How in the Tech

Remove User Accounts from Windows Logon Screen

By Adam Myers ⋅ March 30, 2009 ⋅ Tags: Privacy, Security, Windows

The Windows Logon screen displays all the user accounts on the computer. Clicking on the user icon initiates a password prompt and allows one to login – unsurprisingly. This is a pretty conventional setup for multi-user systems but what if you are on the only user on the computer? It can be annoying to have to click on your username. It is possible to control the list of accounts that are displayed here. The trick lies withing the Windows registry.

First, an appropriate question now is why are their multiple user accounts if you are the only user of the system? In my real life example I have a Media Center PC in the living room. The environment is setup such that everything is run under a user mce. However, in order to access content shared from another PC the usernames and passwords need to match. The easiest solution is to create an account on the Media Center PC that matches my account on the fileserver. As I’d never login to Media Center with any account other than mce, showing that second account on the logon screen is annoying and confusing to other members of the household. Similar situation? Here’s how to fix it.

1. Click Start and in the Start Search box type regedit.exe
2. Traverse the Registry Editor navigation tree on the left hand side down to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon.



3. Right-click on the Winlogon key and create a new key called SpecialAccounts.



4. On the newly created SpecialAccounts key, right-click and create another key titled UserList.



5. Single-click UserList to select it and then in the right-hand panel create a new 32-bit DWORD value by right-click->New.



6. The name for the DWORD value should be the local username you wish to hide from the Windows Logon Screen. Remember, whichever username you list here will remove their ability to logon. Repeat the previous step for each username you wish to remove.