I typically end up doing build and captures to deploy an image to mulitple identical computers. For installing things and chhanging configuration (including autologin), Windows Embedded Standard 7 supports using SetupComplete.CMD. Here is a short description from Microsoft. A couple of caveats:
- It is only run if you run sysprep on the machine
- No user interaction can occur
- On Windows Embedded Industry 8/8.1, the type of license you have changes whether or not it is run. For Windows Embedded 8, I have not had this issue.
It it does run before the login screen is shown.
In general, I would also suggest installing .NET prior to capturing an image, since you often have to immediately apply patches after installation.