How can I delete an account that I can't see?

[Guest]

On our XPHome laptop, there is an account which is not listed in the control
panel users accounts, but still has a profile associated with it.

It does not show up in TweakUI either.
Only comes up with (ctr alt del)x2.

Want to delete it (the account, not the profile), and replace it with a
visible one but don't know where to find it.

In Home there is no Advanced User Management console in which to look for
more information about this invisible user. Is there another way to show
this information?

Presumably the invisible user account is a registry key somewhere that needs
to be deleted.
Where are the user id's held and how do I identify which to delete?

Really is taxing the brain, this one!

Cheers,

S

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

On our XPHome laptop, there is an account which is not listed in the
control panel users accounts, but still has a profile associated with it.

It does not show up in TweakUI either.
Only comes up with (ctr alt del)x2.

Want to delete it (the account, not the profile), and replace it with a
visible one but don't know where to find it.

In Home there is no Advanced User Management console in which to look for
more information about this invisible user. Is there another way to show
this information?

Presumably the invisible user account is a registry key somewhere that
needs to be deleted.
Where are the user id's held and how do I identify which to delete?

Really is taxing the brain, this one!

Cheers,

S

You can delete any account like so:
- Reboot into Safe Mode.
- Log on as Administrator.
- Click Start / Run / cmd{OK}
- Type these commands:
net user {Enter} (To see a list of all users)
net user "SomeAccountName" /delete{Enter}
Since you do not wish to delete the user's profile folder, you may need to
relink it to the new account you wish to create. Note that it would be
simpler to make the problem account visible instead of deleting it.

 

[Guest]

You can delete any account like so:
- Reboot into Safe Mode.
- Log on as Administrator.
- Click Start / Run / cmd{OK}
- Type these commands:
net user {Enter} (To see a list of all users)
net user "SomeAccountName" /delete{Enter}
Since you do not wish to delete the user's profile folder, you may need to
relink it to the new account you wish to create. Note that it would be
simpler to make the problem account visible instead of deleting it.

Thank you Pegasus, you are a star!
I'm amazed at how much time I've spent hunting for this information!
Oh for a local users and groups in XPHome!

Many thanks,

S

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Thank you Pegasus, you are a star!
I'm amazed at how much time I've spent hunting for this information!
Oh for a local users and groups in XPHome!

Many thanks,

S

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Twayne]

You can delete any account like so:
- Reboot into Safe Mode.
- Log on as Administrator.
- Click Start / Run / cmd{OK}
- Type these commands:
net user {Enter} (To see a list of all users)
net user "SomeAccountName" /delete{Enter}
Since you do not wish to delete the user's profile folder, you may
need to relink it to the new account you wish to create. Note that it
would be simpler to make the problem account visible instead of
deleting it.

Well; you can not delete the default admin account, right?

Twayne

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Well; you can not delete the default admin account, right?

Twayne

Correct.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the feedback.

Actually, I was so pleased with your revelation, that I didn't really take
in your last note:

"Note that it would be simpler to make the problem account visible instead
of deleting it."

What you advised was actually very very simple, as I already have a cmd
prompt on my desktop, and it worked without needing to go into safe mode.

How could I have rendered the account visible - I normally do this with
TweakUI, but this account wasn't showing up anywhere but on the net user
cmd, so there was nowhere else I could get at it to change it? Net user
does list various parameters for each account, but not visibility.

On the laptop there is a further account profile listed in MyComp
props/advanced called 'Account Unknown'. But no 'account unknown' in the
Docs and Sets profiles. In the docs and sets list though, there is a
profile called 'Owner' which does not seem to have an account. In the
Registry I can't see any list of user names to match the ones in net user,
one can track the numbered profiles and see that they point at a particular
folder, but not see which user account name they refer to. Should I just
delete the 'Account unknown' and see if the 'Owner' folders disappear?

All rather curious, but I suppose it has to be fairly difficult to change an
ac inadvertently.

Thanks for the tips,

S

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Actually, I was so pleased with your revelation, that I didn't really take
in your last note:

"Note that it would be simpler to make the problem account visible instead
of deleting it."

