Not able to 'switch user' in my Win 7

[hpb]

Hi, I recently installed Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit on my system. Everything runs great except one thing. I'm not able to switch users like I used to on my Vista system. The 'switch user' is greyed out. I have 3 user accounts on my system. On my earlier Vista system, if i were to put the system in standby mode and then re-open it again, it would show me a password field (since that account was password protected) and a 'Switch User' button below the password field. However no such thing shows in Win 7. Both the vista and win 7 were home premium editions. Any clue on how to enable this here? Any help would be much appreciated!!

 

[richc46]

The accounts are probably corrupt and you may lose them. Go to control panel, users accounts and set up new account. If you can do this transfer everything from the corrupt account and then delete it. Make sure your new account is administrator.

 

[hpb]

OK tried that. Still no "switch user"

 

[richc46]

Go to power options. Change pasword requirements. Require password on wake up. Keep me informed.

 

[hpb]

It was already enabled! Still nothing

 

[wysiwyg]

Which are you trying to switch to, Admin Account is not accessable in 7 Premium.

 

[hpb]

Just trying to switch to another user account (my moms) which is an administrator privilege account just like mine!

 

[rshedrick]

Same thing here

Having same problem with switch user greyed out. Try to go to the registry and disable fast user switching and then re-enabled with same problem.

 

[richc46]

Ok you are in your account, after sleep or whatever. If you click on the start icon, then you click on the little arrow right side, bottom, after the shutdown button, don't you see switch user?

 

[rshedrick]

Greyed Out

No I see it but it is greyed out. I am chatting with Microsoft right now will post if they find a solution 30 minutes now and now resolution. Ill keep my fingers crossed.

 

[richc46]

That account can be corrupt, try it from the other accounts. If it works then, create a new acccount, transfer your documents etc, and then delete it.

 

[rshedrick]

Resolved for me.

Got it. What fixed mine was to go to regedit hkey local machine, software, microsoft, windows, current version, policies, system and change the HideFastUserSwitching to 0 to show. If it is set to 1 it doesnt show up. Hopefully this helps someone. I am extremly happy to have this simple but very usefull tool back.

 

[rshedrick]

Resolved for me.

Got it. What fixed mine was to go to regedit hkey local machine, software, microsoft, windows, current version, policies, system and change the HideFastUserSwitching to 0 to show. If it is set to 1 it doesnt show up. Hopefully this helps someone. I am extremly happy to have this simple but very usefull tool back.

 

[richc46]

Glad that using your computer is enjoyable again. Take care.

 

[QuranCom]

I actually joined Windows 7 Forums hoping to find an answer to this problem, so I am really glad someone found a solution, and appreciative that they posted it, too!

But when I look at the solution...

What fixed mine was to go to regedit hkey local machine, software, microsoft, windows, current version, policies, system and change the HideFastUserSwitching to 0 to show.

I worry I lack the expertise to implement it. Actually, I am enough of a non-expert that I do not know where to start. Any advice, please? Or a less-expert solution?

Background: I am having the same problem but on a Win 7 laptop, a laptop that came with Win 7 pre-installed. Everything about Win 7 seems to work great, but when we added a second user to the laptop, it refuses to let us switch users without logging out. Both accounts are admin. Both have the same greyed-out option to switch that has been mentioned in previous posts.

Thanks!

 

[rshedrick]

Edit the registry

QuranCom,
It is not as bad as people think. If you just go to start run and type in "regedit" it will bring you into the registry. I don't suggest make any changes in their if you dont feel comfortable but this one should be fine as long as you follow these directions. When you first get in to the registry you will have hkey_classes_root hkey_current_user etc. The one you are looking for is hkey_local_machine. You would then just hit the plus symbol next to that. Then look for software plus that out by double clicking or clicking on the aroow. Then continue to do the same process for the following: Microsoft, Windows, Current Version, Policies, and then "click" on System. Once you click on system look on the right hand side where it has Name, Type, and data. Look for HideFastUserSwitching under the name. Double click on that and change the value data to 0 to show. It is a propably a 1 now. Once that is done close the registry editor, and go ahead and reboot the machine. You should now see the differant users that you have setup. Obviously if you only have one account you will only see one user. Hopefully this was easy enough to follow. Happy Computing. Robert

 

[QuranCom]

Thanks!!

Thank you very much for that reply. I admit I was squeamish enough that I put off following the steps till today. Today I had no choice, and, alhamdolillah, the advice worked perfectly!

 

[richc46]

Glad that it worked out.

 

[sixtrophies]

I had same issue

I was able to do this via editing the registry (regedit in command line)
Navigate to....
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT/WINDOWS/CURRENTVERSION/Policies/System
then modify "HideFastUserSwitching" value from 1 to 0

Reboot the computer and you should be fine.

 

[rshedrick]

Change Reverted

I dont know if an update or something changed mine back to 1 in hidefastuserswitching so I had to go back in and change it back to 0 weird.