Windows 10 Login Screen not Showing Up: How to fix?

Is your Windows 10 computer playing tricks on you? Many users have reported that the Windows 10 login prompt doesn’t appear when they power on their PCs.

If you’re experiencing this weird glitch on your Windows 10 computer, your PC needs a help. Forget accessing multiple accounts, without a login screen, your Windows 10 computer is as good as a piece of furniture. After all, it doesn’t make any sense to have a computer that doesn’t let you log in to your user account.

So, how to get back the Windows 10 login screen? Let’s see.

How Do You Fix Windows 10 When Login Screen Goes Missing?

In all versions of Windows operating systems till date, a login screen or prompt at the startup is its basic requisite. You can’t use Windows without logging into a user account.

When Windows 10 login screen doesn’t appear or goes missing during the startup, you’re left helpless and can’t do anything but turn off your PC. So, fixing this problem should be on the top of your list, as it is on ours.

Below, you’ll work your way through a couple of ways that’ll help you fix your PC when Windows 10 login screen is not appearing.

8 Simple Ways to Fix: Windows 10 Login Screen Not Showing Up

Before you go forth and try the fixes below, you should initiate a fresh restart for your PC. A simple restart is an effective solution when Windows 10 login screen is not appearing.

Press and hold the Power button to shut down your PC. Then, reboot Windows 10 and see if the login screen appears.

If some corrupted files or malware stopped the Windows 10 login screen from appearing, then restarting the PC may get the issue fixed.

You can also look up for free registry cleaners to scan files on your computer.

Now, let’s take a look at some of the effective, simple solutions to fix the problem.

1. Boot into Safe Mode

Probably the only way to get things started when login screen doesn’t appear in Windows 10 is booting your PC in Safe Mode.

When you boot your Windows 10 in Safe Mode, you won’t need a login prompt to access. So, you can make a few changes in the Safe Mode and get the issue fixed.

There are some more reasons why booting into Safe Mode can fix the missing login screen on Windows 10. Firstly, the Microsoft Windows Safe Mode helps you detect errors in your system.

In this case, the Safe Mode identifies errors linked to the login screen.

Further, you can systematically check your system drivers, devices, and software. In Safe Mode, the Windows 10 activates all its drivers and connected devices to test their reliability .

Then, it also restores basic files and preinstalled software packages.

By now, your Windows 10 PC becomes completely aware of what has gone wrong with the login screen. So, follow the steps below and boot your PC in Safe Mode to fix the login screen.

• Turn on your Windows 10 computer
• Press the keys ‘ Windows ’ and ‘ L ’ at the startup screen to log out
• If you already logged out, click on the Power button at the bottom right corner
• Press-hold the Shift key
• Click on ‘ Restart’
• You’ll see the boot options,
• Select ‘ Troubleshoot ’

• Then, click on ‘ Advanced Options ’
• Now, go to Startup settings
• Click on ‘ Restart ’
• Reboot your PC
• During the startup, press the F5 key
• Select – Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking

Allow your PC to boot in Safe Mode. Then, restart your Windows 10 in Normal Mode and see if the login screen appears this time around.

2. Disable Fast Startup

Now, the solution above can surely get the login screen back on your Windows 10 computer. But, it still is a temporary fix to the problem.

If you need to fix the login screen issue once and for all, you need to make some changes within Windows 10. And, the first thing you do is turn off the Fast Startup feature.

Boot your Windows 10 in Safe Mode, restart it in normal mode and follow the steps below to disable Fast Startup on your PC.

• Right-click on the Start menu button
• Select ‘ Control Panel ’ and search for ‘ Power options ’
• Go to the ‘ Choose what the power button does ’ option

• Select - Change settings that are currently unavailable

• Here, move the toggle for ‘ Turn on fast startup (recommended) ’ and disable it, or uncheck the option

• Click on Save changes and exit

How does this help?

The Fast Startup feature on Windows 10 is a hybrid state between the shutdown and hibernation mode. So, when you disable it, Windows doesn’t jump to quick login attempts.

It systematically loads all drivers and data and allows Windows 10 to take time and start without any rush.

3. Turn on Password Prompts at Startup

To allow multiple user logins, Windows 10 login has password prompts. That’s how multiple users working on a single PC can access their own accounts by feeding in the respective username and password.

But, it becomes a real mess when you don’t get password prompts on the login screen in Windows 10. It compromises the security of your Windows user account(s).

Without password prompts, you can access Windows 10 even when the login screen does appear.

