How do I Switch users on Windows 7?

[gregrocker]

You can always consider getting a perfect Clean Reinstall (same for retail) which will shed all these issues and give you a fresh start with the best install of Win7 one can have.

Then after its all set up and running best, capture a Win7 backup image so you never have to reinstall again, and can fall back to it if any intractable issues come up again.

 

[Brink]

Well, usually the "Users" tab is missing in Task Manager when you either have Fast User Switching disabled or your computer is a member of a network domain.

You could open your System (Control Panel (icons view) -> System icon) window. If your computer is connected to a domain, under Computer name, domain, and workgroup settings, you will see the name of the domain your computer belongs to. If your computer is connected to a workgroup instead, you will see the name of the workgroup your computer belongs to.

I'm leaning towards what Greg suggested for doing a clean install to start fresh.

 

[DeanReid]

That's what shows up for me when I go to System Properties

Would a System Restore Maybe help??

 

[Brink]

At least we ruled out that you are not part of a domain.

It wouldn't hurt to try doing a system restore using a restore point dated before you believe you had these issues to hopefully sort it without reinstalling Windows. Be warned though that anything installed after the date of the restore point will be removed. Only files in your user folders will not be affected.

 

[DeanReid]

I'll give it a try and post my findings.

 

[andrew129260]

Group policy was already covered, so I will not get into that.

1.) You mentioned the registry in your post. Did you try something like this?

-Click the Start button, then type regedit in the Search box. Click Regedit.exe from the programs list.
-Browse to the following registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
-Click to select System
-Double-click the key HideFastUserSwitching and change the value from "1" to "0"

2.) And you made sure when you went into services that you set the start up mode for secondary logon to manual?

3.) What do you see when you go into control panel-user accounts and family safety-user accounts-manage another account
?

4.) If you tried turning on the guest account, could you then try to see if you can switch users to that account?

Please answer all 4 questions.

 

[DeanReid]

Unfortunatly for me System Restore didn't go back long enough that it would fix it and I had to reinstall Windows which obviously worked I'm going to need more hard drives and backup all my stuff more xD

Thanks for trying to help guys

 

[gregrocker]

You can apportion more space for System Restore points so there are more and they last longer if needed in the future. Having this happen once is a good occasion to do this. Here's how: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/335-system-protection-change-disk-space-usage.html

There are backup methods in http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html#post1839164 including how to save a Win7 image so you can restore it in minutes instead of having to reinstall again.