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

Registry Keys Infected:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Stats\{1d4db7d2-6ec9-47a3-bd87-1e41684e07bb} (Adware.MyWebSearch) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.

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.

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.

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"

The command is net user administrator"(one space here)"/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

I have following configuration: I have two accounts - a normal user account with standard privileges and an administrator account with administrator privileges. (I did this for secure - that nobody, who entered my PC, e.g. by a trojan virus directly, get an administrative account)

I had no problems to deactivate the administrator account by using cmd and net user as well as to enter the corresponding entries in the registry. In both cases the administrator user disappears from the logon screen.

But after these actions I have no longer the chance to run applications as administrator. I understand that the deactivation of the account in cmd is a real deactivation and that the administrator is no longer available.
But after hiding the administrator from Windows logon by using the registry, I am a little surprised that the administrator will be also not available, if I try to run an application as admin under my standard account. (If the admin is available, then I can enter the admin password, as soon as I run apps as admin).

(I think that this worked better in previous Windows versions)