Win8 Request full login prompt from inside a Family Safety account

Question

Setting up a new school laptop for my son.

The Administrator account is still disabled and I password-protected the user account with administrator permissions ("parent account"). I then created a user-level account with Family Safety turned on for the child.

Configured his account, then logged back in as parent (admin level) account. I then used this well-known reg hack to hide the parent account on the startup screen.

HKLM -> Software -> Microsoft -> Windows NT -> WinLogon -> SpecialAccounts -> UserList

Oops.

Once I logged out as parent, how can I log back in again? The usual trick is to:

• type cmd at the start menu,
• SHIFTRight-click on cmd.exe from the search list, and
• choose Run As Another Account from the pop-up context menu

However, that option no longer displays on the pop-up context menu! (Maybe this is a new Win8 "feature", or maybe it's because it's a Family Safety account...?)

Is there any way from a child account to force a login box or some other idea to login as a hidden account?

Please remember: I did not enable the Administrator account (disabled by default), so that option is not open to me.

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UPDATE:

I found a way around the problem and had posted/accepted that as the correct answer. I removed the "correct answer" checkmark and would prefer a better answer. (I so dislike accepting my own solutions.)

So, there must be a way to get a login prompt, from inside a Family Safety account, that allows one to specify both the user and password.

Microsoft has been guilty of muddled thinking in the past, but never this muddled.

Therefore, the question remains open for a solution.

Answer 1

I found a way out of this.

While logged into a restricted Family Safety child account (the only account we could log into because the account with Admin privs was now hidden from the login screen), I couldn't find a way to perform a system restore.

For those not already in the know, System Restore allows you to turn the clock back on your system files and restore the system to a previous time (without affecting the data). Fortunately, I was able to choose a restore point about an hour before my big error.

Frankly, I was very very surprised that a Family Safety account had access to do a system restore! (So a savvy child can do a system restore and undo some parental changes..? As much as I prefer Microsoft over Apple, the Apple architects have done a much better job in this area.)

At any rate, here is how to perform a system restore from a Family Safety account:

1. Use one of these methods to open the Advanced Startup Options menu
2. Choose System Restore
3. Restore back to an earlier point

For myself, I found the Advanced Startup Options menu by:

• Swiping (lower right corner) to get the Charms Bar
• Settings
• Advanced Settings
• System Restore