"other user" in windows 7

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-security/how-to-make-windows-7-show-user-list-on-login/63cea659-f6a0-412d-a0b1-952a26c1df44?tm=1330607446607&auth=1

First of all I would like to ask for people’s forgiveness. English is not my first language. I have been a Microsoft products user since the beginning of MS DOS. I cannot remember the number of systems I have installed. I have been beta tester for numerous Microsoft products.

I can say with the baggage of experience I have gathered over the years that Win7 is by far one of the best OS ever made by Microsoft even if sometime I wonder if it was more of a “fatware” than XP.

Since I have installed Win7 Ultimate on a multi boot computer (2000, XP, Vista and 7) the only additional software I have bought was KIS 2010. Win7 has been running without a single glitch. From time to time after an update the parental control user list disappears leaving me with only one alternative to backup and delete all accounts. This was not an issue until one day all the user accounts decided to vanish.

This is a disaster for me. I have created primary user accounts which I renamed later making it difficult for any unwelcomed guest to hack my system. How am I going to teach my children between 3 and 8 to change manually the user account and tip the primary login name and password?

Microsoft must go back to their drawing board. This is a too big to be ignored. So far I have tried every imaginable solution. Reformatting Win7 partition and making a fresh install is a non starter because I believe it is a bug and doing so will not protect you against future disaster. Microsoft home users has been waiting for a long time to use XP replacement ignoring deliberately Vista which I consider one of Microsoft most awful product (very user unfriendly).

Since I cannot find a solution I have decided to go back to XP to delight of my children. I have moved toward Win7 for it stability. I have praised it since the beginning but now I find my self lucky for not ditching XP. I hope Microsoft will listen to my plea. If not someone come up with a solution

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I had the same issue and was all over the forums trying to find an answer.  I managed to fix it by deleting a key from the registry. Click the Start menu and type regedt32.  Navigate to the following key.

 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

In the profile list, there was one named .DEFAULT with no data within it.  I deleted this key rebooted and all of my user icons were back on the logon screen.  Of course, you should have a backup of the registry key before deleting. 

cebaehren NOTE:

User as administrator must have State REG_DWORD        hexadecimal 0  (not 256)

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Found a solution which worked for me. Only time will tell if the fix is permanent.
I opened the registry by going to “Start” and typing “regedit” in the search box. When “regedit” was found, I double click on it. You need to find “ProfileList” the location is as follow:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList].
When found right click on it and export that section of the registry as a backup.
Compte the number of “dword” strings and compare it with the number of accounts created including the administrator. Delete every string which is not related to an account. You will find the user account name under “ProfileImagePath” (IE: C:\Users\Xxxx).
Remember do not delete a string associated to an existing account and do not forget to make a partial backup of the “ProfileList”.
Close the registry editor and log off. You should see all user accounts will reappear magically.

you can put back the strings you have removed one by one and perform a re-start to verify if the welcome screen is still working. If not just remove that section. I have manage to isolate what was making it to switch in to a single logging. the string is as follow:

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Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\S-1-5-21-1919079831-909762712-388609869-1007]
"Flags"=dword:00000000
"State"=dword:00000000
"Sid"=hex:01,05,00,00,00,00,00,05,15,00,00,00,97,d5,62,72,98,e0,39,36,4d,b7,29,\
  17,ee,03,00,00
"ProfileLoadTimeLow"=dword:00000000
"ProfileLoadTimeHigh"=dword:00000000
"RefCount"=dword:00000001
"RunLogonScriptSync"=dword:00000000

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If it does not work, right click on the partial backup registry file and select merge. This will restore any modification made on the registry.
Et voila.

Now the family can enjoy again the familiar login screen they are use to.

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Welcome to Microsoft Windows 7 Forums.

1.    First let’s login with the current user account.

2.    Click Start and type run in the search and hit Enter.

3.    Let’s type “control userpasswords2” in the run window and hit Enter

4.    Let’s check whether the check box which says Users must enter a user name and password to use is checked. If the check box is checked then let’s uncheck the check box, click on apply and ok tab and hit enter.

5.    Restart the system.

6.    You will be able to see different users in the logon screen.

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The only way to go back to the full list is to click "Switch user".
Well that's the point: when you click SWITCH USER, it does not show the full list: it shows only "other users" instead (without picture), and I have to manually type the username to log in into another user.
same thing when I first boot...
and same thing when I log off (instead of just locking the current session)
The behavior you gave is what we want, and in my case I had it like 1 week ago, but I can't figure out what happened since..

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itprosecurity/thread/25e44bf5-5f64-4b23-9d29-ee21b323c6e5/

I had this exact same problem. The login has only one choice - Other User - and you can't get in at all, Period. Safe mode goes the same way - Other User only - and nothing works. Very frustrating just trying to do problem determination on the error.

I repaired Vista - twice (hardheaded) and still had the same issue. I deleted the active Windows partition, but left the recovery partition (which was inoperative and useless) and STILL had the problem when it reinstalled from scratch. I then deleted BOTH partitions, created only one partition, reinstalled, and now it works.

I believe it is a worm in the boot record. Just a guess. I BELIEVE, if I would have run a fixmbr and a fixboot, it would have resolved the problem. But I didn't know how to do that at the time - and hindsight is always 20-20. It's definitely worth the effort.

Vista uses the bootrec command to do a fixboot and fixmbr. To run the Bootrec.exe tool, you must start Windows Recovery Environment. To do this, follow these steps:

1, Put the Windows Vista installation disc in the disc drive, and then start the computer.

2. Press a key when you are prompted.

3. Select a language, a time, a currency, a keyboard or an input method, and then click Next.

4. Click Repair your computer.

5. Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.

6. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt.

7. Type Bootrec.exe, and then press ENTER.

The commands are bootrec /fixboot  and bootrec /fixmbr

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A quick summarization of the suggestions given in the thread:

Umesh P:

"Step 1: Start the computer using Last Known Good Configuration and check if you are able to boot to desktop successfully.
Refer: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Using-Last-Known-Good-Configuration

Step 2: Try performing system restore from System Recovery Options menu.
Refer:  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/What-are-the-system-recovery-options-in-Windows-Vista"

DaManIzHere:

"Found a way to run SFC /Scannow

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/winserversetup/thread/00580ff7-4412-459b-b176-c8a002ebd740

You need either ActiveBoot Disk (purchase) or WinPe Disk (free you create)"

GarySparks:

"Vista uses the bootrec command to do a fixboot and fixmbr. To run the Bootrec.exe tool, you must start Windows Recovery Environment. To do this, follow these steps:

1, Put the Windows Vista installation disc in the disc drive, and then start the computer.

2. Press a key when you are prompted.

3. Select a language, a time, a currency, a keyboard or an input method, and then click Next.

4. Click Repair your computer.

5. Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.

6. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt.

7. Type Bootrec.exe, and then press ENTER.

The commands are bootrec /fixboot  and bootrec /fixmbr"

smiileysa:

"Maybe as a hint:  there are such things as offline registry editors, ever heard of one.  So........post a usable WinLogon profile that can be used to replace the corrupted profile with the offline registry editor so they can at least log back into Windows and then create a new profile and password."