How to Clear and Don’t Display Last User Name who Logged In On Windows Logon Screen
Windows operating system, including Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server, is designed in a way that the last user who logged into the system is remembered, and is displayed automatically on next log in, so that user has to just enter the password to log on. In the Welcome Screen, user account names are listed, or in the case of only single account available, automatically selected to prompt for password. In classic Windows logon box (including the Logon to Windows box after press Ctrl + Alt + Delete shortcut), the user name who logged in most recently is displayed as user name to log on.
The behavior to remember and display the last user name who logged in to the Windows system most recently is built into Windows operating system to allow user to login quickly by just entering password. However, some users may not like the feature as it will give away the identity of user who used the computer. In addition, on common shared PC, there will be additional steps to delete, remove and clear the user name before entering the correct own user ID. User who forgotten to change the user ID on display can accidentally lock other user out if trying too many incorrect password.
Windows provides a registry or group policy trick that instruct Windows not to remember and display the last user name who logged in. Follow the steps below to tweak the registry setting or group policy:
- Run Registry Editor (RegEdit).
- Navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
- In the right pane, double click on DontDisplayLastName registry key value, and set its value data to 1.
Alternatively, the registry key above can be changed and modified via Local Security Policy Editor, as shown in guide below.
- Click on Start button, and type secpol.msc into Start Search box, and hit Enter to open the Local Security Policy Editor.
- Navigate to Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Options.
- In the right pane, double click on Interactive Logon: Do not display last user name.
- Select and set the radio button of Enabled.
- Click Apply or OK.
Once enabled, the name of the last user to successfully log on is not displayed in the Logon Screen.
Related posts:
- Display Logon Message Text and Title in Windows Vista
- How to Bypass and Stop Automatic Logon to Log On as Different User
- Tweaking Windows XP Logon Screensaver and Logon Message Box
- How to Create Hidden User Account (Hide User Account from Welcome Screen) in Windows
- Enable Press Ctrl+Alt+Del Secure Logon On Windows 7 or Vista
Very clear instructions, thanks.
We implemented this change but it also seems to clear the Outlook username for users. Is this the expected action as I assumed it was only going to blank the AD login. Thanks.
Hi,
Thanks a lot for this detailed and well articulated post.
This really helped me get rid of a ton of headache…
Rock On !!!
Cheers
Is there a way to do this only temporarily? In other words, just have it forget the current logged-in username when you log off, but then still remember for all subsequent logins?
That is an excellent question, and one I've been trying to find an answer to for quite a while. In XP, you could simply clear the AltDefaultUserName and DefaultUserName values in the registry and the username field would be blank on the next login.
This technique was great for preventing users from locking out your account by repeatedly inputting their password with your username, but would only do that on the next login, returning the machine to "normal" after that.
Unfortunately, this feature was apparently far too useful to be included in MicroSoft's latest offering; I can not find those values or similar ones in the Windows 7 registry, and any solutions I've been able to find are like this one – all or nothing. While it might be better from a security standpoint to simply tell users from now on you have to input both username and password, it would be nice to have the flexibility to be able to prevent it from happening on the next login only.
If anyone has come up with a technique to stop Windows 7 from defaulting to the last logged in username for the next login only, I'd love to hear about it.