Knowledgebase

Show / Hide a User Account on the Welcome Screen

This is a very common questions for IT departments or power users and there is no GUI interface for this option.

By default the default Administrator account is HIDDEN. In most cases users create a new user when setting up the system. There are times then when a new user accoutn is needed, adding one will then cause the side effect of hiding the default administrator account.

Show a User Account

 

Open your registry and find or create the key below.

 

 

  • System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\
  • SpecialAccounts\UserList]
  • Value Name: Administrator
  • Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
  • Value Data: (1 = show Administrator)

 

 

Create a new DWORD value, or modify the existing value, called "Administrator" and set it according to the value data below.

Exit your registry; you may need to restart or log out of Windows for the change to take effect.

Note: This tweak will not work if you have renamed the Administrator account.

 

 

Hide a User Account

 

Open Registry Editor.

In Registry Editor, navigate to the following registry key:

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList

Create the following entry:
  • Value Name:
  • Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
  • Value Data: (0)
Close Registry Editor.

Reboot or Logoff.

This will prevent the user from showing up on the welcome screen. You will need to press CTRL-ALT-DEL twice at the logon screen to get the old W2K logon style box to be able to logon to the account you've hidden. Adding a username and setting the value to 1 will cause that user, such as Administrator, to show up on the Welcome screen as well.

 

 

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