Interactive logon: do not display last username

gotchay · 10 Aug 2011

I am having trouble enabling this feature in Windows 7 Professional 32-bit. This setup is recommended by SquirrelSystems when installing Squirrel Professional 6.0 on a Windows 7 machine.

The instructions from their techweb site follows...

1. Open the Windows Run command
2. Type: secpol.msc
3. Go to Security Setting/local Policies/ Security options.
4. On the right hand side find Interactive logon: do not display last username and change it to ENABLE

The problem occurs after rebooting. I am no longer able to log in to the account in which I performed this step under. If there is a second account available I am able to log in fine but it seems the account in which I performed this step is now locked/corrupted. Changing the password via the Control Panel while logged in through my secondary account does nothing as well. The only solution I have found is reverting my image back to the previous one before the Interactive logon change.

derekimo · 10 Aug 2011

gotchay said:

I am having trouble enabling this feature in Windows 7 Professional 32-bit. This setup is recommended by SquirrelSystems when installing Squirrel Professional 6.0 on a Windows 7 machine.

The instructions from their techweb site follows...

1. Open the Windows Run command
2. Type: secpol.msc
3. Go to Security Setting/local Policies/ Security options.
4. On the right hand side find Interactive logon:do not display last username and change it to ENABLE

The problem occurs after rebooting. I am no longer able to log in to the account in which I performed this step under. If there is a second account available I am able to log in fine but it seems the account in which I performed this step is now locked/corrupted. Changing the password via the Control Panel while logged in through my secondary account does nothing as well. The only solution I have found is reverting my image back to the previous one before the Interactive logon change.

I'm not familiar with that software but your action I high lighted above would do just what you are claiming is the problem by not displaying the last user logged on.

Interactive logon: Do not display last user name: Security Configuration Editor

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that exactly what you just enabled?

gotchay · 10 Aug 2011

The solution to the interactive logon does work but the REAL problem is that I am no longer able to log into the account in which I performed this step under.

I type in the correct username and password for the Windows account but I get a 'Wrong password' error. The only way to access Windows is if I have a secondary account setup and log in through that one. While logged into my secondary account and I try to change the password of my primary one in which I performed the Interactive logon procedure under that still does not work. It seems as if the account in which the procedure is done under is locked or corrupted.

If there is no secondary account I am practically SOL since I can't login at all.

Obviously something is wrong.

derekimo · 10 Aug 2011

The solution to the interactive logon does work but the REAL problem is that I am no longer able to log into the account in which I performed this step under.

I believe that is the intent of enabling that, it does not show the last user.

If there is no secondary account I am practically SOL since I can't login at all.

Exactly. There has to be more than one account or you will effectively lock yourself out.

I type in the correct username and password for the Windows account but I get a 'Wrong password' error.

Which is what I would expect from a function that hides the last user logged on.

Here's some more info,

Log On with User Name and Password

and

Do not display last user name Windows setting (dontdisplaylastusername)

I'm not familiar with this but without at least two accounts, this doesn't sound like something to be used.

**cluberti** · 10 Aug 2011

gotchay said:

I type in the correct username and password for the Windows account but I get a 'Wrong password' error. The only way to access Windows is if I have a secondary account setup and log in through that one. While logged into my secondary account and I try to change the password of my primary one in which I performed the Interactive logon procedure under that still does not work. It seems as if the account in which the procedure is done under is locked or corrupted.

If there is no secondary account I am practically SOL since I can't login at all.

Obviously something is wrong.

That's why Windows OOBE has you create a new user account, and disables the Administrator account. You have an account that is still with administrative privileges, and if something goes poorly and lock yourself out, but you are able to boot in safe mode, you can still use the built-in Admin account that is enabled only in safe mode.

I think you are correct though - if you can't log in as another administrative account and reset a password, that account is probably quite screwed up. Interactive logon settings would not affect things to that level (nor should they affect logon capability at all).

derekimo · 10 Aug 2011

cluberti said:

gotchay said:

I type in the correct username and password for the Windows account but I get a 'Wrong password' error. The only way to access Windows is if I have a secondary account setup and log in through that one. While logged into my secondary account and I try to change the password of my primary one in which I performed the Interactive logon procedure under that still does not work. It seems as if the account in which the procedure is done under is locked or corrupted.

If there is no secondary account I am practically SOL since I can't login at all.

Obviously something is wrong.

That's why Windows OOBE has you create a new user account, and disables the Administrator account. You have an account that is still with administrative privileges, and if something goes poorly and lock yourself out, but you are able to boot in safe mode, you can still use the built-in Admin account that is enabled only in safe mode.

I think you are correct though - if you can't log in as another administrative account and reset a password, that account is probably quite screwed up. Interactive logon settings would not affect things to that level (nor should they affect logon capability at all).

Thanks cluberti, I was mis-understanding that then.

**cluberti** · 10 Aug 2011

No worries mate. My guess is the local account SAM is screwed up, and fixing that without a backup is nigh impossible.

gotchay · 11 Aug 2011

The thing is I am performing all these steps under Administrative (not the main Administrator one) accounts that I setup within User Accounts in the Control Panel. There shouldn't be any reason why I am locked out of an account after performing this procedure. It just doesn't make sense.

I'm going to perform the procedure again and see if I can replicate the issue.

Thanks so far for all the replies.

edit: So I just performed the procedure again under a new Administrator account, we will call this XYZ. Once I rebooted I was no longer able to access ABC (my main account which was setup during the Windows installation) so logged into XYZ and changed the password to ABC. Rebooted and headed into Safe Mode. Now I am still unable to log into ABC with the new password.

Any ideas? I don't think this should be happening.

Abhi1i1 · 13 Apr 2012

Hello gotchay. Did u get any solution to this problem of yours. Please reply as i am experiencing the same problem

gotchay · 13 Apr 2012

Unfortunately no, I haven't found an explanation for this phenomenon. I simply assumed that it was a borked install from the Dell that we had ordered from their site. It seems after reformatting the PC with a fresh copy of Windows solved the trick.

The weird thing is that this occurs on all new Dells we order.