My computer asks for a PW whenever I turn it on. Is there any way of disabling this?

 

Likely, more info required on why, where and when this started.

 

My computer asks for a PW whenever I turn it on. Is there any way of disabling this?

Depends on the Operating System. Also if the actual BIOS is password protected. You want answers you need to provide more information. A simple Google of for example "Remove password login Windows 10" just for example.

I see NSA spook beat me to it.

Ron

 

With computers, the only valid reason to use a password is if the computer will contain sensitive information and is available to more than one user. I never enter a password when I am initiating the operating system of my computers. I just press the "enter" key. The reason is that I have been asked on a number of occasions to trouble shoot a computer of which the owner has forgotten the password. I have not been able to access any of them and they became expensive book ends. If I ever develop any propriety software or designs, I store them on a backup drive and erase them from the computer.

 

With computers, the only valid reason to use a password is if the computer will contain sensitive information and is available to more than one user.

No. That is not the only reason.

It is misapprehensions like this that allow botnets and ransomware to proliferate on the internet.

 

No. That is not the only reason.

It is misapprehensions like this that allow botnets and ransomware to proliferate on the internet.

NO! Botnets and ransomware need the operating system to be running before they can do dirty deeds. They can not hit the power switch.
I was forced by Microsoft to use a password when I initiated my windows 10 laptop which really annoyed me.

 

NO! Botnets and ransomware need the operating system to be running before they can do dirty deeds. They can not hit the power switch.
I was forced by Microsoft to use a password when I initiated my windows 10 laptop which really annoyed me.

So how do you manage to use your computer without the operating system running?

 

Every PC should have two accounts, one user (limited) and one admin.

The admin account should have a strong password, while the user account can have a weaker or no password.

Surfing the web and such should only be done in the user account forcing a hacker to elevate privileges to install malware and such which is much harder to do then when a PC operator surfs the web in an admin account.

 

Allowing unrestricted user-level access to any computer is a fundamentally bad idea on any system, and much worse on Windows.

The stock Windows security model is -- and always has been -- flawed. Escalation to Administrator from an unpriveleged user account is trivial for even the greenest of script-kiddies, and a walk-in-the-park for state-sponsored crackers.

And, heck, 90% of the functionality of a botnet can be executed at the user level.

Use a damn password. A hard one.

And if at all possible, don't even use Windows.

 

So how do you manage to use your computer without the operating system running?

I am specifically discussing passwords that are required to boot an operating system. In a single user environment, what use are they?

 

I am specifically discussing passwords that are required to boot an operating system. In a single user environment, what use are they?

Excuse me. I thought you were talking about the password used to log into the system after it is booted. So (assuming you're using Windows) you do use passwords on your admin and user accounts and you operate from the user account?

But, in a single-user environment, they can still be useful.

For instance, when I've had work done at the house, like the A/C being installed, there are people wandering around the house and I can't keep an eye on all of them all the time -- there are even times when I've had to let them do the work while I'm not here. If my computer has no password protection, anyone can boot it up and be that much closer to access the data on it. Granted, this will not stop someone that is knowledgeable and determined, but it is more than sufficient deterant for the vast majority of opportunists.

Similarly, if the computer is stolen, I'd like to at least force most of the robbers and fences to have to wipe the hard drive without accessing the data.

 

Similarly, if the computer is stolen, I'd like to at least force most of the robbers and fences to have to wipe the hard drive without accessing the data.

Only encryption (with a strong key and passwords) will help you here.

 

Only encryption (with a strong key and passwords) will help you here.

I agree that that is the only way to ensure it, but my understanding is that even today that most computers that are stolen as part of a general robbery receive no effort to get past the normal protections. If there are none, then they are pretty likely to get booted and casually explored looking for anything obviously exploitable, but beyond that they are either stripped for parts or just quickly reimaged so that they can be sold rapidly. So even weak protections actually help a lot and provide a lot of protection in the vast majority of instances.

