Is there a way to disable automatic LIVE sign-in?

Windows or Xbox?

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XNA Framework Developer
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Hi Shawn. Windows. When GamerServices is initialized the last profile used is logged in. I'd like to prompt the user to login instead.

Auto-login is specified on a per-GamerTag basis. To my knowledge you cannot actually change this in your game. The GamerTag is set as auto-login in the Dashboard; it doesn't necessarily use the last logged in GamerTag, I believe.

However, you can prompt them with Guide.ShowSignIn method. I believe their GamerTag will automatically sign in anyway, but this will prompt them. (You definitely want to check the Guide.IsVisible property first to avoid getting a GuideAlreadyVisibleException).

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Nick Gravelyn -- Microsoft XNA MVP
XNA Wiki | Zune Games

Thanks Nick for the great explanation. We would like to disable automatic sign-in for security reasons. We're thinking it is not a good idea to have a user automatically sign in when they start our game. Our game worlds persist state and users maintain ownership of the things they build. I am sure someone could make the argument that the user authorized it in the profile but then I am not sure this would be self-evident to anyone enabling sign-on. Am I way off-base to suggest this or should I add this to Connect?

Well most Xbox 360 games allow it as well. For instance, Oblivion. You turn it on, your friend's GamerTag signs in, and you can just start playing their game. I assume users would have to take that risk upon themselves.

There's no API method for checking for autologin that I can see. I was going to suggest detecting that and displaying a small warning to your users, but that doesn't seem to be possible. I guess I would simply display a message the first time they start your game explaining this to them and suggesting they turn off the auto-login.

But there is no way to force them to do so and, in fact, I would be very much against any such behavior. Auto-sign in is a personal option that I believe every game should be willing to respect.

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Nick Gravelyn -- Microsoft XNA MVP
XNA Wiki | Zune Games

I appreciate your perspective. It is probably not so bad as I had initially thought.

Just to confirm here, is there truly no way to initialize gamer services without sign-in occuring?

No. The signin state (like all of the Guide user interface) belongs to the LIVE system, not to your individual game. There is intentionally no way for games to customize this experience, because that would break the goal of providing a constistent user interface across all LIVE games. If the user has set their Guide options to enable auto-signin, then auto-signin is what you get.

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XNA Framework Developer
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