At my company we have an application which needs to be run under a specific user account. The application provides a network service to other domain users. Whenever the PC gets rebooted someone has to logon as the specific domain user and start the application, then lock the system. This is mostly done through RDP but it is a common source of error to forget this manual step after maintenance issues. Thus we are looking at a way to automate this. I have read http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/windowsserver2008r2general/thread/660519bc-a8d8-4765-aed5-3dd374517e4e As far as I understand it all sums up to auto logon with an unencrypted password in the registry. This is obviously not secure. BUT: We trust all users who have admin rights as! They can do things anyway. Thus if it was possible to store the password in the registry and then protect this registry key against read from non administrative users would be regarded as sufficiently secure. So my question is: Is there a way to protect the registry key with the logon password against read access by non administrative users and still have the possibility to autologon?

There is task tool that allows you to start application at start/logon. For optimal function like this one, use server instead of workstation. Regards Milos

Hi , Administrator permission is required to run Registry Editing. You can remove the other users from the Administrators Groups to achieve this. How to Add or Remove User Accounts from Groups in Windows 7 and Vista Note: Be sure to always have at least one user account that is a member of the Administrators group. Please Note: Microsoft provides third-party contact information to help you find technical support. This contact information may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this third-party contact information. Tracy Cai TechNet Community Support