Solved Sign in screen problem.

[James Birke]

This is a screenshot of the sign in screen on my surface. Notice the 2 names in the lower left corner of the screen. No matter what I enter in the password box, the lower one does nothing. When I select the upper one and enter my PIN, I get the welcome screen. I'd like to get rid of the lower one or at least have the sign in screen default to the upper one. There's only one showing in the user account setting and that's for the upper one.

Can someone help me solve this problem?
Jim

 

[sharpuser]

Hi, @James Birke,

It appears your Surface may have been shut down while it was still setting up that 'dead' account, and so a ghost remains. Short of re-loading Windows 10, you can deliberately remove the account from showing on the login screen.

Try this:

1 Search then run the Registry Editor regedit
2 Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
3 Right-click on the Winlogon key and choose New ... Key
4 Give the new key the name SpecialAccounts
5 Right-click on your SpecialAccounts key and choose New … Key
6 Give this new key the name UserList
7 Right-click on your UserList key and choose New … DWORD (32-bit) Value
8 Give this new DWORD the name UserName (Type the name of the user to not show on the screen)
9 Double-click this new UserName DWORD and give it the value 0 (zero)
10 Exit and Sign Out.

To undo the above, remove the SpecialAccounts key.

I hope this helps.

 

[James Birke]

Thank you for something to try. In sentence eight it says to give the new DWORD the name of the user you do not want to show on the screen. Both usernames shown on the screen are exactly the same. How do I differentiate one from another?

Jim

 

[sharpuser]

No problem that the username is the same. Use that name. I think it will solve your issue. Your sign-in screen will automaticallyl prompt for the password for the proper account.

 

[James Birke]

No problem that the username is the same. Use that name. I think it will solve your issue. Your sign-in screen will automaticallyl prompt for the password for the proper account.

Thanks again for the quick reply. As soon as I can get some time, I'll try this suggestion. (Early next week, I hope.)

Jim

 

[sharpuser]

Let us know, Jim.

 

[James Birke]

Let us know, Jim.

Let us know, Jim.

I know it's been quite a while but, I just got around to trying the instructions about how to set up a special account you sent earlier. I just wanted to let you know they worked perfectly

 

[James Birke]

I know it's been quite a while but, I just got around to trying the instructions about how to set up a special account you sent earlier. I just wanted to let you know they worked perfectly

An issue has materialized. Windows installed some updates and after that the ghost account came back. If I open task manager and sign out, the sign in screen repairs without the ghost account. If I shut down and restart the computer the ghost account reappears. Do you have any ideas what might be going on here? I wonder if I should delete the special accounts key and set it up again.

Jim

 

[sharpuser]

Hmmm. First, make sure the key is still intact with the Registry Editor. If it looks okay, I don't see how deleting it and re-creating same will help, but you can try.

 

[James Birke]

I looked at it in regedit and it was still there. I'll try a rewrite and see what happens. Stupid question time... Is there a way to " reboot" the registry or does that just happen automatically when you start the surface?

 

[sharpuser]

The registry is just a list of settings, licenses, etc., which is a reference for software.

I suggest a “Reset” from Settings, Update & Security, Recovery with option “Keep my files”. This will allow Windows 10 to repair registry problems.

Desktop software would have to be re-installed afterwards, but your files will be intact.