Much like in Windows Vista you’ll find a graphical login screen for Windows 7. This has a much nicer look and feel to it than the old login prompts of Windows XP and its predecessors but it at the expense of security. Anyone attempting to infiltrate your system will have access to all the possible usernames and will merely have to guess the passwords. If the users are not using secure passwords then they will easily be compromised.

So how can one protect their system from this type of attack? Aside from using secure passwords you can also go a step further and enable the classic logon screen as used in the earlier versions of Windows. This will force the user to not only guess the password but the username as well.

Press start

Type: local security policy

Press enter

Expand local policies

Click Security Options

Double-click “Interactive Login: Do not display last user name”

Check Enabled

Click OK

Now close all open windows and restart the system. After it is done booting you will now be prompted to enter both the username and password, without being provided with a list of available users.