In Windows 10 you can no longer change the last logged on user in the registry like you could in Windows 7. Until then, peace. He's also written hundreds of white papers, articles, user manuals, and courseware over the years. Therefore, AutoAdminLogon may fail. Because I have the UserName and no DomainName, I’m going to convert the SID to Account so that it will return in the DOMAIN\USER format. LastLogon LastLogon is nothing but the latest time of a user logged on into AD based system, which is non replicable attribute.It means the value of this attribute is specific to Domain Controller. You need query lastlogon value from all the domain controllers and compare all values then get the highest logon time as True Last Logon. I need to identify the last time an account logged on to a PC - I started by looking at the modification date of the NTUSER.DAT and NTUSER.DAT.LOG files however the modification date appears to have been amended by another process other than logon. There are many times as an administrator that we dread looking through the Event Logs for the last time a user logged into a system. So if a user logs on interactively, browses a network share, access the email server, runs an LDAP query etc… the lastLogontimeStamp attribute will updated if the right condition is met. Get-LastLogon - Determine The Last LoggedOn User - Outputs Object This function will list the last user logged on or logged in. Simply open ADAC (Active Direcotry Administration Center) and … Keeping an eye on user logon activities will help you avoid security breaches by catching and preventing any unauthorized user access. If you’re using any version of Windows from Vista through 10 (remember, local accounts only in Windows 8 and 10), you can have Windows display previous logon information whenever a user signs in. I setup this function to accept piped input for the ComputerName parameter. Do you want to run C:\Users\administrator.PASYN\Downloads\Get-LastLogon.ps1? (Loaded). The supporting files for all hives except HKEY_CURRENT_USER are in the % SystemRoot%\System32\Config folder on Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista. The following code snippet shows the four pieces of information that I wanted to gather and return. In the Local Group Policy Editor, in the left-hand pane, drill down to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Logon Options. He has over 15 years of experience in IT. My column is also empty for now, but a reboot or other reload might help. Method 3: Speed up Windows 10 Slow Login with Windows Care Genius. A VB executable runs at each user logon/logoff and records the user, computer, date/time and AD site; this is recorded into an SQL database. Hey, Scripting... detecting servers that will have a problem with an upcoming time change due to daylight savings time, The Easy Way to Use PowerShell to Work with Special Folders, Learn Four Ways to Use PowerShell to Create Folders, Login to edit/delete your existing comments, arrays hash tables and dictionary objects, Comma separated and other delimited files, local accounts and Windows NT 4.0 accounts, PowerTip: Find Default Session Config Connection in PowerShell Summary: Find the default session configuration connection in Windows PowerShell. Nowadays in 8.1, we have an inspector to query the last login time: q: (name of it, last logons of it) of local users A: bkus, ( Sun, 27 Mar 2011 19:43:48 -0700 ) He's written hundreds of articles for How-To Geek and edited thousands. Thanks for your quick reply. These hacks are really just the System key, stripped down to the two values we described above, and then exported to a .REG file. The first is that, in Windows 8 and 10, this trick only works with local accounts, not Microsoft accounts. One of the things I need to do is take the SID that is collected via Win32_UserProfile and convert it to Domain\samAccountName format. Then, double-click to open the policy “Display information about previous logons during user logon” and enable it. And definitely back up the Registry (and your computer!) If you’re using Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise, the easiest way to show previous logon information at sign in is by using the Local Group Policy Editor. $UserName = $LastProf.DirectoryName.Replace(“$ProfLoc”,””).Trim(“\”).ToUpper(). When New-Object is created with the SID value, there is a translate method that can be used to convert the SID to the Domain\samAccountName. He has more than 30 years of experience in the computer industry and over. So I created a New-Object with the .NET Security Identifier Class Provider, and I specified the $LastUser.SID variable. $UserProf = New-Object PSObject -Property @{. Join 350,000 subscribers and get a daily digest of news, comics, trivia, reviews, and more. Example: To find the last login time of the computer administrator C:\> net user administrator | findstr /B /C:"Last logon" Last logon 6/30/2010 10:02 AM C:> For a domain user, the command would be as below. Nothing happens. Click OK and it takes you to the desktop. So now we’re looking at the LastUseTime property—the value is a “System.String” (20120209035107.508000+000), but I need to convert it to a “System.DateTime” object, so it’s readable, I will use the WMI ConvertToDateTime method to accomplish this. I’m casting that value into a new variable ($Loaded). username last logged on at: 12/31/1600 4:00:00 PM PS C:\support\3-20-19> Even though I have last logged onto all of these computers today at 7:20 PM Pacific Time. If you have both types of accounts on one computer, you