14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 7 customers that are configuring their accounts for automatic login will find that the operating system resets the Taskbar (Superbar) to the default configuration, Microsoft said. The same problem also affects users of Windows Server 2008 R2, according to the Redmond company, but customers that are running either of the two platforms now have a solution available to resolve the issue.
“When you restart the computer, any customizations that you made to the Taskbar are lost and the Taskbar is reset to its default settings,” the software giant stated. “This problem occurs because of a race condition between Windows Explorer and Taskhost.exe.”
Microsoft is indeed offering a way for customers to stop the Taskbar resets for Windows 7 user accounts that have been configured to “Automatically Log On." However, the company is only offering a hotfix and not an update. Furthermore, customers will need to contact Microsoft Customer Support Services directly if they want access to the fix.
The company stresses that the fix needs to be applied “only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem. This hotfix may receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next service pack that contains this hotfix.”
Just as it was the case for older released of Windows, customers can configure a Windows 7 user account for automatic login. This means that the startup process will jump over the login screen as credentials are introduced automatically.
In order to set “Automatically Log On" for an account, users can either type NETPLWIZ in the Search box under the start menu and hit Enter, or press the Windows Key + R and launch Run, type control userpasswords2 and hit Enter. In the user accounts dialog box select the specific account you want to login automatically, and uncheck the box at the left of the “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer” option in the top half of the screen. Hitting apply will allow the users to enter the specific password for the account, and to enable “Automatically Log On."