Originally published in 2008
On Windows XP and up, it is possible to hide user accounts from both the Welcome Screen and the User Accounts control panel. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how. I’m sure people have various reasons for wanting to do this, so here we go.
The first thing you want to do is head to the Control Panel and create the user you want to hide, if you haven’t done so already. I’m calling mine Secret Account. It’s important to take not of the exact name of the account, including character case, because we’ll need to use it later.
Notice that the account is shown in the User Accounts control panel. This is normal, of course.
If you log out, you’ll notice that the account is also shown on the Welcome Screen. Once again, standard windows behaviour.
In order to tell Windows to hide the account in both the Control Panel and the Welcome Screen, we need to make an edit to the Windows Registry.
To open the registry editor, select Run from the start menu, type regedit and click OK.
Once the Registry Editor opens, browse to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList
In this key, you need to create a new DWORD value. Give it the exact name of the user account (case sensitive). In my case, I’m calling it Secret Account. The default value for a new DWORD should be 0×00000000 (0), which is the value we want, as it hides the account. If this is not what your DWORD is set to, change it accordingly.
Once you’re done, close the Registry Editor and the effects should be instantaneous. Head back over to the Control Panel and the affected account should not be visable.
Log out to see the Welcome Screen. You’ll notice the account is no longer visible here either.
In order to log on using the hidden account, you’ll need to press Ctr+Alt+Del twice. You will be prompted with the classic NT log on window.
Input your username (case insensitive) and password (case sensitive), and click OK.
You can also use this method to show the Administrator account on XP, which is hidden by default.