SharePoint - Prompted for Username and Password when accessing the site locally

SharePoint server is not on a domain.

You access the SharePoint server via RDP and when launching the SharePoint site, are continously asked for logon credentials.

If the IIS error logs are showing a 401 error, this is being caused by an element on the SharePoint site which is calling the FQDN of the site and IIS doesn't understand that the FQDN and the localhost are the same site, so it doesn't understand how to process the authentication.

Here is the fix.

KB Link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896861

Method 1: Specify host names (Preferred method if NTLM authentication is desired)

To specify the host names that are mapped to the loopback address and can connect to Web sites on your computer, follow these steps:

1. Set the
   DisableStrictNameChecking
   registry entry to 1. For more information about how to do this, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
   281308  Connecting to SMB share on a Windows 2000-based computer or a Windows Server 2003-based computer may not work with an alias name
2. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. In Registry Editor, locate and then click the following registry key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\MSV1_0
4. Right-click MSV1_0, point to New, and then click Multi-String Value.
5. Type BackConnectionHostNames, and then press ENTER.
6. Right-click BackConnectionHostNames, and then click Modify.
7. In the Value data box, type the host name or the host names for the sites that are on the local computer, and then click OK.
8. Quit Registry Editor, and then restart the IISAdmin service.