You cannot type your password in the "Welcome" logon screen in Windows XP

When you try to log on to a Windows XP-based computer from the Welcome logon screen, you cannot type your password. For example, when you click in the password box, and then you try to type the password, nothing happens. Asterisk characters do not appear in the password box, and the password is not acknowledged. Because of this problem, you cannot log on to the account by using password authentication. This problem may occur only occasionally.

This problem may occur if you have installed any of the updates that are described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles:

To work around this problem when it occurs, temporarily use the classic logon screen to log on. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL two times while the Welcome screen is displayed. For example, press all three keys at the same time, release all three keys, and then press the three keys again.
2. Type your account name in the User name box.
3. Type your password in the Password box.
4. Click OK.

You can configure Windows XP to always use the classic logon screen. For more information about configuration changes, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.