If you’re getting the Windows XP welcome screen on a system with just a single, password-less user, here’s the solution; apparently it is the result of something broken in .NET 1.1.

Microsoft claims that its upcoming Longhorn operating system will outperform Windows XP in a number of areas, including startup and application launch times. While XP’s boot times are not terrible, the area that really needs work is desktop login times; admittedly, most of the crap that slows down login is third-party junk (spyware and virus checkers, “quick launch” tools), but getting that stuff to start faster would be much more helpful than getting me to the login prompt more quickly.

þ: Ars Technica, who are also somewhat skeptical.