Want to easily switch between a user account and the builtin administrator account? Add the Administrator account to the Windows XP Welcome screen.

Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList
Name: Administrator
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1 display on userlist

Reboot and you will see Administrator as one of you logon choices. If you logon to a normal user account and want to switch to the builtin account:

• Click Start
• Click Logoff icon
• Click Switch Users icon
• Select Administrator , another account, or the the one you are logged onto.

Enabling Switch Users is incompatible with VMWare workstation. VMWare is a niffty tool for support people. An NT or Linux version is available. You can use it to run virtual machines. For example, my primary operating system is Windows XP Pro. I use VMWare to run Windows NT, Window 2000, Windows XP Home, Mandrake Linux, and XP Pro in virtual machines running in windows. I highly recommend it if you need to run multiple operating systems or multiple versions of the same OS.

The Mastering series is quite good.

Keywords: Windows XP registry tip, administrator, account, xp welcome logon screen, UserList, specialaccounts, switch user, logoff