How to Create Hidden User Account (Hide User Account from Welcome Screen) in Windows
Windows operating system including Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP allows multiple user accounts to be created on the computer, be it administrators or standard users. When there is more than one user accounts been defined and created on the PC, Windows will display Welcome Screen, with all available user accounts listed so that user can click and login.
However, showing and displaying of user accounts on the Welcome Screen is probably a weakness in the security point of view, more so if the user account is intended to be a hidden or backup user account. In fact, there is trick to make user account or administrator account that normally been listed on the Welcome Screen to be hidden from view.
In order to hide a user account (which also means create a hidden user account) in Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7, just go to Control Panel User module and create an additional user as usually do (Control Panel -> User Accounts and Family Safety -> User Accounts in Windows 7 and Windows Vista). If you already have an existing user that wants to be made hidden, invisible or disappeared from Welcome Screen, then go straight to guide below.
- Run Registry Editor (RegEdit.exe).
- Navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList
Note: If SpecialAccounts and UserList is not found, create new sub-key and name them accordingly.
- Select UserList, and in the right pane, right click on any blank space, and point to New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value.
- Name the new DWORD registry value name as the exact same name that match the name of the user account to be hidden.
For example, if the user ID of the user account is John, the name the registry value as John.
- Double click on DWORD registry value, and set the value data to 0 in oder to hide the account from Welcome Screen.
Tip: To display the user account on Welcome Screen again so that it’s visible again, delete the registry entry, or set the value data to 1.
- Exit Registry Editor.
- Log off or restart computer to make the change effective.
Tip: In order to login into Windows using an user account that has made hidden and invisible, just press Ctrl+Alt+Del to bring up Windows Logon dialog, and then type in the user name and password manually.
Related posts:
- Unhide the Administrator Account in Windows XP
- Turn Off or Disable User Account Control (UAC) in Windows Vista
- Reveal All Hidden User Folders In “Send To” Right Click Menu in Windows 7
- Disable and Turn Off Windows XP Login Screen and Show Traditional NT Log On to Windows Box
- Activate, Enable and Show Administrator Account in Vista Welcome Screen
Log on to your normal account and open command prompt. Then type the following:
net user *
Where it says password, type the password you want it to be.
Replace with the username of the administrator account you made and don't forget the asterisk.
I have accidentally locked myself out of my vista laptop. I was trying to get around parental controls and made a hidden administrator account. However, I didn't set the password for it, and now can't get at it. my father made my account not an admin,so i now have no way of changing it.
Can anyone help?
A friend warned me that this trick doesn’t work well under Vista and Seven, cause the systems aren’t in NT version.
I used much in my windows xp without problem. Really works rather in that systems, but the folders, for example, apppears in “Users” and anyone can reach them, unless you adjust the securities access. The action “ctrl+alt+del”, as in Windows XP, can be done twice fastly, when the Windows stars.
Even in Windows 7 Home Premium, you can still get the prompt for the hidden administrator credentials whenever you need to run a program with them. See here:
1. While holding down the Shift key, right-click the program you want to run.
2. Select "Run as a different user."
3. Type the username and password of the account.
No need to reinstall.
@Martin
Not treu, I have windows 7, followd the instructions exaclty, and then followd Admin Smith his instruction. I tell u, it worked for me:).
@AC
search in you Start Menu, for taskmgr.exe. Exactly the same as Ctrl alt del.
Hope it works for you too guys:)
CAUTION! I "hid" the administrator account in Windows 7 Home Premium and got locked out of the machine. Win7HP doesn't have a traditional logon screen and doesn't respond to ctrl-alt-delete so it became impossible to log into the admin account. Because UAC requires an admin password to elevate processes, none of the other accounts on the machine could make system changes. It was reinstall/revert time for that machine.
Hey, if you hide an account in Vista/7, you can still access it via Remote Desktop Connection, but that's it. Hopefully there's a workaround out there.
If you go to Computer Management –> Local Users & Groups, it still shows up. So it's not really hidden in my mind. Unless I'm missing some step?
BTW, this is where you can also view the 'hidden' local Microsoft Admin account as well. This is where I set the Password for added security, even though it's disabled.
Go to local security policy/Local policies/Security options – and enable "do not show last user name" This will allow you to enter a user name and password
I am using windows 7 64 bit
and I cannot get it to work
Is SpecialAccounts written as 1 word? is that the same for UserList?
the dword was automatically set to 0 i did not need to change it .
The name of the users is exactly the same as the name shown under control panel users.
have you got any other suggestions?
To "login from the cmdline" you can:
1. Login as a regular user.
2. start taskmgr.exe
3. Kill explorer.exe
4. File>New Task(Run…)
5. type cmd and press enter.
