You can speed up the Windows sign-in process by turning on Use my sign in info to automatically finish setting up after an update to automatically sign in and set up your PC after an update or restart. Windows will then lock your device to help keep your account and personal info safe.
During a Windows Update, there are user specific processes that must happen for the update to be complete. These processes require the user to be logged in to their device. On the first login after an update has been initiated, users must wait until these user specific processes are complete before they can start using their device.
When Windows Update initiates an automatic reboot, ARSO (Winlogon automatic restart sign-on) extracts the currently logged in user’s derived credentials, persists it to disk, and configures Autologon for the user. Windows Update running as system with TCB privilege will initiate the RPC call to do this.
After the final Windows Update reboot, the user will automatically be logged in via the Autologon mechanism, and the user’s session is rehydrated with the persisted secrets. Additionally, the device is locked to protect the user’s session. The locking will be initiated via Winlogon whereas the credential management is done by the Local Security Authority (LSA). Upon a successful ARSO configuration and login, the saved credentials are immediately deleted from disk.
By automatically logging in and locking the user on the console, Windows Update can complete the user specific processes before the user returns to the device. In this way, the user can immediately start using their device.
This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable automatically sign in and lock last user after an update or restart in Windows 11.