No fast user switch button

[Ken Baird]

I have looked and can look no more!!

I have upgraded from XP Home to Vista basic home, I had four user accounts,
one admin (me) three users wife and kids. Now my account is an admin and is
password protected and has screen saver password enabled. same as my old XP
setup and worked fine, wife and kids could use the computer any time. If I
was logged in they would just switch user.

Now with Vista if I'm logged in and leave, my account lock's the computer
and needs a password to logon (or unlock the computer?) and no fast user
switch button. Now no one can use the computer but me. have looked and
looked. I have tried to see if fast user switch is enabled but if I try to
run "gpedit.msc" as I have found in other reports on checking if fast user
switch is enabled my computer reports "gpedit.msc" not found.

Ready to put XP home back on computer and burn Vista.

 

[Dave]

It must be a lack of features in Basic, because I have Home Premium, and
when my screen is locked, there is a Switch User button to click on.

Here's what Windows Help & Support says...

What is Fast User Switching?

Fast User Switching is a feature in Windows that allows you to switch to a
different computer user account without closing programs and files first.
This makes it easier to share a computer with others. Fast User Switching is
turned on by default.

Warning
If you turn off the computer while someone else still has programs running,
their unsaved files will be lost.

Switch users without logging off

Fast User Switching is a way to change users on a computer without closing
programs and files first.

Note
If you are logged on to a remote computer (for instance, using Remote
Desktop Connection), you can't use Fast User Switching on that computer.

Click the Start button , and then click the arrow next to the lock button .

Click Switch User, and then click the user you want to switch to.

Warning
Make sure to save any open files before switching users because Windows does
not automatically save files that are open. If you switch to a different
user and that user shuts down the computer, any unsaved changes you have
made to files that are open on your account will be lost.

Enable or disable secure logon (CTRL+ALT+DELETE )

It's important to keep your computer as secure as possible. One way to do so
is to enable secure logon so that you are required to press CTRL+ALT+DELETE
to log on. Using secure logon provides an additional layer of security for
your computer by ensuring that the authentic Windows logon screen appears.
When secure logon is enabled, no other program (such as a virus or spyware)
can intercept your user name and password as you enter it.

Click to open Advanced User Accounts. If you are prompted for an
administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide
confirmation.

Click the Advanced tab, select the Require users to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete
check box, and then click OK.

 

[Andrew McLaren]

Hi Ken

I recognise your frustration; I've felt the same way myself about some new
"features" in Vista. But, I hope there's an easy solution to this particular
issue ...

Now with Vista if I'm logged in and leave, my account lock's the computer
and needs a password to logon (or unlock the computer?) and no fast user
switch button. Now no one can use the computer but me. have looked and

After you lock the workstation, is there a "Switch User" button on the logon
screen? Your other users click on the "switch user" button to get a logon
screen and log on; while you (the administrator) remains logged on in your
own locked session. That is certainly what I'm seeing on my test Vista Home
Premium machine here, I just tried it. Are you seeing something different?
(maybe different in Home Basic, but I hope not. Fast User Switching is
supposed to be turned on in Home Basic, same as in Home Premium).

looked. I have tried to see if fast user switch is enabled but if I try to
run "gpedit.msc" as I have found in other reports on checking if fast user
switch is enabled my computer reports "gpedit.msc" not found.

That's correct - GPEdit is supposed to be a "corporate-oriented" tool, so is
only available in Business, Exnterprise and Ultimate editions (a poor
decision, IMHO). But anyway you only need to edit teh policies to turn FUS
*off*; iIn Vista, it is enabled by default (that's a good thing).

Ready to put XP home back on computer and burn Vista.

Hope this helps a bit,

 

[Dave]

I believe that Home Basic version has user switching...

Instead of using a screensaver password, try a standard Vista screensaver,
and check [x] "On resume display logon screen". On my computer, it will
lock the screen, and you need to enter the password, or click on "switch
user".

