How to set a local user as "non-interactive" in Vista?

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As part of installing SQL Server on my PC I've created a specific user for it. When I log in now I'm offered this user as well as my own account. I remember in older versions of the Windows NT series there was an option in the user config dialog to set the user as non-interactive so they couldn't log in. I can't seem to find that checkbox in the Vista equivalent. Is there any other way to achieve this?

U62

Posted 2009-07-16T18:15:23.963

Reputation: 563

Answers

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This article explains the Windows XP solution which also works in Windows Vista and 7.

It requires you to do some registry editing so be extremely careful when doing this.

If you want to disable the account you can edit the local policy as follows.

  • Open the Local Security Policy
  • Local Policies
  • User Rights Assignments
  • Double Click Deny Logon Locally
  • Add User

BinaryMisfit

Posted 2009-07-16T18:15:23.963

Reputation: 19 955

Short version: add the user to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList registry key. – Joel Coehoorn – 2009-07-16T18:48:45.317

That tells you how to stop a username from appearing in the clickable logon screen introduced with XP, but it doesn't prevent a user from logging in as far as I can tell (that article says the accounts can still log in using the normal login dialog). I'm sure there was an option in NT4 and Windows 2000 that would completely stop WinLogon from accepting a particular user ID. – U62 – 2009-07-16T18:53:08.770

@U62 Updated the answer with the policy details to disable the logon. – BinaryMisfit – 2009-07-16T19:03:18.450

Asked: 2009-07-16T18:15:23.963

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Active: 2009-07-16T19:02:06.627