Create a Hidden User Account in Windows XP

When logging into Windows XP, by default the operating system shows you all the available user accounts on the home screen, from where you login to the desired account. However, this is certainly not a best practice to expose all your user accounts.
In this article, i will walk you through step by step instructions to create a hidden user account which doesn’t show up on the home screen. This is particularly useful for accounts which have admin rights. This hack will make use of registry modification in Windows XP and therefore you are advised to first take a backup of your registry and also create a restoration point before moving ahead.
Follow the steps mentioned below to hide one of the already created user accounts. In case if you wish to create a new account, you can go ahead and do that using Control Panel.

1.) Click on Start –> Run. Type regedit at Run.

2.) Navigate upto HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList

3.) Once you are at the desired location, right click within the registry window and click on New to create new DWORD value with the name of the account to be hidden. Set the value to 0 (decimal).

Following the steps above will ensure that the account isn’t displayed when switching users with Fast User Switching. Logging into this particular account will only be possible using the Log On To Windows dialog.
You must also note that though the account won’t be displayed in the list, the account’s profile will appear in the Documents And Settings folder. Also, the account appears in Local Users And Groups when an administrator is logged on.

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