Escaping the Windows 8 Password prison

[Dauntless]

The place where Socrates was imprisoned stands today, a monument to the injustice that imprisons us all when a company like Microsoft forces us to use passwords on Windows 8. So I found this on doing away with it?

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2015587/how-to-bypass-the-windows-8-password-screen.html

Fortunately, there's a way to bypass it. Here's how:

1. Boot your PC and enter your password.

2. Press Win-X (by which I mean hold down the Windows key and then tap X).

3. In the pop-up menu that appears, click Command Prompt (Admin).

4. In the command prompt, type control userpasswords2, then press Enter. (If this sounds familiar, it's because the same command works in earlier versions of Windows.)

5. In the User Accounts dialog that appears, uncheck the box marked Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer.

6. Click OK, then confirm the automatic sign-in option by entering your password (twice).

7. Reboot.

Does anyone know if there's a downside? Such as when I need to change something and can't get whatever login I need?

 

[mark5]

If you're automatically logged in as Dauntless but need to be another user in order to do something, you'd just logoff and login as the other user.

 

[Drunkskunk]

That's pretty cool. I have hated my Win 8 tablet for many reasons, and one being the constant need to put in my password. Thanks for posting that!

 

[beast775]

Thanks for posting this,i went back to win7 because win8 was driving me crazy.

 

[Nehmo]

The place where Socrates was imprisoned stands today, a monument to the injustice that imprisons us all when a company like Microsoft forces us to use passwords on Windows 8. So I found this on doing away with it?

Simply because the default requires a login, that hardly makes the feature, which can be disabled, a "prison" that MS "forces" us to be in.
Considering I use a laptop, something which can easily be stolen, I use the account login and the lock-screen login.

And although it's an interesting testament to the longevity of jails, I don't understand the Socrates reference.