login - Undesirable Two Different Logon Photos for Windows 7
2013-11
nrhine1
When I reboot my Windows 7 computer, a differently sized, undesirable user icon is displayed instead of the one I want. When I lock my computer, the correct icon is displayed. I have a customized logon screen, and have cropped part of it and set it to my user icon to give the effect of a clear icon.
This icon is sized differently after ever reboot, and destroys the effect of a clear icon. How can I change this?
EDIT: It looks like the photo is always stretched for both the logon screen and after I hit the "Switch User" button after I lock the computer. The icon is only properly fit after I login and then lock the computer.
harrymc
Please see this : You Can Customize Windows 7 Logon Background Officially.
I would guess that the two screens are not displayed with the same resolution, and that you don't have the corresponding images in the directory %windir%\system32\oobe. You should have an image with a name such as background1600×1200.jpg (meaning resolution of 1600×1200) for every resolution that Win7 might use.
tvanover
So I have a Windows 7 home machine with 2 user accounts. One is a standard user account and one is an administrator account. Now this is going to be put in the hands of a very low-tech user so I don't want them to be able to see the administrator account on logon, but they want to have a password to prevent someone else from using the machine.
My goal is that when the user turns on the computer, they are presented with their login. After logging in to their non-administrator account, if something needs to be installed then the administrator account can be used through UAC.
I have tried creating the reg key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList and adding a dword of the account name and set it to 0. It succeeded in hiding the account from th login screen. As well as hiding it from UAC. So it fails the second requirement, of being able to run things as administrator through UAC.
Also since I didn't set an administrator password (left it blank) it seems that I have completely locked myself out of the machine since runas doesn't accept blank passwords. So I also cannot undo it, and have quite effectively bricked the install, prompting an OS reinstall.
This is Windows 7 Home, so there is no Users management console.
nhinkle
The original question was different, but I have actually provided an answer to this question before. See my post in the question "Always display the last / default user Windows 7 welcome screen" - it explains how to set up UAC and hidden accounts together so you can authenticate to the account via UAC but not log into it from the welcome screen.
Essentially, what you need to do is configure UAC to prompt for the user to enter both their username and password manually, allowing you to enter a username which is hidden from the login screen but still enabled. Instructions on how to do this are on the linked post.
In the meantime, it should still be possible for you to recover the account without doing a full reinstall. Open a command prompt (cmd.exe), and type runas /user:USERNAME regedit.exe, where USERNAME is the name of the administrative account. It will prompt you for that user's password; enter it and hit enter. This will open the registry editor running as that user, from which you can go in and revert the changes you made, adding back the account to the login screen.
Re-read your question and noticed that you said run-as won't work. What happens when you try booting into safe mode? I seem to recall that with Windows 7 Home Premium, the built-in administrator account is disabled by default, but is enabled in safe mode, allowing you to log into it and make changes. Unless you have hidden the built-in account in addition to whatever account you set up, this may work.
Finally, if all else fails, you could try running a system restore from the recovery console. Boot onto your Windows 7 installation disk, and choose to "repair a windows installation" instead of install. You can select your installation, then will eventually get to a screen where you can choose to do a restore. This should change the registry back to how it was before you made the change, if it has an old enough restore point. Your files will not be modified by a system restore, although some system settings might be.
harrymc
(as the question has changed, so must my answer.)
My idea is that one does not need to unhide the administrator account in order to use it. This account can stay hidden from the Welcome screen through the mechanism of Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList.
This is based on the fact that one can always issue in a Command Prompt (or Run box) any command as administrator by using RunAs :
RunAs /user:admin "control userpasswords2"
RunAs /user:admin regedit
You can also in this way import a pre-prepared .reg file that will unhide the administrator account for your own use, then use another .reg file to hide it again when you finish with this computer.
RunAs /user:admin regedit c:\secret\directory\unhide_admin.reg
RunAs /user:admin regedit c:\secret\directory\hide_admin.reg
This way you can automate the hiding and unhiding of the administrator account.
djhowell
The process described in this article discusses XP but will work in Vista and Windows 7.