Recently, on my personal laptop running Windows 7, my login screen turned into a CTRL-ALT-DELETE secure login screen. I've looked around for reasons why this might be the case, and the only indication is domain group policy. However, my laptop is entirely for personal use, and is not actively (and never has) joined to a domain.
Attempts to disable this key combination requirement doesn't work, including using the standard netplwiz application, which grayed out the checkbox to disable secure logon. The Local Security Policy can be changed, but as it mentions...
Interactive logon: Do not require CTRL+ALT+DEL
This security setting determines whether pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL is required before a user can log on.
...
Default on domain-computers: Disabled.
Default on stand-alone computers: Enabled.
Since I am on a stand-alone computer, by default, this should be Enabled. My laptop has this setting currently set to Disabled. This confirmed my suspicions that this kind of login is NOT normal for a personal laptop, and is only for domain-based systems.
Overall, my question is this: why is this happening, and what might be causing this change? I would like to treat the cause of this issue, not the symptom.
(And yes, I understand the implications of disabling secure login, but it's kinda strange and disconcerting to have something like this change without actively changing this setting yourself.)