Hide admin account from (Windows 7) login screen without disabling it

Question

Can anyone please tell me how to hide admin account from the welcome screen without disabling it?

The method that uses the SpecialAccounts registry key does disable the account, so you can no longer enter the admin password to run elevated tasks from a limited account.

The solution should be usable by Home editions of Windows, so if it requires a group-policy, please also include the registry entry that the group-policy editor alters.

score 9 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 04 '17 at 19:05

9

In the Registry, you can create a list of accounts to hide at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList. Create a REG_DWORD value named Administrator, with 0 as data to hide it (any other value will have no effect).

edited Mar 04 '17 at 19:05

ivan_pozdeev

1,973

answered Jul 01 '13 at 08:22

grawity

501,077

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 01 '13 at 07:59

1

Start->Run->secpol.msc
Navigate to Local policies -> Security settings
Find the entry "Interactive Logon: Hide last user..." and set it to activated.
Reboot the machine

answered Jul 01 '13 at 07:59

ArcherGodson

1,957

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 01 '13 at 08:13

You can't "hide" it like what you're implying. You can however, require username and password to log on that way no one knows what accounts are on the computer. Effectively "hiding" the account.

Windows 7: Log On with User Name and Password

Hide admin account from (Windows 7) login screen *without disabling* it

3 Answers3

Hide admin account from (Windows 7) login screen without disabling it