What you advised was actually very very simple, as I already have a cmd
prompt on my desktop, and it worked without needing to go into safe mode.

How could I have rendered the account visible - I normally do this with
TweakUI, but this account wasn't showing up anywhere but on the net user
cmd, so there was nowhere else I could get at it to change it? Net user
does list various parameters for each account, but not visibility.

On the laptop there is a further account profile listed in MyComp
props/advanced called 'Account Unknown'. But no 'account unknown' in the
Docs and Sets profiles. In the docs and sets list though, there is a
profile called 'Owner' which does not seem to have an account. In the
Registry I can't see any list of user names to match the ones in net user,
one can track the numbered profiles and see that they point at a
particular folder, but not see which user account name they refer to.
Should I just delete the 'Account unknown' and see if the 'Owner' folders
disappear?

All rather curious, but I suppose it has to be fairly difficult to change
an ac inadvertently.

Thanks for the tips,

S

User accounts can be prevented from showing up on the logon screen by
creating a registry entry for them here:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList

To unhide an account you need to remove the account name from this location.

 

[Jim]

Actually, I was so pleased with your revelation, that I didn't really take
in your last note:

"Note that it would be simpler to make the problem account visible instead
of deleting it."

What you advised was actually very very simple, as I already have a cmd
prompt on my desktop, and it worked without needing to go into safe mode.

How could I have rendered the account visible - I normally do this with
TweakUI, but this account wasn't showing up anywhere but on the net user
cmd, so there was nowhere else I could get at it to change it? Net user
does list various parameters for each account, but not visibility.

On the laptop there is a further account profile listed in MyComp
props/advanced called 'Account Unknown'. But no 'account unknown' in the
Docs and Sets profiles. In the docs and sets list though, there is a
profile called 'Owner' which does not seem to have an account. In the
Registry I can't see any list of user names to match the ones in net user,
one can track the numbered profiles and see that they point at a
particular folder, but not see which user account name they refer to.
Should I just delete the 'Account unknown' and see if the 'Owner' folders
disappear?

All rather curious, but I suppose it has to be fairly difficult to change
an ac inadvertently.

Thanks for the tips,

S

I thought that 'account unknown' was used when there is no username
associated with a security id. Sometimes, a security id will appear in
place of a deleted account.
I have a USB drive which I sometimes use to move files between computers.
Files or folders from one computer can show up as 'account unknown' on the
other.
You can also get this situation when you delete an account, which does not
result in deleting files belonging to the account.

What I would do with the 'account unknown' files and folders would be to
take ownership of subject files and folders. Then I would determine if
these things contain useful information and keep those that do.
Jim

 

[Guest]

User accounts can be prevented from showing up on the logon screen by
creating a registry entry for them here:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList

To unhide an account you need to remove the account name from this
location.

Thanks Pegasus and Jim,

I had come across the reference to the Special Accounts user list while
looking for a way to delete the invisible account. There was no list,
unfortunately, which is why I put my question here. It turns out that the
profile that had originally been on the very invisible account, still gave
trouble after copying it into a new one: it behaved as two different
profiles: if it was graded as administrator it gave one desktop layout; if
graded as user a different one that refused to hold a desktop picture. I
ended up having to recreate the profile from scratch.

Then I made very sure to download the User Profile Hive Cleanup Service from
MS: I've had it on the pc for some time, and had not realised it was not
running on the laptop. Hopefully this will get rid of the profile failing
to unload completely problem, in future.

The account profile labelled 'Account Unknown' did disappear when I deleted
the 'Owner' folder from Docs and Sets.

While all this was going on the laptop seemed to be taking an interminable
time to deal with Avg processes, so I took the opportunity of deleting it
and loading Avast instead.
Avast said it found a virus: Win32:CTX, but this appears to have been in a
restore point and in an 'Active Scan' (Panda presumably) folder. Not sure
of the significance of this. Avast said it was in:

Win\System32\ActiveScan\pskavs.dll and in
C:\SystemVolumeInformation\-restore(11B4CBB0...