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Hi Ken,

Group Policy Editor is unavailable in Vista Home Basic. You need to delete the "HideFastUserSwitching" registry value in order to enable Fast User Switching.
http://www.winhelponline.com/articles/128/1/

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows Shell/User]
Windows® Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


I have looked and can look no more!!

I have upgraded from XP Home to Vista basic home, I had four user accounts,
one admin (me) three users wife and kids. Now my account is an admin and is
password protected and has screen saver password enabled. same as my old XP
setup and worked fine, wife and kids could use the computer any time. If I
was logged in they would just switch user.

Now with Vista if I'm logged in and leave, my account lock's the computer
and needs a password to logon (or unlock the computer?) and no fast user
switch button. Now no one can use the computer but me. have looked and
looked. I have tried to see if fast user switch is enabled but if I try to
run "gpedit.msc" as I have found in other reports on checking if fast user
switch is enabled my computer reports "gpedit.msc" not found.

Ready to put XP home back on computer and burn Vista.

 

[Ken Baird]

Hi,

Sorry to say but Microsoft reports that Vista Home Basic supports Fast User
Switching.
Problem is that is all they say. No info on setting it up, As stated below
"Fast User Switching is
turned on by default" This is a good statment what is missing is how to
turn it off or on!

Same old story........

I guess I did leave out on important bit. When I select my account to login,
when the screen opens to ask for my password (before I login) there is a
fast user switch button that works if I do not enter my password. As soon as
I enter my password the button is gone.

 

[Andrew McLaren]

Hi Ken,

Problem is that is all they say. No info on setting it up, As stated below
"Fast User Switching is
turned on by default" This is a good statment what is missing is how to
turn it off or on!

You should not need to do anything, to turn it on ... FUS is already turned
on, in Vista.

You'd only need to turn it ON, if it had somehow been turned OFF.

But I suspect we're looking at a usability question, rather than whether FUS
itself is actually running or not on your Vista PC. It seems like you're
seeing the "Switch User" button, etc - just not when you expect to see it.

I guess I did leave out on important bit. When I select my account to
login, when the screen opens to ask for my password (before I login) there
is a fast user switch button that works if I do not enter my password. As
soon as I enter my password the button is gone.

I regret I don't quite follow, there. As soon as you enter your password,
you're logged in. So you won't see any "fast user switching" button - you're
not at the logon screen any more.

At the logon screen, you'll have a password field and a blue button below it
saying "Switch User". You enter your password. Then you press <enter>, or
click on the blue arrow at the right-hand side of the password field. You
should get the Welcome message, and your desktop. What happens then?

If you hit Win+L to Lock the workstation, you should be returned to a logon
screen with your user name, the word "Locked" and a "Switch User" button to
let another user start a FUS session. Do you not see that, on your machine?

Cheers,

 

[Ken Baird]

Hello Andrew,

Thanks for the help I will try explain in detail what happens;

Boot up computer
Login screen shows four users. - one (admin) password - three users no
password.

If I select my account (admin) the screen will change to ask for my
password. At this point I can either enter my password or select the "Switch
User" button. At this point ( not Logged in) if I select the "Switch User"
button then it will tack me back to the main login screen - no problem.

If I login to my account and the screen saver comes on to "LOCK" the PC the
"Switch User" button is gone. the only thing you can do is enter the
password.

Now from my reading up on Vista (I have only used 95 , 98, 2000, XP Home and
Pro this is my only PC with Vista) I should be able to select "Switch User"
from the start Menu. If I go that route Switch User is not there. I have
every thing but. Same goes for the Lock option from the Start Menu, If I
select Lock from here the Login screen will come up with no Switch User
Button, From what I have read up on if you select Lock Computer then you
should have the two options enter password or Switch User.

So my only Guess is Switch User is turned off or Disabled. I would like to
find some way of how to check or enable Fast Switch User in Vista.

