Hide an Administrator-type user but still have it usable?

[John Gray]

Problem: on a Windows 7 Pro 64-bit laptop, I want to set up an ordinary/standard user plus an administrative user, but to hide the administrative user from the logon screen. I would like to be able to log on as the administrative user using the double Ctrl+Alt+Del mechanism, or by some other simple method.

I have tried the truly disastrous REGEDIT option to navigate/create
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\Userlist
and set up my administrative user DWRD 0,
only to find myself locked out of any Administrative logon!

(Fix for that:
in the ordinary/standard user logon,
get a Command Prompt window
run RUNAS /user:MyAdministrativeUser "control userpasswords2"
change the ordinary user to be an Administrator;
logoff;
logon as the ordinary user (which now has administrative privileges)
run REGEDIT to change the above registry value for the administrative user to DWRD 1;
logoff;
restart the laptop;
the administrative user is now also presented at logon
logon as the administrative user, and demote the ordinary user back to a standard account;
breath again!)

To get back to the question - does anyone have any satisfactory way in Windows 7 of hiding the administrative user at logon time, but being able to logon as this administrative user by some mechanism?

The only way that I can find which works is to navigate to
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
and set dontdisplaylastusername to 1 from 0

This produces a sort of "domain" logon screen where you have to enter both the username and the password.

[HansV]

It looks like you have found the same threads that I did. I think not displaying the last user name is the only workaround; there is no more elegant solution as far as I know (but do let us know if you find one after all)