How To: Create A Hidden User Account In Windows Vista
Microsoft’s Windows operating systems including 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 computer, Windows operating system will display Welcome Screen, with all available user accounts listed so that user can click and login.
The following simple registry tweak allows to create a hidden user account in Windows Vista. This user account won’t displayed on the Windows Vista Welcome screen.
- Start the Windows Vista registry editor by clicking Start, then, Run, and then entering regedit.
- You’ll need to provide administrative confirmation if User Account Control(UAC) is turned on.
- Navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon \SpecialAccounts\UserList
- If you don’t find the SpecialAccount and the UserList key, just create them!
- Click UserList and in the right pane, right-click and select New ->DWORD (32-bit) Value.
- Now name the DWORD as the name of the account you want to make invisible.
- Double click on the new DWORD and set it to 0 (zero).
- Restart your computer for the change to take effect.
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. While the account is hidden on the Welcome screen, that the account profile will be visible in C:\Documents and Settings or as well as in Local Users and Groups.
Warning: Modifying the Windows registry can cause serious damage to your Windows Operating System.It is better to backup your Windows registry data before making any changes. Tomstricks.com is not responsible for any changes you may make to your system.
Bonus Tips:
You can also hide a user account in Windows Vista as follows:
- Type lusrmgr.msc in Start Menu Search box and hit enter.
- Click Continue for the UAC prompt.
- In the left of opened “Local Users and Groups” window, click on Users.
- Now, in the right side pane, right click on the account (which you like to hide) and select Properties.
- Under the General tab, check the box named Account is disabled.
- Click Apply and then, OK.
Here also includes a batch script(.bat) that will create user who’s account will be hidden from the Windows logon screen and the User Accounts screen in control panel. This batch file will only work if its ran from an account that has admin rights. It’s great for a backup account.
- Open Notepad editor in Windows Vista.
- Copy and paste the following code into the new document:
@echo off
rem This will create a hidden user with admin rights in XP/Vista
rem change the Aministrat0r & passw0rd to your own
rem Once you log into your new account dont forget to hide the user folder
rem “attrib +r +a +s +h %USERPROFILE%”
SET NEWUSER=Administrat0r
SET PASS=passw0rd
net user %NEWUSER% %PASS% /add && net localgroup administrators %NEWUSER% /add>nul 2>&1
reg.exe ADD “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList” /v %NEWUSER% /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f>nul 2>&1
DEL %0
- Save your newly created notepad document with a descriptive name such as HiddenUserAccount.bat. Make sure to save the file with the .bat extension and not .txt.
- To create a hidden user account in Windows Vista, simply run the newly created HiddenUserAccount.bat file with administrative rights.
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Written by Tony on May 27th, 2009 with
1 comment.
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#1. July 16th, 2009, at 1:27 PM.
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) I try to resolve my problem but unfortunately I can’t do it, but now you are here and will help me 