Home | Resource Guides | Tech Tips | Network Administration | Hardware | Certification

Tech Tips › Windows XP › Desktop and GUI

Tech Tips / Windows XP / Desktop and GUI

Default Administrator account and the Windows XP Welcome Screen

The Windows XP Welcome Screen is useful and looks very nice, but it is not perfect. There are several hidden side effects to this feature that you need to be aware of. First among these quirks is that the default Administrator account will not be displayed on the screen if you have defined another user account with admin privileges. Since the account you can create during Windows XP setup adds the user to the Administrators group, the original Administrator account is not visible by default. If you want to log on with the original Administrator account, you have a choice of three options.

The first option is to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete at the Welcome Screen twice. A new dialog box will appear where you'll be able to enter any username and password, including the original Administrator account. The second option is to boot in safe mode, under which the Welcome Screen will display only accounts with Administrator privileges, including the original Administrator account. The third option is to make the Administrator account the only user account with the administrative privileges. This means that you'll have to remove all other users from the Administrators group with the help of the Computer Management console.

Some users might have just the opposite problem: they might want to prevent an account from appearing on the Welcome Screen. This can also be done, but only by editing the registry.

You'll have to add the user account to the list at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\
CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList and assign it the value of 0.