How to get 'administrator' acct in the login-list?

[David Cook]

I see a lot of customer Win-XP systems these days, and
it now seems that SOME of them explicitly include an
extra 'administrator' acct as one of the choices of which
acct to login to.

So, is there a setting somewhere that I can tweak, so that my
Win-XP system includes that in the login choices? (I just
had the need to do a fresh installation of Win-XP, and it asks
you for the password for an 'administrator' account, so I assume
that it's in there, but just not explicitly choosable.

Please explain.

TIA...

Dave

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I see a lot of customer Win-XP systems these days, and
it now seems that SOME of them explicitly include an
extra 'administrator' acct as one of the choices of which
acct to login to.

So, is there a setting somewhere that I can tweak, so that my
Win-XP system includes that in the login choices? (I just
had the need to do a fresh installation of Win-XP, and it asks
you for the password for an 'administrator' account, so I assume
that it's in there, but just not explicitly choosable.

Please explain.

TIA...

Dave

The "administrator" account is always present even though
it may not be visible. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del twice to log on
under it.

 

[Wesley Vogel]

[[On a Windows XP Professional-based computer that is a member of a
workgroup, you have the option of using the friendly logon interface as
opposed to the classic Windows logon interface. If you add a second user
that has administrative privileges, the built-in Administrator account does
not appear during the friendly logon method. ]]

Original Administrator Account Does Not Appear During Friendly Logon Method
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;281992

 

[Guest]

David:

I will assume that "explicit choosability" as it were, is based upon an
account's presence on the welcome screen. For example, if your PC has an
account named "David Cook" you have a pretty little icon on the welcome
screen. Clicking the icon logs you on, provided you supply a password if
necessary.

You can add the Administrator account to the Welcome screen, so that it
appears alongside additional accounts that you have created. You can also
assign a pretty little icon to that account.

Here's how (I'll also explain how to hide an account, and why).

1. Learn how to use regedit.
2. Run regedit.
3. Navigate to following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList

Depending on the configuration of your system, there may be 1 or more
accounts already listed. Ignore most of these.
There's a theme to the values in here.
They are all DWORD values.
The name of the DWORD value corresponds to the selected account.
The data values you are concerned with:
Data value of 1: Account is visible on Welcome Screen
Data value of 0: Account is not visible on Welcome Screen

The administrator account is not in here by default.
So, right-click and choose New->Dword Value.
Type administrator and hit enter.
Highlight the administrator value and hit enter.
Give it a value of 1.
Reboot and Administrator is now available on your welcome screen.

Conversely, say you have an account called "Super Secret Account." You want
to remove it from the welcome screen.
Follow the same process as above, only give the "Super Secret Account" a
data value of 0. Reboot (or well just log off or switch user) and now "Super
Secret Account" is no longer accessible from the Welcome screen.

Reason for removing it. You have a computer workgroup. Each computer has
an individual user, with usernames like Steve, Bill, and Jane. That's what
each person wants to login as. But, you want to ensure file sharing is
successful. So you create duplicate accounts on each PC in the workgroup and
set the proper password for each. But, you don't want Steve's computer to
present the ability to login with the Bill/Jane accounts. You edit the
registry, adding values with the names Bill and Jane, then set the data
values to zero. Now you have successful file sharing, and you don't have an
overwhelming Welcome Screen.

Hope this helps.

Joe

 

[David Cook]

Ok, I have read the 3 answers...very helpful, thanks.

It makes sense now...I've been going into 'safe mode' frequently,
and it now jogs my memory that it is in SAFE MODE (as you mention)
that the 'Administrator' acct is choosable (i.e. show up in the new Welcome
Screen').

My only quarrel now is that I disagree with the 'default' choice of NOT
showing the 'administrator' acct. I could even agree that the default might
be to NOT show it in the list of other accts (as equals). But, I would
strongly argue that it should at least be accessible (e.g. maybe in smaller
font
off to the side or whatever). But it ought to be selectable somehow by
default
from the Welcome Screen. (The ability to change that with a registry hack
would be fine.)

It just seems that way too often, what I think should be reasonable default
behavior
is yet-another registry hack. (Sigh.) I spend a lot of time going from one
customer
machine to the next, so having to go into the registry requires more
external documentation
for me to maintain than is feasible.