Anyone that can let me know how to verify that Fast Switch User is enabled
in Vista it would be a great help.
If I do not get the Switch User button working the Wife and Kids are going
to ............LOL

Thanks

 

[Ken Baird]

Hello Andrew,

Thanks for the help I will try explain in detail what happens;

Boot up computer
Login screen shows four users. - one (admin) password - three users no
password.

If I select my account (admin) the screen will change to ask for my
password. At this point I can either enter my password or select the "Switch
User" button. At this point ( not Logged in) if I select the "Switch User"
button then it will tack me back to the main login screen - no problem.

If I login to my account and the screen saver comes on to "LOCK" the PC the
"Switch User" button is gone. the only thing you can do is enter the
password.

Now from my reading up on Vista (I have only used 95 , 98, 2000, XP Home and
Pro this is my only PC with Vista) I should be able to select "Switch User"
from the start Menu. If I go that route Switch User is not there. I have
every thing but. Same goes for the Lock option from the Start Menu, If I
select Lock from here the Login screen will come up with no Switch User
Button, From what I have read up on if you select Lock Computer then you
should have the two options enter password or Switch User.

So my only Guess is Switch User is turned off or Disabled. I would like to
find some way of how to check or enable Fast Switch User in Vista.

Anyone that can let me know how to verify that Fast Switch User is enabled
in Vista it would be a great help.
If I do not get the Switch User button working the Wife and Kids are going
to ............LOL

Thanks

 

[Andrew McLaren]

Thanks for the help I will try explain in detail what happens;

So my only Guess is Switch User is turned off or Disabled. I would like to
find some way of how to check or enable Fast Switch User in Vista.

Anyone that can let me know how to verify that Fast Switch User is enabled
in Vista it would be a great help.

Hi Ken,

Thanks for supplying the extra details. That does make it sound like Fast
User Swicthing is indeed disabled.

Here are a couple of iron-clad ways to check:

1) Go to the Start Menu.
- look for the Power off, Padlock and right-arrow symbols at the bottom of
the right-hand column
- click on teh right-pointing arrow
- various options are listed: Log off, Lock, Lock, Restart, Sleep, Shutdown,
etc,
- if FUS is active, the first option should be Switch User.
- if "Switch User" is missing, then FUS may be either "hidden" or disabled"


2) Examine the HideFastUserSwitching value in the Registry on the machine.
If this value is set to 1, Fast User Switching is disabled. If the value is
set to 0, Fast User Switching is enabled, but you don't get the menu option,
it's "hidden". The default on a new installation of Vista is that this
HideFastUserSwitching value does not exist, at all. If it exists on your
machine you'll want to delete it.

Be careful while running Regedit - do not change *anything*, except the
HideFastUserSwitching value!!

- go to Start menu, and in the "start Search" field at the bottom, enter
"regedit" and press <enter>.
- a "need your permission" prompt appears, click Continue.
- The Registry Editor will open. You are performing open heart surgery on
Windows. Do not burp, fart or sneeze.
- The registry has a tree-like structure, displayed on the left-hand pane.
It's similar to Explorer but for the Registry, rather than the file system.
- find and expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. You'll see sub-branches for
Components, Hardware, SAM, Software etc.
- expand the SOFTWARE branch;
- expand Microsoft
- expand Windows
- expand CurrentVersion
- expand Policies
- expand System
- the status bar across the bootom of Regedit should show your location as:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
- you should see values such as "ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin, EnableLUA,
FilterAdministrator Token, etc
- look for a value here called HideFastUserSwitching
- if FUS is actually enabled on your box, you won't find the value, it
doesn't exist.
- if HideFastUserSwitching is present is may have a value of 0 or 1. Either
way, you don't want it.
- click once on the HideFastUserSwitching value, so that it is selected.
- right-click, so that the small context menu comes up;
- choose Delete
- you will be prompted to confirm deleting the value. As long as you're sure
you're really deleting HideFastUserSwitching, click Yes.
- the value will be deleted.
- in Regedit go to File, Exit, to quit the Registry Editor.
- you can safely resume burping, farting, and/or sneezing at this point.
- reboot the machine immediately.
- when the machine reboots, Vista will have Fast User Switching enabled.