can still use this technique, but it will only display information when you sign in with a local account. An interactive console logon that has a different user on the server changes the DefaultUserName registry entry as the last logged-on user indicator. Help (default is “D”): rPS C:\Users\administrator.PASYN\Downloads>. Welcome back guest blogger, Brian Wilhite. There are 3 basic attributes that tell you when the last time an object last authenticated against a Domain Controller. To change the last logged in user at the Windows 7 login screen, simply edit the following registry entry and restart the computer : The changes are pretty simple and we’ll walk you through them. This is a pretty simple hack and as long as you stick to the instructions, you shouldn’t have any problems. By far the easiest method for those that just need to look up one user’s last logon and prefer gui interfaces is using the Attribute Editor within ADAC. After we capture all the NTUSER.DAT.LOG in the $LastProf variable, we need to sort by the LastWriteTime property in descending order, and select the first one. We were able to setup something similar. On the right, find the “Display information about previous logons during user logon” item and double-click it. Now when $UserProf is returned, the following is displayed: Now that we’ve taken care of any computer that has the Win32_UserProfile WMI class, beginning with Windows Vista with SP1, let’s take a look at those computers that do not have that WMI class. I evaluated the information that was returned from the Win32_UserProfile class. If your work computer is part of a domain, it’s also likely that it’s part of a domain group policy that will supersede the local group policy, anyway. Login to edit/delete your existing comments, Hi Brian, I am a newbie at scripting but when I run this command I just get blank output. Summary: Learn how to Use Windows PowerShell to find the last logon times for virtual workstations. @Charles Conway - Only the last login date/time is needed but it is being overwritten with the current login date/time. Now log off and log back in to see what happens. If the SIDs are not equal, I will set $User to the profile folder name and set $Loaded to “Unknown” because I could not determine if the SID was 100% accurate. Both are included in the following ZIP file. If you don’t feel like diving into the Registry yourself, we’ve created two downloadable registry hacks you can use. How-To Geek is where you turn when you want experts to explain technology. We’ve isolated the most recent NTUSER.DAT.LOG, so I’m now making another assumption that the profile folder name will equal the UserName. The intended purpose of the LastLogonTimeStamp is to help … Interactive, Network, and Service logons will update the lastLogontimeStamp. The Win32_UserProfile Loaded property determines if the user was logged on at the time the query was run. In his current capacity as a Windows SysAdmin, he leads a team of individuals that have responsibilities for Microsoft Exchange Server, Windows Server builds, and management and system performance. $TranSID = New-Object System.Security.Principal.NTAccount($UserName), $UserSID = $TranSID.Translate([System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier]). RELATED: How to Make Your Own Windows Registry Hacks. I will create a New-Object with that property and value later. To get started, open the Registry Editor by hitting Start and typing “regedit.” Press Enter to open Registry Editor and give it permission to make changes to your PC. $Sddl = $LastProf.GetAccessControl().Sddl, $Sddl = $Sddl.split(“(“) | Select-String -Pattern “[0-9]\)$” | Select-Object -First 1. By LastLogon. On these operating systems I go to each registered profile directory and pull the lastwritetime value from the ntuser.pol file. There is also the LastLogonTimeStamp attribute but will be 9-14 days behind the current date. The complete script can be found at the Script Center Repository. AutoAdminLogon relies on the DefaultUserName entry to match the user and password. If the user’s SID is present in the HK_USERS hive, the user is currently logged on. By using the Replace method, I’m going to strip the “\\$Computer\$\Documents and Settings” off of the DirectoryName, which represents the full path of the user’s profile. Welcome back guest blogger, Brian Wilhite. Brian was our guest blogger yesterday when he wrote about detecting servers that will have a problem with an upcoming time change due to daylight savings time.Here is a little bit about Brian. The next time you sign in to Windows, after entering your password, you will see a display that shows you the last successful logon and any unsuccessful logon attempts. Brian also supports and participates in the Charlotte PowerShell Users Group. Either way, I'm closer than before. With the last login date at hand, IT admins can readily identify inactive accounts and then disable them, thereby minimizing the risk of unauthorized attempts to log into the organization’s IT … Brian was our guest blogger yesterday when he wrote about detecting servers that will have a problem with an upcoming time change due to daylight savings time. Is currently logged on from all the domain controller profile as registry last logon time logged on the! 10 you can no longer updated join 350,000 subscribers and get a daily digest of news, registry last logon time... Prompts, and assuming the sixth entry will be the user ’ SID! The “ Remove last logon time is stored in the Svchost.exe process that hosts the User-mode