If you use online banking, you may have noticed when you get your password wrong that the error in response is pretty generic i.e. “Wrong user name or password.” These error messages are pretty unhelpful; however, this is by design. If someone tries to compromise your account, do you really want them knowing they got the user name right and now just need to tackle the password? Probably not. The harder we make it to get in to our accounts, the less chance we have of opportunists getting to places we don’t want them to be. With that said, this guide will show you how to disable user name display on the Windows logon screen, for additional security.
Note: You’ll need to set passwords for your accounts before hiding usernames. So set Windows account passwords on your PC, follow this guide: Set or change your Windows password.
Pictured above is similar to how your logon screen looks now. To hide user names, you’ll either need to use Group Policy or the Registry Editor. Group Policy is available only with Windows Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions. If you are using a Starter, Home, or Home Premium edition, please follow the Registry Editor method.
Disable User Name Display Using Windows Registry Editor
Note: If you are unfamiliar with making changes to the Windows Registry, please read this guide.
- Click Start, type regedit, and press Enter to pen the Windows Registry Editor
- Navigate to key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
- Modify (or add) DWORD DontDisplayLastUserName and set the value to 1
- Log off to see changes
Disable User Name Display Using Group Policy
Note: If you are unfamiliar with making changes via Group Policy, please read this guide.
- Click Start, type local, and click Local Security Policy
- In the left-hand pane, click on Local Policies > Security Options
- In the right-hand pane, double-click Interactive Logon: Do Not Display Last User Name (or right click and select Properties)
- Select Enabled and click OK
- Log off to see changes
About Rich
Rich is the owner and creator of Windows Guides; he spends his time breaking things on his PC so he can write how-to guides to fix them.
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nice tut :)
this is sort of pointless unless your entire hard drive is encrypted…
even if your username was hidden and you had the longest possible password, all it takes is a linux cd to break into your computer…
True you could break in any computer with Linux CD, but for walk by co-worker would be stopped. When I work on computers and they forgot the password this disc is lifesaver for them. Just like any lock is there to keep honest person honest no to stop a criminal.