windows 7 - Can I remove my username from logon screen after logout?

17
2013-11
  • Rob Gilliam

    I've been using a "pool" Windows 7 (Enterprise edition) computer and now need to hand it back to our systems team so it can be used by someone else at some point in the future.

    However, the next person to hit the logon screen is going to be offered the default option of logging on as me and, if they're used to logging into their own system with their own credentials as default, could end up locking my account due to incorrect password attempts (this has happened to a colleague before).

    So, is there a way of making it "forget" I was the last user so that the default at the logon screen for the next user is to enter a completely new user ID and password, as if no-one had ever logged on or the local policy was set never to remember the last user?

    Note: I don't want to permanently change the local security policy for the computer as a whole (I don't have the authority to do this anyway) so please don't direct me to http://superuser.com/a/576214/2447 or a similar answer!

    • Answers
  • Hennes

    As someone who works in IT I would consider this a very good question from a user to ask me. Preferably even so I could add it to the default configuration of all pool laptops.

    (An alternative would be to completely wipe a laptop before returning it to the pool, which is what I did).

    If your admin is up to speed and company policy allows this then it this change can be made in mere minutes. If (s)he has not done this before you can show the following screenshots: (Do not try this yourself. For one you already stated that you do not have the admin rights. But it is also very bad not to try to change these things yourself. Instead I repeat myself and say "ask IT, explain why it is a good idea". The pictures on how to do it are just in case you need to help your ITer along).

    Start, control panel, administrative tools, local security policy:

    enter image description here

    In the local security policy options:

    • Select tab "security options"
    • on the right hand part select "Interactive login: Do not display last user name" and enable it.

    enter image description here

    Note that the example is for someone doing this locally. There are multiple ways to set if the laptop is part of a domain.


    • Related Question

    login - Remove OS Name from Windows 7 Logon Screen
  • Adam Haile

    I just installed Windows 7 RTM on one of my systems and was playing around with customizing the Logon screen background. I thought that the OS name at the bottom was part of the actual graphic, but it showed up on the new graphic I created.

    Is there any way to remove this logo from the login? I'm hoping it's just a registry tweak. Likely if anyone knows the solution for Vista it will be the same, so please speak up.


    • Related Answers
  • Ivo Flipse

    Here are some steps to remove it:

    * Download [Logon Screen][2]
* Download & install [LogonVista][3]
* Load the logon which is in the rar file
* Take ownership for basebrd.dll from c:\windows\branding\basebrd\basebrd.dll
* Replace with the given dll
* Logout and see the changes

    Note: I think that LogonVista references to LogonStudio...

  • John T

    Apparently the Vista version of LogonStudio from Stardock also works on Windows 7.