Logging in automatically to a Windows virtual machine

Player includes a neat feature called Autologin that enables to you log in automatically to a Windows virtual machine. This feature can be particularly useful if you are using a VM for testing purposes and need to restart the guest operating system frequently.

The prerequisites for the Autologin feature are:

  • the guest operating system of the VM needs to be Windows 2000 or later.
  • the account you would like to use to log in automatically must be a local user account.
  • VMware Tools needs to be installed.

Here are the steps to enable this feature:

1. Power on the VM.

2. Select the VM from the library and go to Player > Manage > Virtual Machine Settings.

3. Under the Options tab, select Autologin and click Enable:

4. Enter the user credentials:

5. Restart the virtual machine to test whether the user will automatically be logged in.

The user used for autologin needs to be a local user account. Domain users are not supported.
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