Removing users from login screen

[bgzzz]

hi,

Is there any way to remove users from the logon screen ? in fact, I have several user account to serve as service account, and they are all appearing.
I remember that in WinXP, there was a registry key special accounts, but I didn’t find it in W2K8.

Thanks for any help.

Steve

[Arris]

The Windows XP trick worked for me:
1. Start the Registry Editor by clicking Start -> Run -> regedit.exe.
2. Create a new Key with the name SpecialAccounts in:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogon

3. Create a new Key with the name UserList in:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogonSpecialAccounts

4. Open the UserList key and add for each user you don’t want to show a new DWORD (32-bit) Value with 0 as value.

Example you can import and edit:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00



[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogonSpecialAccountsUserList]

"Guest"=dword:00000000

"SomeServiceAccount"=dword:00000000

Usernames of users can be found in the Local Users and Groups manager (start -> run -> lusrmgr.msc) or via start -> run -> cmd -> net user

Good luck! 😉

[bgzzz]

Thanks, that works perfectly

[meloncholy]

You can also just disable the accounts you don’t want to show up in Users and Groups. Click on user properties, check ‘account is disabled’ and you’re good to go.

Obviously this only works if you’re trying to hide a user you don’t want, such as the default admin account.

[bgzzz]

Users I want to hide are service accounts so I can’t disable them.

I’ve found another solution : if I remove the users from the local group “users”, they won’t appear anymore.
Setup of each programs that requires service account will grant required rights and then that’s not a problem.

[meloncholy]

Sorry, I realise it wasn’t a solution for you. I found this thread via the blog, where it was linked within the context of disabling the default admin account, and thought it may be an easier way to do things in that case.

That other solution you found is good to know too. 🙂

[Filbert]

@Arris wrote:

The Windows XP trick worked for me:…

I tried this and it worked. However I was logged on as a Power User and was running Regedit as the very Administrator account I wanted to hide at the login screen when I was making the registry edits. Once I closed the program I couldn’t log into anything as the Administrator from the login screen or the Run As Administrator menu.

Luckily “runas.exe” from the command prompt still let me run regedit as the Administrator so I could delete the new registry keys and get back to square one.

Is there any way to make the default Administrator account hidden on the login screen but still avaiable for the Run As option in the GUI?

Also, I looked, and my Administrator account isn’t a member of Users, so taking it out of that group is apparently impossible.

(edit)Oops, I just realized that I resurrected this topic. I just followed the link from one of the comments on the main page and didn’t think to check the dates. Sorry.

[arrocharGeek]

NOTE: I also got lost in this BBS…and I thought I had read all replies…
But now that I’ve posted, I see there is an answer (and I already started my reinstall – see below)…
cmd prompt “runas.exe” appears to enable the ability to elevate to administrator…see prior post…

[this is what I wrote before I saw the other posts…]

CAUTION:
If you use this registry hack to hide the administrative user, and have not created an additional user in the administrators group, you will not be able to administer the machine after you log out.

I was following the instructions on win2008workstation.com, and I created a new user as non-administrator, then I used the registry hack from XP to hide the administrator from the welcome screen.

When I rebooted and tried to log in, I hit CTRL-ALT-DEL 2x and guess what? No login prompt. It appears this has been dropped from vista/win2k8.

Further, I had not yet enabled remote desktop, so I could not login remotely to the administrator account.

And…I tried running regedit as administrator to remove the changes while logged in as my non-administrator user, and guess what?

When UAC comes up to elevate a program – there are no users in the UAC dialog, and no where could I enter a password.

Bottom line, I could not log in as administraotr, I could not elevate to administrator, so I had to reinstall.

On the bright side, the win2k8 install is very fast.

Please be sure to have at least one user *not* hidden from the Welcome screen in the administrators group before hiding your administrator accounts.

-james
arrocharGeek

[kordiemoranto]

Thanks Arris for sharing,how to remove the users from the login screen,It definitely work out and
helpful in my work.

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