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Thread: Hiding accounts from Welcome Screen

  1. #1
    Bronze Member Coffee's Avatar
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    Exclamation Hiding accounts from Welcome Screen

    Nice new icons for TechZonez i see
    Not too sure which Topic to put this under....

    Just been looking for a way to hide accounts from being displayed on XP's welcome screen and have found a way to do it... go to...
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList
    and then enter a DWORD value, with the name as the account name and the value set to 0. This works fine but it does leave me with a security question. As the account is now listed as 'Special' account, would this cause a security risk?

    Coffee.
    Live long and prosper!

  2. #2
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    Well I highly doubt that there would be a security risk since you would have to hold ctrl-alt-del at the welcome screen to get to the normal network login screen.. and then you would need the name to the account as most network admins rename the administrator account.. for security reasons...

  3. #3
    all bets are off... TZ Veteran SupaStar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Coffee
    Nice new icons for TechZonez i see
    Not too sure which Topic to put this under....

    Just been looking for a way to hide accounts from being displayed on XP's welcome screen and have found a way to do it... go to...
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList
    and then enter a DWORD value, with the name as the account name and the value set to 0. This works fine but it does leave me with a security question. As the account is now listed as 'Special' account, would this cause a security risk?

    Coffee.
    I don't see how it will cause a security risk, but I'm not quite sure what you mean? Does anything make the account look different or behave different if you set it's DWORD to 0? Or does the account just disappear?

  4. #4
    Bronze Member Coffee's Avatar
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    Thanks for the reply SupaStar. Once you set the account under SpecialAccounts, it simply dissapears from the welcome screen & from User Accounts in Conrtol pannel. Which I thought was cool , can still edit it else where. I was just slightly concerned being the paranoid person I am, as it was a 'Special' account, if it would be given any elevated/extra priviligaes besides the ones it was set to have.
    Last edited by Coffee; March 26th, 2004 at 00:13 AM.
    Live long and prosper!

  5. #5
    Security Intelligence TZ Veteran cash_site's Avatar
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    I havent heard of this Special Account Group before, there should be some documentation on the ms XP website. You may have to configure some group policies to further restrict access.

    If you reall wanted to remove names from Welcome Screen is to remove the screen and force users to press ctrl+alt+del to enter their names and sign in. That way they still have normal limited accounts, easy to manage.

    --- 0wN3D by 3gG ---

  6. #6
    Bronze Member Coffee's Avatar
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    Thanks cash_site, i will have to do some searching i guess, always a pain trying to find what u want on the MS website. I suppose i could use the ctl-alt-del way but guess i've grown too custom to the welcome screen.
    Live long and prosper!

  7. #7
    all bets are off... TZ Veteran SupaStar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Coffee
    Thanks for the reply SupaStar. Once you set the account under SpecialAccounts, it simply dissapears from the welcome screen & from User Accounts in Conrtol pannel. Which I thought was cool , can still edit it else where. I was just slightly concerned being the paranoid person I am, as it was a 'Special' account, if it would be given any elevated/extra priviligaes besides the ones it was set to have.
    I can't see how this could be a security risk as most users wouldn't know that the account even exists since it isn't displayed on the Welcome screen!

    Nothing to worry about me thinks

  8. #8
    Bronze Member Coffee's Avatar
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    I see your point, if no one knew it was there then no one would be likely to use it. However, there are some pesky kids around that if they knew of the account then they would more than likely try and find a way to exploit it. I guess with all logon and file rights restricted properly this shouldn't be a problem, however it does ease the mind to know that there would be nothing else to have to restrict that might be un-accounted for.
    Live long and prosper!

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