If you are a regular reader of this blog, you probably know my favorite worst Vista feature: UAC. Now, I found my second worst feature, and I feel the urge to tell the world about it.

It is the logon screen. If the Vista machine belongs to a Windows domain, you can logon locally or to a domain. In Windows XP, you can just choose where you want to logon.

Vista doesn’t offer this option anymore. There is a button “switch user“. If you click on it, you get a second screen where you have to click on “Other user“. Now you can enter a new user name, but you don’t have the option to choose the domain or the local computer.

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If you want to logon locally, you have to enter the computer name manually followed by a backlash. If you don’t know the local computer name, then you are lost. Is there are a more complicated way to design a logon screen?

If you log off after you logged on locally, then the next user will have to follow the same procedure to log on to the domain. This time the domain name shows below the logon fields. It says “Logon to <domain>”, where “domain” refers to the domain’s name.

But after you enter the logon name, this line changes, and it shows the name of the local computer. What is this? Vista is playing “catch me if you can”? So, you have to enter again the domain name followed by back slash and the account to logon.

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I really don’t see the logic behind this. I am sure, it will cause countless help desk calls. Why did Microsoft change the logon screen? Just because it had to look different? This new “feature” annoys me everytime I logon to a Vista machine. Let me know, what you think about this. What is your worst new Vista feature?

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