Windows 7: Remove Administrator icon from logon screen

I started this question at the “Built-in Administrator Account - Enable or Disable” forum where it was suggested I move it here.

I have a Toshiba laptop with Windows 7 32-bit. When I first got this laptop many months ago, I needed to perform some action (I do not remember the details) which required "administrator privilege". I wasn't sure exactly what that meant, so I posed the question at a forum (unfortunately, not this one -- I learned of this forum only later), and was told to put an Administrator icon on the logon screen, which I did. I do not remember exactly how I was told to do that, but I seem to recall that it involved a change to the Registry. The Administrator icon has been on the logon screen ever since, next to an icon labeled with my name.

A friend has suggested that having the Administrator icon on the logon window is not a good idea, so now I am trying to find out how to remove it.

At the “Built-in Administrator Account - Enable or Disable” forum it was suggested that I download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, and run it several times, which I have done. The software found only one bad guy , on the first run, which was
As suggested, here is what I have done:

Following the instructions at

1) Elevated Command Prompt, I opened an elevated command prompt showing c:\windows\system32, and then at

2) Built-in Administrator Account - Enable or Disable (Option Two "Through a Elevated Command Prompt". item 3), I typed into the elevated command prompt, "net user administrator/active:no" and pressed ENTER.

That brought up this response: "The user name could not be found"

The Administrator icon remains on the logon screen.

I am completely stumped, and I ask for your help! Thank you.

Your [Quote]"net user administrator/active:no"[Quote]

The command is net user administrator"(one space here)"/active:no

That did it!

I guess when I wrote "Following the instructions at ...", I should have added "more or less".

Thank you.

You are welcome, we are 24/7 to help.

Hello stefanmaine, I'm very pleased you found a solution, thanks for the update.


Thank you very much Ray, good looking out.

To only remove the icon without disabling the Administrator account, copy and paste the following into notepad:


Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList]
"Administrator"=dword:00000000

Save and name it "anythingyouwant.reg",

Double-click on it, and approve the next two screens, and the account will still be active, but will not show up on the logon screen. You can do the same with any account, just use the exact account name in place of Administrator.

You can then use Ctrl+Alt+Del to log onto the Admin account if you need to.

[QUOTE=theog;874731]Your [Quote]"net user administrator/active:no"this returned

System error 5 has occurred.

Access is denied.

To "MarkMandyDerek" -- The command prompt has to be run with administrator credentials in order for this command prompt string to work. On the taskbar, click "start," "Accessories," and at the Command Prompt icon, right-click and then left-click "Run as Administrator." Your command prompt string then should be accepted.

@Dadwhiskers - Should I be logged into the Administrator account when making that notepad reg file?
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To only remove the icon without disabling the Administrator account, copy and paste the following into notepad:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList]
"Administrator"=dword:00000000