How to totally remove the Windows 10 login screen?

Question

I'd like to have the most "Unbranded boot" as possible on Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise.

I have read a few similar questions and I have already done the following steps:

• Enabled user Auto login (no password asked) (I set HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\PasswordLess\Device to 1 and then I could uncheck "Users must enter a user name ..." and set "Auto login" after doing cmd > control userpasswords2.

• "Lock screen settings" > Background > image, and I removed as many options as I could in this dialog box

• Remove Lock Screen in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Personalization\NoLockScreen : 1

• gpedit.msc > Administrative templates > "Do not display the lock screen"

• I have even replaced HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell by my own app, you can try with notepad.exe

• Start menu > "Turn Windows Features On and Off" > Device Lockdown > Shell Launcher, Unbranded boot, Custom logon

It works: on boot, the user automatically logs in. But still, this loading screen is still displayed during ~ 0.5 to 1 second:

How to completely remove this screen?

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Here is a possible option but I am not sure if it works for Win 10 Pro or Enterprise: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/customize/desktop/unattend/microsoft-windows-embedded-embeddedlogon-animationdisabled. I do not know what to do with this XML file, where to load it, in which Windows configuration menu.

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Edit: here is the full boot sequence - which ones are configurable from Windows? Obviously A is not, and C and D are configurable from Windows, but what about B?

Screen A:

Screen B:

Screen C:

Screen D:

Answer 1

Custom Logon only applies when preparing a Windows installation image, meaning that you would need to reinstall Windows from scratch using the Windows image that you have created.

The link in your post relates only to disabling animation on the logon screen, and it also belongs to Custom Logon.

A running system cannot be modified this way and the XML that you have found is part of the input used for creating the custom image, and cannot be used for the running system.

You may for your running system :

• Disguise your name in the logon screen by in Computer Management > Local Users and Groups > Users, double-click your account and in the General tab set your Full name to any text message.

• Change the displayed image in Settings > Accounts > Your info.

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Analysis of the Custom Logon feature of Windows Enterprise

If you have the Windows Enterprise version, you may enable Custom Logon in Control Panel > Turn Windows features on or off and enable the following registry items under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Embedded\EmbeddedLogon.

Setting BrandingNeutral as follows:

Value	Description
1	Disables all Welcome screen UI elements.
2	Disables the Power button.
4	Disables the Language button.
8	Disables the Ease of access button.
16	Disables the Switch user button.
32	Disables the blocked shutdown resolver (BSDR) screen so that restarting or shutting down the system causes the OS to immediately force close any applications that are blocking system shut down. No UI is displayed and users are not given a chance to cancel the shutdown process. This can result in a loss of data if any open applications have unsaved data.

You may further set HideAutoLogonUI to the value of 1 to hide the Welcome screen. Another item you may set is HideFirstLogonAnimation.

I have tried the above settings, and this suppresses almost all of the loading screen, except for the turning circle.

Just to remark that you will get the exact same experience by setting the user image and display-name to empty without the need to have Windows Enterprise.

Answer 2

According to this thread, once custom logon is properly configured, you get a new key in your registry:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows Embedded\EmbeddedLogon

Edit the DWORD HideAutoLoginUI and set its value to 1.

This should result in a blank screen until the desktop appears.

Additionally, you might want or need to configure unbranded boot to hide any windows logo.

EDIT: There is a related Windows documentation page which implicitly confirms you'll need to have custom logon configured for this to work.

Answer 3

If you are looking for unbranded, you can also change the boot logo with a utility such as hack bgrt.

while it might be dificult to remove the login loafing screen, you could reasearch a solution that blocks all monitor output while the computer is starting windows, meaning you cannot see a login screen. i am unsure if there is a simple software way to do this but if you plug a dummy display into a different video port and set it as the primary in windows, login information such as the loading screen may be blocked. This works under windows 7 and 10 with a seccond display however I am unsure if a dummy will produce the desired effect. you could then produce a script to modify the monitor settings so the actual display is set to primary allowing programs to open in the correct display.

EDIT: here are some links an example of dummy screen adapters: https://www.amazon.co.uk/EASYDIY-Displayport-Emulator-Headless-4096x2160/dp/B079FW3DCP

hackbgrt: https://github.com/Metabolix/HackBGRT

Answer 4

As a summary, thanks to the great other answers + this answer from Hide the logon screen windows 10 IOT, here is what I noticed about Screens A, B, C, D of the full boot sequence (see screenshots at the end of my question):

• Screen A is out of reach from Windows

• Screen C can be removed with:

  bcdedit /set quietboot on
  bcdedit /set bootux Disabled
  bcdedit /set bootuxdisabled on
  

• Screen D can be removed with Custom Logon feature turned on (see here, this step is really necessary, only doing the next regedit step is not enough) and the DWORD key (create it if necessary)

  HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows Embedded\EmbeddedLogon\HideAutoLoginUI 
  

  set to 1.

About Screen B (the only difference with Screen C is that there is just the logo, and no animated dots), I suspect it's already part of the Windows boot sequence (even if there is the BIOS logo - probably Windows took this logo during install). I don't know how to remove this.