Remove User Accounts From the Logon Screen in Windows Vista
If you have multiple user accounts on your computer you might find it annoying to have to click on the icon for your username each time you start up the computer. To remedy this problem you can remove one of the user accounts, or you can just hide it with a registry hack.
If you aren't the only actual user on the system, then you can't really hide the other user accounts, although you could set one of your accounts up to logon automatically and then use the Switch User function only when necessary.
This tweak is most useful for when you have extra user accounts setup for file sharing or other purposes, or when there are residual accounts you want to get rid of.
If you are a Windows XP user, we've got instructions for you as well.
Manual Registry Hack
Open up regedit.exe through the start menu search or run box, and then browse down to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
You'll want to right-click on the Winlogon key and create a new Key with the following name:
SpecialAccounts
Then you'll want to create another key right below that one with the following name:
UserList
At this point you should be able to click on the UserList key on the left-hand side, and then create a new 32-bit DWORD value.
Give this value the name of the user account that you want to hide, and then repeat for any additional user accounts.
Important Note: Make sure not to hide your last administrator account using this tweak, or you won't be able to login as administrator anymore.
At this point the user account should be completely hidden from everywhere.
Delete User Account
Instead of using a registry hack to hide the account from the logon screen, you could alternatively just delete the user account. Just browse down in Control Panel to User Accounts, and then click the "Delete the account" link on their account page.
You'll be asked if you want to keep the files from that user… you should make sure to have a backup in case you need the files. If you are sure, then delete them.
Alternate Delete Method
If you are using the Business or Ultimate versions of Vista, you can right-click on Computer and choose Manage, and then just find the account and delete it from the Local Users and Groups section.
At this point you should be back to your normal single logon screen.
Note that if you hide the user account using the registry hack, you won't even be able to use the Switch User function to get to that user account, and those accounts will be hidden from the UAC dialog prompt as well.
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You can also remove an user account by this command:
net user *username* /delete
How do you take a screenshot of your login screen?
This is a very timely article for me, as I've recently been trying to figure out how to remove the "user" that shows up after I've installed the software for my "UPEK touchstrip reader." I've tried the above method before and had no success, unless I did it incorrectly (multiple times). …I've even gone as far as to take 'snapshots' of the registry and files on the HD before and after the software installation!
Has anyone else tried accomplishing this with (or without?) any success???? PLEASE share any info / thoughts!!!
@Red
The easiest way is to be running vista in a virtual machine
I have a similar issue where I also have Upek finger printer reader on my Sony Vaio laptop, and on my logon it has a user account icon, that simply says swipe finger to logon, I don't have another account on the system to delete, nor does the registry hack work….any ideas?
If the user account you want is hidden, or you want to use the old logon screen for whatever reason, just press CTRL+ALT+DEL twice in a row. The old Winlogon dialog will appear, for just that one time.
@Marty
That definitely works in XP, but I couldn't get it to work under Vista. Does it work in Vista for you?
Hi.
Wouldn't it be easier just to remove the user from the group "users"?
@Geek
Excellent article. I have a question. Is it possible to delete the Administrator account(which is hidden by default) from Vista Home Premium?
@Santo
No, you shouldn't delete that account or bad things will likely happen.
If you remove the account from the users group it also has the same effect.
@ Rowan
The user is not able to log on to the computer, except if the user is also in the admin group or specified otherwise in the policies.
All other rights (shares, remote access, etc) would not been effected, since those require other groups (remote access), or are available for "everyone" (shares).
Hey, I got a virus that made thousands of user names out of numbers. So when I logged in I saw a scroll bar of user names from 4797~10245 but not one of them was my log in! Luckily, they were not created with a password. I did try to do all the things up there, but so far no luck. The registry for the accounts were not there, I was blocked from accessing User Accounts in control panel, it returned Access Denied when I tried "net user 10245 /delete" (which is another account), and I also tried pressing ++ twice, but nothing really happened. If anybody can help, that would be WONDERFUL! I would know hoe to delete all of the users once I am in my admin account.
Say if one did delete the last administrator account…how would they go about fixing that? Bc now they can't edit the registry to remove the value.
@Charles Kelley: You would need to use a boot disc like UBCD4Win to edit the registry and change that value.