6. At the prompt type "runas /user:[username] explorer.exe"
7. When prompted enter the password for the user account.
8. Explorer will load under the given username, essentially letting you logon as another user, although with a few differences.
Enjoy.
i have vista and iv done everything above and the account was successfully hidden.
as mentioned, vista doesnt allow the ctrl alt del function to work on the logon page,
i did the following:
Theo
January 3rd, 2010 07:05
30
Under Win7, Vista, XP, you need to make sure that when you create a user account that you have the “Full Name” filled in.
Windows itself users this Full Name to display on the welcome screen.
and found it still didnt work lol. it asks all users to type in ctrl alt del but then only shows the admin account which i ensured wasnt hidden. it does not prompt me to type in any username for any other account.
to reiterate: the ctrl alt del solution still doesnt work =(
any other solutions?
For those of you who have hidden all of your administrative accounts and are now unable to unhide them, here's a solution:
open a command prompt and type
<code>runas /u:[admin] regedit</code>
where [admin] is an administrative account.
type the password when prompted and then remove the registry value
… now that I'm thinking about it, I'm wondering if there might not also be a way to switch user accounts and login to a hidden account via a command line. If anyone finds something, let me know.
@Theo
And BTW, the “Requires users to press Ctrl-Alt-Del” option does not do what you imply it does. It merely requires users to hit Ctrl+Alt+Del prior to viewing the welcome screen (to foil malware that might try to mimick the welcome screen to steel pw info). It does NOT, repeat DOES NOT, bring back the old manual login prompt from XP/2000.
** QUICK FIX FOR PPL LOCKED OUT OF ACCOUNTS **
Basically, it's just a matter of finding a way to run the programs/services necessary to unhide the account either as administrator or as any admin account. But you need a way to do so where you can enter in the user name directly.
1. Click Start
2. Type "regedit" in the searchbox WITHOUT hitting enter
3. The start menu should display an icon for the Regedit program.
4. Hold SHIFT and RIGHT CLICK the regedit icon
5. Goto "run as a different user"
6. Enter the username and password of a hidden administrator level account.
7. Use Regedit to undo the changes you made and unhide the account.
You can also use this method to run any program that can reverse the changes to the registry, but which requires UAC.
If you have trouble for some reason, follow the same steps only perform the operation directly on the regedit program icon in C:Windows. Or you can, as another user demonstrated, use this or any variation of this method from a command line using the "runas" command.
Now. A much harder problem would be if you hid ALL accounts and could therefore not login AT ALL. You could probably fix this if you could get to a command line, but it is an even better reason why MS should never have removed the option for Control-Alt-Delete access to manually login. It's really more secure to make every user remember and enter their login anyway, and it's very useful from a tech perspective to have hidden accounts for system purposes that aren't advertised needlessly on the welcome screen. It's sad that with all the forward progress made in the release of Win7, MS could fumble the ball on stupid, simple, and incredibly OBVIOUS things like this. Even if they removed the feature from the home edition, how could they remove it on Windows 7 Pro?!
Anyway. Good luck guys, hope this helps.
Haha, wish I had read the comments before celebrating the article. Any resolution Robert?
Well, to follow up my own comment – I've resolved the problem by using the following command:
<code>runas /user:administrator regedit</code>
.. which allowed me to undo the changes to the registry. Hope this helps someone else.
The moral of the story is:
THE ADVICE IN THIS ARTICLE DOES NOT APPLY TO WINDOWS 7. If you 'hide' an account in Windows 7, you will NOT be able to log into it any more.
Perhaps the post could be updated?
I'm in an identical situation to Robert. I have tried Safe mode to no avail – still only the standard user account is shown on the welcome screen.
There is an adminstrator account on the PC, I just can't get to it. Unbelievably annoying!
Any suggestions, please?
@Robert B
I'm sure by now you have figured out how to do it (or reformatted the machine).
To log in as Administrator when all Admin accounts have been hidden, log in to Safe Mode. On the Welcome Screen for Safe Mode, the Administrator Account will be visible.
Regards,
A.
@Theo:
Neither of those address the issue. Administrator-level access is required to make the changes you suggest. Any other ideas?
If you want to turn back on the Ctrl-Alt-Del logon method for Vista and Win7, you need to run the following from the run prompt or search box:
netplwiz
Click the advanced tab
Under "Secure Logon", tick the box "Requires users to press Ctrl-Alt-Del"
Under Win7, Vista, XP, you need to make sure that when you create a user account that you have the "Full Name" filled in.
Windows itself users this Full Name to display on the welcome screen.
URGENT ISSUE:
C-A-D does not work in the Windows 7 installation I'm working with.
I discovered this only after hiding the only administrator level account on the machine.
