Hello everyone, Symptoms first.... I am running Windows 7 on a Dell Laptop (XPS M1730). When I installed Win7 several months ago, I created two Accounts: Mgr and Usr which were both displayed on the Win7 welcome screen. Now I am seeing only Usr which has limited privileges. I am not sure how I can enable the ability to login as Mgr or even administrator. In addition, when I login using the Usr account I am not able to do anything related to account access because ‘Yes’ is disabled when I am prompted to supply a password on the UAC dialog. I can see the files and folders of Mgr under Users but of course denied access to any. Cause I ran "Control userpasswords2" from a command prompt in Win7. I remember using it in XP to enable the traditional login screen so that a user has to press ctrl-alt-del to login so I thought I’d see if it still works in Win7. Right now I am using a WinXP OS so I will have to defer to memory to describe the rest of my actions. I do not have access to the same screen (in Win7) and I cannot be certain that the layout is the same as what I can view in XP. Once the dialog opened, I noticed the option to force users to use a username and password but I did not enable it. Instead I moved to the advanced tab. The only thing changed on this screen was that I supplied my Full Name and Description. If I remember correctly, this might have been under "Manage Users"? At that point, I was prompted to logout so that the changes could take effect – I did. When the welcome screen was shown, Mgr was no longer available. Help! Question Is there any way to recover the Mgr account? Thank-you in advance!

Try restarting the computer in Safe Mode (start tapping F8 when you switch on) and log on with the default built-in Administrator account (which usually has no password). You should now be able to change your account.

Yes, if you can, do what Burr says and log in as an administrator. But if your logged in with limited privileges you can't access Admin features to enable the Built-in account on Windows 7. It is disabled by default. Log in as "usr" and go to Control Panel -> User Accounts and select 'manage another account'. See if 'mgr' is listed and enable it. If not than, it may have been deleted, or disabled. Just because the Users' files are in the users' folder, doesn't mean there is still an account on the computer. If you are running 7 Pro, or above, you can try running "mmc" from the Start menu search box. And then go to the File menu, select 'Add/Remove snap-in". In the left-pane select "Local Users and Groups", and add it. Make sure you select "Local Computer", which is the default anyway. Hit ok. From there you can browse all the computer's installed Users. If the 'mgr' account is listed, right-click and select properties. Change what you need to. It could be just disabled. You can also enable the built-in Admin account as well. If you have Home edition you won't be able to manage Users and Groups this way. Your only option is to manage your accounts through Control Panel -> User Accounts. Just some advice. UAC is your friend! It's there for a good reason. I do not recommend disabling it ever! Or for that matter, disabling the way UAC utilizes the elevated desktop. Please, post back a status on the situation when you can.

Also, to change the way you log in with Windows 7. Like using Ctrl+Alt+Del. That command will not work. You have open up the Local Security Policy. If you have Pro, or above. The LSP is ran through, Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Local Security Policy, or run secpol.msc in the Start Menu search box. Once in there expand Local Policies -> Security Options -> then in the right-pane click on "Interactive Logon: Do Not Require Ctrl+Alt+Del", and choose the option "Disable". That is the proper way to enable that feature.

Thanks BurrWalnut! I used your suggestion and was then able to login as administrator. However, the solution I came up with to restore the Mgr account icon to the welcome screen seems like a workaround. I believe it may have been corrupted somehow after making the seemingly insignificant change involving Full Name and Description, using “Control userpasswords2”. I would like to submit this as a bug :) By the way, the OS is Win7 Ultimate. My accounts were setup with Mgr as a member of HomeUsers and Usr as a member of Users and HomeUsers. Once I logged in as administrator, I went to Control Panel | User Accounts | Manage Accounts. I could not see the Mgr account listed. It did not appear to exist. From Computer | Manage | Local Users And Groups, I was able to see Mgr listed as a user. The account was listed as being a member of HomeUsers. It was not disabled. I added the account to the Administrators group and logged out. Doing so resulted in Mgr being displayed on the welcome screen. I then logged in as Mgr and it became visible under Control Panel | User Accounts | Manage Accounts. I tried removing the Mgr account from the Administrators group once again (since I would rather not have these privs) and logged out. This resulted in the Mgr account no longer being visible on the welcome screen. I rebooted in Safe Mode again and re-added Mgr to the Administrators group – now I can login as Mgr. Any thoughts?

Couldn't go to Control Panel -> User Accounts and select 'manage another account'" under the Usr account. Doing so resulted in a UAC dialog where I was not able to enter a password.

Hey Todd. Well, you seem to have restored the 'mgr' account successfully. Now you say that you don't want that account to have admin privileges? If so, then just move that account to the homeusers group. But you say that when mgr's a member of that group, it's not at the welcome screen. Well, that's because the HomeUsers group is not activated by default. It's a "security" group for managing permissions and such. Just log in with the built-in admin account. Than go to the Local Users and Groups snap-in. Find 'mgr', and right-click, select Properties -> Click on the "Member Of" tab. Now click the "Add" button. Type "Users" in the name field, and verify it exists by clicking the 'check names' button. Now, 'mgr' will be a part of the local computers' 'Standard Users' group, i.e. "Users" group. This account will now have just basic privileges, and should be an option from the Welcome Screen.

I am actually have this exact issues, EXCEPT i have GRUB loaded (Ubuntu 10.10 - not working) so i am currently unable to get into Safe mode. Any ideas ?