Hide User Accounts from the Welcome Screen in Windows 7

This is small easy tutorial to show how to Hide User Accounts from the Welcome Screen in Microsoft Windows 7.

As you all know, on bootup Microsoft Windows 7  gives a Welcome screen with a list of user accounts created on the computer. Such a list is available only in the case such accounts have been password-protected. If you don™t like the idea that other users may see your account and you wish to hide it and protect your privacy, here is a simple method to display only the fields to insert the username and password, in old good Windows XP style.

Method 1

1. Click Start.

2. In the Search field, type regedit and press Enter. Windows registry editor will open; if it asks for security prompt, accept it.

3. Locate the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies \System:

4. In the right pane, double click the DontDisplayLastName and set its value to 1.

5. Click OK to confirm.

6. Restart the computer for the change to take effect.

Method 2

(If the above trick doesn™t work, try this:)

1. Go to your Windows registry and locate this key: HKEY_Local_Machine\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SpecialAccounts\UserList

2. Now, right-click the UserList folder located on the left pane and from the menu, select New “ DWORD (32-bit) Value

3. Name the new DWORD as the username you want to hide and click OK.

4. Restart the computer for the changes to take effect.

5. Upon restaring your Windows 7 PC, you should see that the account you wanted to hide would not disappear on the welcome screen!