I can not find any way to regain administrator level access to the machine. If I try to perform an administrative task, UAC pops up as usual — however it does not provide a place to enter credentials. The only option is to click 'No' and abort the operation.
I tried using RUNAS to launch regedit, however it does not allow running apps with elevated privileges.
Please help! This is a time sensitive matter.
Background: I have been hiding the admin accounts on XP machines for as long as XP has been around and never had an issue. I didn't expect to encounter this problem… at all.
neither gpedit.msc or local security policy exist in win7 home premium and below. It drove me nuts for about 10min.
how to change the colour of window xp start menu?
ctrl alt delete doesn't work in vista and windows 7
THIS IS NOT A TRICK IT’S A FEATURE of WindowsXP:
@ Start Menu run this command:
CONTROL USERPASSWORDS2
and uncheck: Users must enter a user name and password
and you're done..
THIS IS NOT A TRICK IT'S A FEATURE
of Vista & W7:
@ Start Button run this command:
NETPLWIZ
and uncheck: Users must enter a user name and password
nothing else…
I ran into the same problem. The fix I found is to first go in to the local group policy editor (gpedit.msc) and go to Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Credential User Interface and change "Enumerate adminstrator accounts on elevation" to "Disabled." This causes UAC to prompt for a Username and Password rather than list all the adminstrator accounts. This way you can type in the name of the hidden account and use UAC.
For those who couldnt get the "runas" command below to work properly, navigate on ANY account to System32/Redgedit32.exe.
Hold Shift and then Right Click it, then select the "Run as a different user". You can then manually type in the user/pass of the hidden account, and undo the changes you made.
For those who locked themselves out like myself and Green Airplane and wind up here via google search, I have a suggestion. To start regedit as an administrator and undo the damage that you did do the following:
1. Start a command prompt and type "runas /user:Admin cmd". This will open a new command prompt running as your administrator user
2. In the new command prompt type "regedit.exe" and click yes when the UAC prompts you. There is no need to select a user and put in a password as you are already logged in as the administrator
For a method that works all the time, type in secpol.msc into the start menu search box and then navigate to Local Policies Security Options.
Find the setting for “Interactive Logon: Do not display last user name” and change it to enabled.
This will activate the classic login screen.
how about you give the person some space jk ummm does cntl alt del work on vista?
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Same problem as Green Airplane. Take this stupid "tip" down, you're just borking people's machines.
nice..
No special accounts folder in windows 7 for me….
@Green Airplane
In XP you must hit ctrl+alt+d;t twice to get the dialog.
I don't know how it's done in Vista though
Great. I have created the respective keys in the registry. Worked like a charm.
I have two administrator accounts and one normal user. The two admin accounts have vanished from the welcome screen. There is only one problem – the ctrl+alt+del shortcut won't bring up the old style login dialog. I can only log in as the restricted user. What's more, any time I try to run some administrative application, UAC jumps at me and asks me to type in administrator password. But the modification seems to have hidden the admin accounts from the UAC dialog as well. I am now completely locked out of a system I have just installed, even though I know passwords for two different admin accounts. ANY suggestions?
Tried this in a fresh installation of Windows 7, got as far as HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogon
there si no SpecialAccounts 'folder' there. Just AutoLogonChecked and GPExtensions. Any suggestions?
Worked like a charm under Windows 7.
I created a hidden account in windows vista but when I try Ctrl+alt+del it does not work how do i acces my hidden account on the welcome screen?
thank you very much.
at least this help in hiding that extra admin account i made.. but what i really want is that the administrator account will be disabled or will be deleted. how can i do that?
Or in Vista click start and search Local Security Policy
- Local Policies
-Security Options
Then in the right hand pane look for Interactive Logon: Do not display last user name
-Right click on it and enable it
I guess the difference between regedit and TweakUI is knowledge. TweakUI does it for you, but what if it does something wrong. At least this way you are beginningto comprehend and understand the changes you are making. At a low level. The way of comp. techs and net admins have leaned to heavy on GUI's and wizards. THis is a great way of doing it. Thanks for an insightful post and tidbit of knowledge. I am off to screw with my co-workers who do not respect the tech.
How about the desktop computers that don't have delete sign or Ctrl+Alt+Del does not work?
This does indeed hide the account from the welcome screen in any of the Windows versions listed, however with Vista (pretty sure with Windows 7 as well), you can no longer log into the system as that user. You can run applications as this user still when using the RunAS command, however logging in by using ctrl+alt+delete does not work (only in XP).
but after creating the hidden account in vista we are not able to login in the hidden account on pressing cont+alt+del…. if u could then plz help me
couldn't you just use "net user {accountname} /active:no" ?
This is different from making user inactive though. The user is still active and enabled.
I prefer using registry editor or group policy .
thank U very much.
Or just use TweakUI to hide the account!