[Added to Roadmap] Add new remote "Power" button for PC Shutdown

[Jamie]

Ms used to force you to use a MS account. I got smart with the living room PC and later my bedroom NUC and did some research and figured out how to create a local account which I believe is why you don't need a pw. A MS account requires a pw.

Anyway, I am used to setting up autologin so I created a pw and set it up to auto login. Just an old preference on how to get into a PC without a logon, I guess. I have done auto logon since at least XP days and in the past MS has tried to force me to create a pw when I didn't want to do it. They always think they know better than the user on what a user needs for security.

I just have CMC on my HTPC's so I don't care whether someone can get into them. For my other PC's I do the proper amount of security that I need to do to protect myself.

[Teddyboy]

I run a domain through server essentials 2016. Part of its requirement for security is that every pc must have a password. Auto logon is not allowed. You can’t even set it. Windows disables that once you join the domain. I get around that by using Sys-Internals Autologon. You run it on the pc you want to login automatically. I give it the domain name and password which it encrypts, and then you can you can boot or wake you PC from sleep without having to type in a password.

[Pauven]

That's a great tip Efrain. I wonder how many home users run a domain. I'd imagine very few. I'm a pretty advanced user myself, and I have at times up to 4 Windows Server 2016 VM's running for my enterprise development projects, and yet I don't run a domain.

Ms used to force you to use a MS account. I got smart with the living room PC and later my bedroom NUC and did some research and figured out how to create a local account which I believe is why you don't need a pw. A MS account requires a pw.

That's news to me. I have noticed with Windows 10 that when you install it gives the very strong impression that a MS Account is required. But in the corner of the screen, in small legalese print, will be a way to opt out of that and do a local account only. When I installed Win10 a couple weeks ago, seems like I had to click through two of these prompts to truly get out of using a MS Account.

Every time I install Win10, this MS Account prompt tricks me over and over. But I'm so adamant that I don't want an online account that I stop and scan the screen looking for a way out.

[Jamie]

I think in the earliest editions they refused to allow you to set up windows 10 with a local account. At least when you first installed windows 10. They buried the local account setup deep into the menu system so you had to know exactly what to do to find it. I found the instructions on the web and followed them exactly in order to setup my NUCs with local accounts. I noticed that it was much easier to find and setup a local account when I had to clean install one NUC last year. I never have been able to install a local account during the install though. I will look for it next time.

A lot of people must have complained so they have made it easier. Maybe it was one of the "privacy" rules that the EU setup to prohibit MS and others from controlling our lives.

[Pauven]

I think the option to use a local account during install was there, it's just that they buried it so well it was almost impossible to find. I think you even had to go so far as to put in a fake phone number/account number, so that it would fail to find your online account, before it would even show the option to use a local account.

The latest versions are a little easier to navigate. Here's a video that shows what I went through a couple weeks ago with Win10 1903 (it should start playback at 19:37, which is where this guy deals with using a local account): https://youtu.be/LXjc19QDdRg?t=1177

By the way, another tip if you are creating USB installation media to install the latest version of Windows 10, you should pre-format your USB drive as NTFS, not FAT. There's a bug in the Windows Media Creation Tool that fails after downloading the Windows files when it formats the USB drive if you have it formatted as FAT - which is doubly-upsetting because you then have to re-download gigabytes of data each time you use the tool. If you format your USB drive as NTFS before using the tool, then the Media Creation Tool gets through the download/format/write steps without failing. It is a well documented and common issue, but the solution I shared here is actually hard to find.

[Jamie]

Good to know. Thanks.

[Teddyboy]

Paul one of the reasons (probably the most important) was the backup services for PCs connected to the domain that WSE 2016 provides. It has saved me on a number of occasions when I’ve over written something that I shouldn’t have. I could have ran it under a workgroup but that severely limits it’s functions. Plus it’s a learning experience for me. I could have also kept my htpc in workgroup mode with out joining the domain, but then I don’t have folder redirection or group policy controls.

I don’t use windows storage services for storage. I use DrivePool on a 16 port lsi 9201i oem pci-express 2.0 8x card I bought from China. It’s really easy to use.

I’m going to start another discussion in the hardware sub forum about my server. I also have some questions about running a server in a vm that you might be able to answer.

[Pauven]

I read this article today regarding Microsoft hiding the offline/local account option for Windows. It mentions that internet connectivity is also a factor. I think my internet wasn't working during my recent Win10 install (drivers), which might be why I found the local account option without too much trouble.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/09/3 ... edium=feed

[Pauven]

how-disable-windows-10-lock-screen

I know it's been a while since we chatted about this issue, but I never did apply the fix manually to my HTPC, and lately with every passing day seeing the lock screen every time I woke my HTPC was frustrating me more and more.

So I finally added a new feature to CMC to apply the fix.

I didn't do the change to disable the sign-in screen. Rather, I went straight to disabling the Windows 10 Lock Screen, as shown in the link above. On my Win10 Pro HTPC, which doesn't have a password, this one setting disabled both the Lock Screen and the Sign-on Screen.

This new feature is in CMC v3.5, beginning with RC4 (not yet released). I placed it on Settings > Startup & Logging Options. It requires Admin rights to update the registry, just like the MCE Remote programming feature.

[Pauven]

After further testing, I discovered that the change above only hid the Lock Screen, and not the Sign-In screen. When I slept the PC from CMC using the Sleep option, that didn't show the Sign-In screen so it seemed perfect.

But when I slept the PC using the power button on my remote, it did show the Sign-In screen. Not sure why that is different.

I tried to control it via the registry, but couldn't find a value that would control it and let me edit it via the registry (Windows blocked me from editing the controlling registry key).

Looks like the only way to disable the Sign-In screen is manually via this setting:

image.png (118.81 KiB) Viewed 16324 times

Posting here for future reference, as I'm sure to forget...