Installing MinLogon

This guide is based off my original EWF and MinLogon guide I wrote in 2004.

MinLogon is a component from Windows XP Embedded. It's meant for devices that need a small footprint and quick start up time. It bypasses the typical XP startup and login procedure. The OS essentially runs as the System account rather than a typical user account. It has some side effects such as the system not responding to the ACPI power button (search the MP3Car.com forums for a workaround) and some plug and play issues. I would recommend installing MinLogon after setting up your system. MinLogon does not require EWF to run and it's not necessary in order to install XP to a flash drive, but it has been shown to improve boot time considerably.

1. To get the minlogon.exe file you'll need to download and install the XP Embedded trial software. You can find that on MSDN here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/embedded/windowsxpembedded/default.aspx. I'm not going to provide a download location for minlogon.exe, so don't ask.
2. Once you've installed XP Embedded, search the Repositories share directory setup created for the latest version of minlogon.exe.
3. Go to the Windows\System32 directory on the XP instance you're modifying and rename winlogon.exe to winlogon.exe.bak.
4. Copy the minlogon.exe file to the Windows\System32 directory and then rename it to winlogon.exe.
5. If you're doing this on a live running instance of XP and you have not disabled Windows File Protection you'll get a warning. Just cancel the Windows File Protection dialog and continue. Make sure that the new MinLogon file isn’t replaced by Windows File Protection!
6. Next modify the registry on the XP system by changing the "Config" value in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon key to be 0x17.
   
7. Boot the machine up!

As long as you entered everything properly the system will boot into XP using the System account. The first time you boot up it’ll prepare the user settings for the System account so it’ll take a bit longer than usual. Once that is done, go ahead and reboot again to make sure everything is working properly. If you find that it doesn’t fit your needs then just restore the original winlogon.exe file you backed up.