14
2009
Hiding a User account in Windows XP
An article by 
If you want to hide a particular user account on the welcome screen in Windows XP.
Open Registry Editor
Navigate to the following key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList
Create a new DWORD by Right Clicking in the Right Window pane and Edit-New-DWORD value
Enter the name of the particular user account you want to hide.In the screenshot it is home.
Leave the default value as 0.This will suppress the announcement of this account after the next system start in the welcome screen.
In case you want to want to make the account visible again later,change this DWORD value to 1 or delete the DWORD.
Close Registry Editor File-Exit
Registry Editor
In this manner ,you can also make the normally hidden administrator’s account visible .Under the same key String mentioned above, create the DWORD value ‘Administrator’ and set its value as 1.
If the DWORD value Administrator is already present,then just set its value to 1.
To login the Hidden User Account from the Welcome Screen
Press CTRL + ALT + DEL twice or hold it for about 3 secs.
You can now login into your hidden user account using the Classic Login Screen.Enter the username of the Hidden User account and its password.
Note:Fast User Switching does not work with Hidden Accounts.
You have to completely log out before using other user accounts.
Before Hiding User
After Hiding Home User Account
Note:
In windows vista,user accounts can be hidden by following the above procedure,but you cannot log into those hidden accounts.
Pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL twice at welcome screen does not bring up the Classic Login screen.
About the Author: Bharat Balegere
Bharat Balegere is a 27 year old blogger from Bengaluru. He is a technology enthusiast and loves tinkering with computers and usb drives.