There is just so much low hanging fruit out there, that it doesn't take much to be too far up the tree to be effectively secure. The practical gap between the level of security that the simplest protections provide and what is needed to thwart a hardcore, dedicated attack is surprisingly narrow. Yes, plenty of tools are around to easily get past those simple protections, but the likelihood of them actually being exploited is very small just because most perpetrators are going to simply move on to the next item as soon as they would need them -- much easier fish to catch, making the time and effort required to even try in exchange for a completely unknown payoff simply not worth it.

 

I agree that that is the only way to ensure it, but my understanding is that even today that most computers that are stolen as part of a general robbery receive no effort to get past the normal protections. If there are none, then they are pretty likely to get booted and casually explored looking for anything obviously exploitable, but beyond that they are either stripped for parts or just quickly reimaged so that they can be sold rapidly. So even weak protections actually help a lot and provide a lot of protection in the vast majority of instances.

There is just so much low hanging fruit out there, that it doesn't take much to be too far up the tree to be effectively secure. The practical gap between the level of security that the simplest protections provide and what is needed to thwart a hardcore, dedicated attack is surprisingly narrow. Yes, plenty of tools are around to easily get past those simple protections, but the likelihood of them actually being exploited is very small just because most perpetrators are going to simply move on to the next item as soon as they would need them -- much easier fish to catch, making the time and effort required to even try in exchange for a completely unknown payoff simply not worth it.

Ten years ago, I would have agreed with you.

Since then, personal data (think revealing photos, bank account numbers, identity, etc.) has become far more valuable than the hardware, and far easier to exploit.

I don't even throw away paper anymore. Everything goes through the shredder.

 

The cause was, most likely, an automatic windows update. They are known to have strange results occasionally as I have come to expect. Currently being told to Buy Windows Office to continue having Windows Defender even though I already have a family license for Office. You can call support to assist you but I usually have more knowledge and experience than the typical MS Support overseas staff in their call center. I sure miss the days when I could call support and get an actual engineer who knew something and didn't simply read off of a pre-prepared punch list.

 

My computer asks for a PW whenever I turn it on. Is there any way of disabling this?

When you searched "how to remove password from Windows 10 account" on Google, I assume thousands of results came up for you. Did you follow the instructions on one of those hits and get unexpected results? Or did you skip step 1?

 

Even win7 has the option of no password, or else the password seems to be a blank entry, on one computer that was given to me that is how I enter.
And to get past the password, booting from a unix CD and then deleting the present password works very well, and avoids losing any contents except the original password.
And why even have one for a computer with a single user in a private residence? The answer is to make it harder for outside hackers when the computer has been left on but has logged off due to the time-out automatic log-out.

 

If the password is to logon to Windows as a particular user, then the answer is trivial and this utility can make things very easy. If the password is a BIOS password (I can‘t find a clarification of this question in the thread) then it is a matter of booting into the BIOS configuration with the appropriate function key before POST and removing it.

Autologon is OK for a personal, physically secure computer but if the automatically logged-on user has administrator privileges then in the movie of this being configured, ominous foreshadowing music will be playing and a close-up of the TS pressing the ENTER key will be the final shot before the cut to some scene of nefarious actors planning something bad.

[EDIT: Fixed “confirmation” autocorrect failure to “configuration”]

 

If it's a password to log into the bios and you are not the admin of the PC (e.g. it is a computer managed by an employer or another layer of security where you don't have admin rights), then it is not as trivial as claimed above.

 

My computer asks for a PW whenever I turn it on. Is there any way of disabling this?

If it is your own computer, yes you can.
It depends on what stage the password is asked for.
If it is immediately on a cold start, you need to look into the BIOS settings.
If it does some whirring and opens the graphics of the OS and then the pw, you have scripts that will automate the login process. For windows, you have an AutoLogin available on the net.

If it is a return from a Suspend or Hibernate, I believe that similar scripts are available. I cannot give a definite answer in this case since I have not found the need for it.