Changing the automatic xp professional username

[SM-Count]

When you log in to the xp professional pc it automatically saves the user name. So when I log into administrator the next time someone comes to the password screen then they'll know someone was there before them. Anyway to change that?

I've checked tech forums and also posted this topic there, but hey, I may as well expend all my resources.

[iGod]

control panel -> user accounts -> change the way users log on and off -> turn off "Use the Welcome screen"

is that what you meant?

[PR0METHEUS]

To disable displaying the Last Logon ID in Windows from the Local Security Policy:

1. Click Start - Control Panel - Administrative Tools.
2. Open the Local Security Policy object.
3. Expand Local Policies - Security in the left pane.
4. Double-click the “Interactive Logon: Do not display last user name”
5. Select Enabled, Click Apply & OK
6. Close the Local Security Policy Editor

Taken from http://www.windowsreference.com/windows ... 000xp2003/

[SM-Count]

I meant the second thing, but is there a way to change the username to anything I desire?

[pr0klobster]

What? Prometheus' solution will not even display one...it'll blank it out.

If you mean can you rename accounts, yes, if:

1. You have local admin rights on the PC
2. There's no policy restricting account changes (group policy overrides admin)

Sure, you can rename the administrator account to anything you want, and it is actually suggested as a good security policy. On some of my servers I used a dog's name plus someone's birthday as the admin account name.

[SM-Count]

I mean if there are two users, x and y, and my log in name is y. After I log in and log out, the screen with automatically display y in the user name spot. How can I change it so it displays x, so they never know I touched their computer?

[pr0klobster]

You can't, unless you log in as X.

Also, since you're saying there is a Ctrl-Alt-Del screen, there's also a few minute timeout (varies by policy, etc) so you can type in X, then walk away for a bit. At some point it goes back to the Ctrl-Alt-Del screen though, and then the username will revert.

[PR0METHEUS]

I mean if there are two users, x and y, and my log in name is y. After I log in and log out, the screen with automatically display y in the user name spot. How can I change it so it displays x, so they never know I touched their computer?

One thing you could do is enable the welcome screen, and have it hide your username, so the "regular" user of the system doesn't even know your account exists.

Check out this page: http://www.petri.co.il/hide_a_user_from_the_welcome_screen_in_windows_xp.htm

It involves modifying the registry, so make sure you're comfortable with that.

Basically, you create a new entry for each user you want to hide from the Welcome Screen. So you might have the users Administrator, PR0METHEUS, guest, user, pr0klobster, and cin, but only want to show user and guest on the welcome screen.

So you'd create an entry for each of Administrator, PR0METHEUS, pr0klobster, cin in the registry and set them all to zero (0) Then the welcome screen would just show the guest and user accounts.

The user of the system wouldn't know who logged in last and wouldn't know there are some SRF users on their box

[SM-Count]

Right, thanks guys. I think I'll just get his password for his account and log in there, it's probably the easiest option.

[PR0METHEUS]

Right, thanks guys. I think I'll just get his password for his account and log in there, it's probably the easiest option.

shame on you trying to hide the fact that you were on his computer.

[Verfo]

delete y and put x?

[PR0METHEUS]

delete y and put x?

No, if you put x in place of y, it will revert to x when the CTRL+ALT+DELETE screen comes back up and the user presses that to log in.

Also, since you're saying there is a Ctrl-Alt-Del screen, there's also a few minute timeout (varies by policy, etc) so you can type in X, then walk away for a bit. At some point it goes back to the Ctrl-Alt-Del screen though, and then the username will revert.

@SM-Count - It's probably best to set the policy to not show the previous logged in user as suggested in one of the posts above. The user won't see his own name, but won't see whoever else was logged in either.

[SM-Count]

I was considering that, but that big a change and he will know I've used his computer. He doesn't want anyone touching his baby, it plays krysis flawlessly...

[PR0METHEUS]

I was considering that, but that big a change and he will know I've used his computer. He doesn't want anyone touching his baby, it plays krysis flawlessly...

Maybe you could blame it on an update from Microsoft or something? A security update that took out the last logged in user's name. *shrugs*