If you are still not seeing the "Switch User" button at this stage, tell us
exactly which screen saver you are using, and whether you have the "On
resume, display logon screen" checkbox selected in the Screen Saver Settings
dialogue.

If your machine does have Fast User Switching disabled, I'm really perplexed
how it got that way. In Vista, FUS is always enabled, whether it's an
Upgrade from XP, or on a clean Install of Vista. Perhaps if the machine was
an upgrade from a Domain-joined XP machine, it may be disabled - do you have
a Windows Server running Active Directory, on your home network? Or was the
machine previously attached to a corporate network? Apart from that, maybe
some third-party software tried to disable FUS (not very well-behaved, but
possible). Or a user of the machine made a erroneous change to the
configuration, unawares (happens more often than you'd think; hell, I've
done it to myself).

Let us know how it goes ...

 

[Ken Baird]

Hello Andrew,

IT'S BACK!!!!!

Thank you, My Wife Thank's you, My Kids Thank you, I Thank you.

I checked the Registry and found an entry HideFastUserSwitching = 1 in the
Registry.
Changed it to =0 (did not burp, fart or sneeze) rebooted and working.
Do you realy think I need to deltete this? I fear deleting anything from the
Registry.

How this got this way I do not know. You were asking about my home network I
have two machines old Dell running XP Home, and this machine Home made Intel
mother board with 2.9GHz Celeron was setup with XP Home (worked fine) then
upgraded to Vista liked the Parental Controls and the fact that the Kid's
accounts did not need to be set as Admin in order to do anything, real pain
when you have to give a five year old admin rights so he can play a game.
Both of these machine are set up as a Work Group. Then I also have a work
Laptop XP pro on a Domian, that I connect to work via VPN using Check Point
Secure Remote.

But I'm 95% sure Fast Switch User was never active after I installed Vista,
(Cean install with new hard drive) Just the Wife and Kids alway screaming
Dad I can't get on the PC again......

Andrew, Again Thank you for taking the time to help sort this out for me.

Ken

 

[Andrew McLaren]

IT'S BACK!!!!!

Outstanding! Thanks for letting us know it's fixed.

Cheers,

 

[Photo guy]

my list has swith user on top, but also has lock as the third on the list.
Funny thing is the lock icon shows the lock locked, but it's not. Is that
because I dont have it set up on a passwrd?
How do I get the lock icon back to unlocked (as I think it was, but not sure).

Hello Andrew,

Thanks for the help I will try explain in detail what happens;

Boot up computer
Login screen shows four users. - one (admin) password - three users no
password.

If I select my account (admin) the screen will change to ask for my
password. At this point I can either enter my password or select the "Switch
User" button. At this point ( not Logged in) if I select the "Switch User"
button then it will tack me back to the main login screen - no problem.

If I login to my account and the screen saver comes on to "LOCK" the PC the
"Switch User" button is gone. the only thing you can do is enter the
password.

Now from my reading up on Vista (I have only used 95 , 98, 2000, XP Home and
Pro this is my only PC with Vista) I should be able to select "Switch User"
from the start Menu. If I go that route Switch User is not there. I have
every thing but. Same goes for the Lock option from the Start Menu, If I
select Lock from here the Login screen will come up with no Switch User
Button, From what I have read up on if you select Lock Computer then you
should have the two options enter password or Switch User.

So my only Guess is Switch User is turned off or Disabled. I would like to
find some way of how to check or enable Fast Switch User in Vista.

Anyone that can let me know how to verify that Fast Switch User is enabled
in Vista it would be a great help.
If I do not get the Switch User button working the Wife and Kids are going
to ............LOL

Thanks

 

[xboeing]

Thank you, Thank you; I did the reg scan for HideFastUserSwitching and it was
set to 1. Just plug in a 0. Didn't even have to reboot. Thanks again.

xboeing