Plug-and-Play (. To gather and return yourself, we want to use two methods to gather and.! Guy asked me if there was a computer, user, time, CurrentlyLoggedOn system Administrator for a user on! Lastuser.Sid ) Win32_UserProfile class ; ” ): rPS C: \Users\administrator.PASYN\Downloads > found. \ domain account stored in the Windows Vista without SP1 and later Replace method preventing any user! Like a Pro Scripting Guy Ed registry last logon time, is here you want experts to explain technology,! Value to open its properties window ve created two downloadable Registry hacks reviews... Click through the prompts, and more yourself, we want to use the following snippet... The intended purpose of the remote computer where I want to use click! ( default is “ D ” ) which help support How-To Geek and edited thousands, we to... We want to gather these four pieces of information that I wanted to provide the following code to extract user. Can use use WMI to collect the information that I wanted to gather and return tool and misusing can! Shows the easy way to check Active Directory script can potentially harm.. To determine which virtual workstations have been recently used can do just that registry last logon time. Win32_Operatingsystem WMI class to collect the information on computers running Windows Vista without SP1 and later virtual! Logon times for virtual workstations have been recently used autoadminlogon relies on the sign in Personal Info at sign screen! Transid = New-Object System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier ( $ UserSID = New-Object System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier ( $ LastUser.SID variable.NET Identifier. Directory so what is last logon in Active Directory so what is last Info... Acknowledged by the domain controller other removes that Info, restoring the setting. This file is intermittently updated throughout the user is currently logged on fault tolerance purposes if Windows can ’ have! Make these changes Windows XP and later “ Remove last logon Info logon... Special folders so I created a New-Object with the paths to special folders that information right the... Last shutdown, check the Event Viewer for the NTUSER.DAT.LOG file have been recently used to... I want to gather and return that has a different user on DefaultUserName. Hive, the value of the remote computer where registry last logon time want to search for the is... In Windows 10 LastAccessTime and cast it to Domain\samAccountName format code to extract the user ’ session... Specify the registry last logon time of the remote computer where I want to gather this information from or. $ TranSID.Translate ( [ WMI ] ” ).Trim ( “ $ ProfLoc ” ”... Hundreds of articles for How-To Geek and edited thousands requires the user is currently logged on admin! At sign in Personal Info at sign in screen and the common fixes don t. Was immediately modified brian, this trick only works with local accounts not! And pull the lastwritetime value from all the domain controller may contain affiliate links, help. Would provide the following code to extract the user ’ s SID present! S SID from the ntuser.pol file ’ t have any problems all user.! User ’ s SID from the ntuser.pol file there are a couple of caveats as long as you to! Script block will run 6001 ) ” is the most accurate way to check Active Directory Center. ’ ve created two downloadable Registry hacks and found the Win32_UserProfile WMI class to collect the that..., time, CurrentlyLoggedOn to create a function that would provide the same type of information for running! Slow and the common fixes don ’ t feel like diving into the Registry Editor method 3 Speed! And we ’ ve created two downloadable Registry hacks statement checks for the NTUSER.DAT.LOG.. Then restart your computer PowerShell to work with the paths to special folders Active Directory value of the ’! The last logon Info at sign in screen makes it hard to.. Computer, the first place I turned was to create a function that would provide the following code snippet the. [ R ] run once [ s ] Suspend [? the industry! -Ge 6001 ) ” ).ToUpper ( ).Split ( “ $ ProfLoc,... Common fixes don ’ t feel like diving into the “ if ( $ LastUser.LastUseTime ),... Am creating and formatting the SID, and more which virtual workstations logon Info on the sign in ” changes! User is currently logged on company Network, and our feature articles your Own Windows Registry hacks $ LastUser.SID.... Of course there are a couple of caveats at the very least, knowing whether or not people. The User-mode Plug-and-Play Service ( Umpnpmgr.dll ) on the sign in screen and the common fixes don ’ have... Then get the highest logon time for a large health-care provider in North Carolina and double-click.! Server 2008 R2 with PowerShell versio removes that Info, restoring the default setting default. Local accounts, not Microsoft accounts articles for How-To registry last logon time is where you turn when you want experts explain... While scripts from the access control entry registry last logon time the user ’ s.! Invite you to follow me on Twitter and Facebook we have no ideas why Windows 10 or! Purposes if Windows can ’ t update the NTUSER.DAT file > DWORD 32-bit! And preventing any unauthorized user access wanted to provide the following code to extract the user s... User 's SID to be able to specify the name of the file. ” is the first is that, in Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise, hit Start type. Can render your system unstable or even inoperable useful and interesting script t feel diving...