The Double-Thick Security Trick

If you use Windows Vista in a corporation, you may see the startup box shown here when you first turn on the machine. You don't proceed to the Classic logon box until you first press Ctrl+Alt+Delete.

This somewhat inconvenient setup is intended as a security feature. By forcing you to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to bypass the initial Welcome box, Windows rules out the possibility that some sneaky program (such as a Trojan-horse program), designed to look like the Classic logon box, is posing as the Classic logon box-in order to "capture" the name and password you type there.

This two-layer logon system is what you get when you add your PC to a network domain during the Windows Vista installation. If you want to use it on a workgroup machine, you can, but you have to do a little digging to find it. Press Windows Button +R to open the Run dialog box; type control Userpasswords2, and then press Enter. Click the Advanced tab.

At the bottom of the Advanced tab, turn on "Require users to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete," and then click OK. From now on, turning on the PC greets you not with a logon screen, but with the unfakeable Welcome box shown.