Is someone attempting to log in to my PC?

[abbyqueue]

Hi, I'm running WinXP Pro at home on my desktop. I have it set to allow users to connect remotely to it, because I use RDP from my job constantly. However, I've noticed that I'll often be at home, use my computer, then walk away from it and when I come back to it, rather than the screen being the same as I left it, it's returned to the Welcome screen (the login screen). I had mentioned this to a friend of mine a while back and he said to make sure that I had a strong password. So I changed my password (I did have a strong password, but hadn't changed it in a while) and didn't notice it happening for a while. Of course, now the issue's returned again.

Now I'm a little paranoid -- is someone attempting to log in (or worse, succeeding in logging in) to my computer?

I checked out my Event Viewer, but I'm not really sure what I'm looking for, except that I don't see any "Success Audit" events for "Logon/Logoff" for my username (the only two usernames on my computer are mine and the Admin's [also me]) except for logins that I know were mine.

If someone simply attempts to login to my PC using my IP address, does that knock another user off and bring them back to the welcome screen? Or do they have to successfully login to do that?

Also, I've noticed that, in the Event Viewer, a few seconds before my successful login, there are two "Failure Audits" from user "SYSTEM" under categories "Account Logon" and "Logon/Logoff." It's always the same two events, right before my own (successful) login.

Other than that, I don't see any other failure audits that would suggest that someone attempted to login but failed. I don't see any success audits that would suggest that someone succeeded, either -- but I suppose they can be deleted. In addition, there are a lot of success audits listed and I may just be missing something. Also, I'm not positive about what I'm looking for.

Can someone give me some more information? Thanks.

[w1che]

Is your computer part of a corporate network?

[abbyqueue]

No, it's my home network.

[dj_alien]

I have an xp pro that does this that IS NOT online or on any network that does this after a while of inactivity, I think its normal. Go to your power management settings and make sure they are all set to ALWAYS ON. If you have screen saver that is password protected it will take you back to the log in screen too.

[tmont2]

I have xp/pro, mine allways goes back to the welcome screen after inactivity.

[MyRedz]

mine the same here

[renegade600]

any chance of it being windows updates or antivirus updates doing it. I know recently the same thing has been happening to me but it was different updates that requires restarts. There seems to be alot of updates recently that requires restarts.