which the Autologon feature is set.

The registry and its settings are:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

DefaultDomainName (REG_SZ) : <Computer name>
DefaultUserName (REG_SZ): <User name (admin)>
DefaultPassword (REG_SZ): <Password>
AutoAdminLogon (REG_SZ): 1
AutoLogonCount (REG_DWORD) : any value greater than one (1)