Raymond.CC Blog

The Windows XP Welcome Screen is useful and looks very nice, but it is not perfect.

One of the side effects to this feature is that the default Administrator account will not be displayed on the screen if you have defined another user account with admin privileges. Since the account you can create during Windows XP setup adds the user to the Administrators group, the original Administrator account is not visible by default.

If you want to log on with the original Administrator account, you have a choice of few options below.

1. The first option is to press [Ctrl][Alt][Delete] at the Welcome Screen twice This will change the Welcome Screen login to the Windows 2000 style log in, where you can now type Administrator and the password for the Admin account.

2. The second option is to boot in safe mode, under which the Welcome Screen will display only accounts with Administrator privileges, including the original Administrator account.

3. Adding administrator account on Welcome Screen.
- Open Registry Editor.
- In Registry Editor, navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList
- Create the following entry:
Administrator: REG_DWORD
Assign a value of 1.
- Close Registry Editor
- Reboot

If you’re afraid of modifying your registry, you can use a free tool by Doug Knox that will automatically modify the registry to add administrator account on Windows XP welcome screen just by checking a checkbox.

Note: This free utility will only work if the Administrator account is named “Administrator”.

[ Download XP_AddAdministrator ]