When attempting to connect or establish Remote Desktop connection to a remote Windows
xp or Windows Vista computer in order to remotely logon to the machine, the log
on may be rejected with Remote Desktop client returns one of the following
error messages.
Your credentials did not work.
or,
Unable to log you on because of an
account restriction.
or,
An authentication error has
occurred.
The Local Security Authority cannot be contacted
Remote Computer: xxxxx
By default, Windows XP and Windows
Vista does not allow nor permit user account without password set or user name
with blank (null) password to connect and log in remotely via Remote Desktop
Protocol (RDP).
The obvious resolution is definitely to create and set a password for the user
account that requires to logon remotely to a computer via Remote Desktop, and
it’s recommended for security reason too. However, user who for some reason
such as for the purpose of convenient, and thus unable or cannot assign a
password to the user account, can use the following workaround to allow user to
login remotely via Remote Desktop Connection (RDP) client to Windows XP and
Windows Vista PC.
How to Enable Remote Login via Blank Passwords using Local Security Policy or Group Policy Editor
The configuration to enable null (blank) passwords logon must be done on the
host computer, i.e. the remote computer to remotely controlled. To configure
the Remote Desktop host computer to accept user name with blank password, go to
Control
Panel -> Administrative
Tools (Under System and Maintenance
in Windows Vista) -> Local Security Policy.
Alternatively, run GPEdit.msc (Group Policy Editor).
Then, expand Security Policies -> Local Securities -> Security Options
(for user using Group Policy Editor or GPEdit.msc, expand Local Computer Policy
-> Computer Configuration -> Windows
Settings -> Security Settings
-> Local Policies -> Security Options). Locate Accounts: Limit local account use of blank passwords to console logon only
policy, and set its value to Disabled.
Once disabled, user account with
blank or null passwords can now login remotely instead of just able to do so
via local console.
How to Configure Blank Passwords Allowed for Remote Log On via Registry
Windows XP and Windows Vista stores the value of the policy set above in a registry key named “LimitBlankPasswordUse”. To unlock the limitation of
cannot establish Remote Desktop logon with user account without a password,
simply set the value data for LimitBlankPasswordUse to 0 (so that there is no limit on blank or null
password use), as according to the code below. Alternatively, copy and paste
the following text to a text file, and save with a .reg extension. Then run the .reg file to merge the value to
registry.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Lsa]
"LimitBlankPasswordUse"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa]
"LimitBlankPasswordUse"=dword:00000000
For convenient, two registry files have been created and available for free
download, which will enable or disable usage of blank password (or absent of
password) to login remotely. Download BlankPasswords.zip
and run EnableBlankPasswords.reg to
enable or DisableBlankPasswords.reg to disable remote login via blank password.
The trick works on both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems.
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