So, to enable password prompts at startup, follow the steps below –

• Since the Windows 10 login screen is not showing up, you can boot in Safe Mode and restart in normal mode
• Now, press ‘ Windows ’ and ‘ R ’ key to open the Run dialog
• Type the following the dialog box – control userpasswords2

• Press the Enter key
• Click on ‘ Yes ’ in the UAC prompt
• Now, in the User Accounts window, put a check against the box for Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer
• Click on Apply , and then on OK

Now, restart your PC to see if this helps you get back the missing login screen in Windows 10.

4. Generate New User Account in Safe Mode

Generally, password prompts are enabled by default on Windows 10. So, if that didn’t help you restore the Windows 10 login screen, try this fix.

Here, you’ll create a new user account in Windows 10 Safe Mode. By doing this, you’ll restore the startup/login settings on Windows to default.

To begin with, boot your PC in safe mode (shown in the first solution). Then, go through the steps below and create a new Microsoft Windows user account.

• In the Safe Mode , click on the Start menu button
• Go to the Settings menu (click on gear icon)
• Navigate to Accounts
• Click on the Accounts tab
• And, select the option – Family & other people – on the left-side pane
• Now, click – Add someone else to this PC

• Then, select – I don’t have this person’s sign-in information

• Here, click on “ Add a user without a Microsoft Account ”

To create a new user account, you need to enter the desired username. Then, you’ll follow a setup wizard that helps you set a password and other details for the new user account.

Lastly, click on “ Next ” to finish user account setup and restart your PC in Normal Mode. If the Windows 10 login screen does appear this time, try logging in with the new username and password.

5. Set an Automatic Log-in

If the method above fixed your issue, then your existing user account may have stemmed the “ Windows 10 login screen not showing up ” problem.

But, if the problem persists, here’s another take on things. Now, you’ll set an automatic log-in on your Windows 10.

To test this fix, you need to boot your PC in Safe Mode and restart it in normal mode (as discussed earlier). Then,

• Open the Run dialog box (Windows +R)
• Type – netplwiz and click on OK

• In the User Accounts window, uncheck the box – User must enter a name and password to use this computer

• Now, click on Apply and OK to save the change

You’ve enabled the automatic login on Windows 10. Just restart your PC and Windows skips the login prompt to show desktop.

This is a makeshift fix, as you can’t get the login screen back on Windows 10, but instead, you skip through it. If you prefer doing so, then you can switch between user accounts by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del keys.

6. Rebuild Boot Options

You can now try resetting the startup settings on Windows 10. If the fixes mentioned above didn’t work, you can consider rebuilding the Windows 10 boot options.

To rebuild Boot Options on Windows 10,

• Boot your PC in Safe Mode
• Type ‘ cmd ’ in Start search box
• Open ‘ Command Prompt ’ program
• Copy and paste the following commands, and press the Enter key after each command-line to run it

bootrec /rebuildbcd

bootrec /fixmbr

bootrec /fixboot

Here, you’ll get to choose the drive ( select (C:) drive ) to save the new startup settings.

Restart your PC to check if this helped.

7. Use Command Prompt from Boot

There’s another command-line approach to fix this problem. Here, you’ll troubleshoot the user account settings with Command Prompt and fix the missing Windows 10 login screen.

When you turn on your Windows 10 computer,

• Click on Power button on the startup screen
• Press and hold the Shift key
• Click on Restart
• Now, go to Troubleshoot > Advanced Options

• Here, click on Command Prompt window

• Type – net user Administrator /active:yes
• Press the Enter key
• And, then restart your PC

Check if you’ve restored the login screen on your Windows 10 system.

8. Reset this PC

If nothing works, you should probably consider restoring the Windows 10 system to an earlier point. Some newly-installed program may have caused the login screen problem, so resetting the computer can remove such programs.

You can follow the Reset wizard and reinstall Windows 10 to an earlier state. This way, your computer restores itself back to factory/default settings.

• Boot your PC in Safe Mode
• Open the Start menu
• Go to Settings (click on the gear icon)
• Go to ‘ Update and Security ’
• Click on Recovery (left side pane)
• Click on Reset this PC

• Now, click on Get Started to initiate the reset

Follow the onscreen instructions. Resetting Windows 10 may take from minutes to a few hours, so be patient. Don’t interrupt your computer during the reset, and keep it powered up.

Your Windows 10 login screen resumes back to normal once the reset is finished. Let’s hope the Windows 10 login screen doesn’t go missing this time around.

Update Notice: This guide is originally published on July 1, 2018, and updated on October 24, 2018. We keep updating the guides for more accurate and up-to-date information.