I've deleted the old restore points just in case.

Thanks for the tips.

S

 

[Guest]

I thought that 'account unknown' was used when there is no username
associated with a security id. Sometimes, a security id will appear in
place of a deleted account.
I have a USB drive which I sometimes use to move files between computers.
Files or folders from one computer can show up as 'account unknown' on the
other.
You can also get this situation when you delete an account, which does not
result in deleting files belonging to the account.

What I would do with the 'account unknown' files and folders would be to
take ownership of subject files and folders. Then I would determine if
these things contain useful information and keep those that do.
Jim

Thanks Jim,

In this case, the 'account unknown' was, confusingly associated with a
profile labelled 'Owner' in docs and sets. Why it didn't show up as 'Owner'
rather than 'account unknown' I don't know, but when one was deleted the
other went too.

Surprising how confusing an apparently simple thing like 'a user account'
can turn out to be!

Cheers,

S

 

[Robert]

So how DO you "relink" a user's profile folder to a newly-created account?
I've suspected that there's a difference between the two because I've been
trying (unsuccessfully) to change the name of a user's profile folder. Here's
what I've tried thus far:

First, I changed the account name in Control Panel\User Accounts. And, when
I logged out, the new account name appeared in place of the original name in
the Windows Login screen. But, when I logged back in, the account's folder
name (under C:\Documents and Settings) remained unchanged.

Next, I changed the profile folder name using the Rename function in Windows
Explorer. (I'm surprised I didn't get an error message saying the file cannot
be deleted.) Then, I created a NEW profile folder with the name I want to use
(via File\New\Folder). And, I copied the original profile folder's contents
to the new folder.

But, when I logged out and back in again with the same account name, I was
surprised that Windows recreated a user profile with the same folder name as
the original profile folder whose name I had changed. Windows Login didn't
use the new profile folder with the same name as the user account as I had
hoped, even though I copied the original folder's contents to the new folder.
Instead, Windows forced a login with the same profile name as was originally
created for that account.


Please clarify/explain these three concepts:

1. Its my understanding that what's created in the Control Panel are User
Accounts. And, what appears under C:\Documents and Settings are users'
"Profile Folders". I've read that the two are connected by a Security ID
(SID). But, why are User Accounts and Profiles separate entities? What's the
difference between the two?

2. When you create a NEW User Account, that account name appears in the
Windows Login screen. But, changing the User Account name doesn't change the
Profile Folder's name to match? Why not, and how do you change the profile
folder name to match a modified account name?

3. When I log in with a different Administrator account than the user's
Profile Folder that I'm trying to change (or delete), I get the following
error message, "<username> is a Windows system folder and is required for
Windows to run properly. It cannot be deleted." I don't want to permanently
delete this username or profile information (via Control Panel\User
Accounts). And, I've read you can use Safe Mode to delete user Profile
Folders. Is this true? Or, will the SID force another profile folder to be
created with its attached (original) folder name as I experienced (above)?

Thanks for any infomation you can share. This task is becoming quite
frustrating. A lot of people seem to be having this problem. Yet, Microsoft
Forum posts are not very clear on how to accomplish this!

-Robert

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Yet, Microsoft Forum posts are not very clear on how to accomplish this!

-Robert

It seems you're piggy-backing on someone else's thread that got dealt with
some six weeks ago. If you would like to have the subject of user accounts /
profile folders discussed in this forum then I suggest you start a new
thread under your own name, using an approriate Subject line.

 

[Robert]

Sorry, didn't know that wasn't allowed. I see people doing it all the time,
and my question seemed a logical extension of the previous string. I'll
re-post it.

-Robert

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Sorry, didn't know that wasn't allowed. I see people doing it all the
time,
and my question seemed a logical extension of the previous string. I'll
re-post it.

-Robert

It is not a question of "allowed" - just about anything is allowed here -
but a question of good sense. This is an old and resolved thread that
deleted with an "invisible" account. Your question is about the relationship
between accounts and profiles, which is a subject on its own. Start your own
thread with it and you'll get plenty of answers!