How to get rid of backslash added before user name when switching users in Windows 7?

Question

On a computer running Windows 7 with a custom local GPO (Group Policy Object), when switching from the user to Administrator, the username has a backslash prepended to its name. Hence forth it is impossible to logon; the password does not work. When logging off the user (instead of switching) the problem does not occur. Here's a screenshot of the prepended \:

How can I prevent this?

Answer 1

Solution 1: Switch User and force logon to local computer:

1. Click Switch User > Other User (if applicable)
2. When prompted for the username, enter .\<username> (e.g. .\johndoe). Don't neglect to leave of the preceeding .\ which specifies that you want to logon the local computer.
3. Enter the account password and logon as normal

Solution 2: Prevent Windows from remembering the last username used to logon:

1. Open the Registry Editor by running regedit.exe
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
3. If it doesn't exist, create the value dontdisplaylastusername and specify the data type of DWORD.
4. Set the value dontdisplaylastusername to 1

Alternately, you can accomplish the above through Local Group Policy (Source):

1. Run gpedit.msc
2. Navigate to Computer\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options
3. Set the setting Interactive Logon: Do not display last user name to Enabled

Solution 3: Clear the last username used to logon Windows (Source):

1. Open the Registry Editor by running regedit.exe
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
3. Delete the data from the values DefaultUserName, AltDefaultUserName and DefaultDomainName (don't delete the values themselves)

Answer 2

To connect to such a user, return to screen where you can enter user name and password and use fully qualified user name:

PC-NAME\Username

e.g.

HOMEPC2\Paul

I suppose your computer name is not blank. Blank name shouldn't be normally possible, but it came upon my mind seeing \Paul. Normally that screen would show HOMEPC2\Paul.