Anyone still running Windows 7?

I’m still sticking with 7... I actually tried moving over to 8 once, but circumstances forced my hand and I ended up back on Windows 7. Honestly, I'm happy where I am. 🙂

So, why does Windows 7 randomly decide to change my PDF icons? It used to always show that little thumbnail preview of the actual document, but now, out of nowhere, it’s just that standard icon with the Adobe PDF label on it.

The icon itself just depends on whatever software you’ve set as your default PDF reader.

I don't have the patience to scroll through all 350 pages of this thread right now, so I’m just going to jump in with a specific question:

Is there any way to hide a single user account from the Windows 7 logon screen while keeping it fully functional? I don't want to disable it... I just don't want its icon cluttering up the list of users at startup.

Here's the setup: I have computers where three different users log in. Each one has their own profile and needs their own icon on the logon screen so they can just click it and enter their password.

On top of those three, there’s a fourth account—the administrator. That specific icon shouldn't be visible alongside the others. Ideally, I'd want it to work like it did back on Windows XP, where you hit Ctrl+Alt+Del to bring up a manual prompt for the username and password... then I type in the admin credentials.

From what I've dug up online so far, it seems impossible on Windows 7. But I'm wondering if anyone here has actually pulled it off using some kind of script or workaround?

I've managed to hide an account before, but that ended up disabling it entirely. To get back in, I had to mess with the registry to reactivate it, which isn't a viable solution. If I hide the admin account I need, getting it back online is a massive headache...

So, what exactly did you tweak in the registry? This part here?

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList]"Administrator"=dword:00000000

Yeah... I found that online.

Hiding an existing account isn't the issue—I already know how to handle that. I just go into the registry, create a new account list called "special accounts," add the specific user to that list, and set the value to 0 instead of 1. But the thing is, it doesn't actually hide the account; it just temporarily disables it. A buddy of mine tried this on his admin account and he barely managed to get back in through Safe Mode...

What I’m actually aiming for is a different result. I want the admin profile picture to be completely absent from the login screen. I want only the three standard user icons to show up, and then, when I'm ready to log into the admin account, I want to trigger that classic Windows prompt where you manually type in the username and password—kind of like how you used to hit Ctrl+Alt+Del back in the Windows XP days.

I've scoured various forums and everyone seems to say it's impossible on Windows 7, which is why I'm asking here. Maybe someone actually knows a workaround...

Look, you shouldn't be messing with the registry to hide things like that. It’s way easier to just right-click "This PC," go into Manage, hit Local Users and Groups... then pull up Properties for the Administrator account (or whatever account you're targeting) and just check the box to disable it.

And that old-school XP trick where you had to type in a username and password every single time? You can technically set that up, but if you do, everyone on the machine is going to be stuck doing it. It’s a massive pain.

I honestly don't see why you wouldn't just disable the main admin account entirely. That way, when you actually need to get stuff done, you just log in as a standard user and trigger the admin activation from there. It’s not like you're deleting the account or anything; you're just preventing anyone from logging into it directly. It works perfectly if you want to stop people from installing random junk—whenever they try to run an installer, the system will just pop up and demand the admin password.

Tapapapatallk

Jason Williams2 said:...so when I actually want to log into an admin account—you know, trigger that classic Windows login screen where you type in your credentials using a specific key combo, kind of like how you’d hit Ctrl+Alt+Del back in the XP days.

Yeah, well, that old-school XP behavior? It's just gone in Windows 7.

@steelskipper5/">@@steelskipper5

The issue with XP was that it had to be installed on the first partition of the drive.
I assume Windows 7 requires its own primary partition too, specifically that 100MB one.

It’s been a while since I’ve dealt with this, so I can't say for certain.🙂

Alright, I’m heading out to pick up a new laptop in just a few minutes, and the specs say it comes with Windows 7 pre-installed.

A friend mentioned that having the OS alone isn't really enough to get things running properly; apparently, I'll need to sort out some drivers as well.

Is that actually the case? And should I expect those to be included on a CD or a DVD?

Look, you don't actually need to go hunting for drivers—they should have been included automatically when you installed Windows in the first place. The pre-installed version already comes packed with everything you need.

As far as drivers go, you really want to make sure everything is fully installed.

Don't expect to find much useful on the DVD if you actually need something specific; you're better off just downloading everything directly from the manufacturer's website.

It’s just not true to say that Windows comes pre-loaded with every single driver you could ever need. On my own rig, and honestly on several other computers I've worked on, I've had to pull in "Driver Booster" to get everything running smoothly—in my opinion, it's easily the best tool out there for the job!

Look, obviously it doesn't have every single driver under the sun, but most of them are there. Even the missing ones aren't exactly rocket science to track down without using Driver Booster.
Regarding those versions of Windows that come pre-installed on the laptop, they already have all the necessary drivers ready to go.

Hey everyone, I’ve got a quick question about Windows 7—it feels like a classic issue worth bringing up here.

So, even though I’m running a high-end gaming rig, I keep hitting this annoying snag (usually when I'm alt-tabbing). Windows suddenly decides my performance is tanking and forces the system to switch from Aero over to the Basic color theme. Is there any way to disable this so it stops happening to me?

You can head over to System Properties -> Advanced tab -> Performance, select "Adjust for best performance," and just uncheck Aero Peek (along with whatever else you feel like). Honestly, it’s probably disabling itself because your VRAM is getting absolutely slammed by the game—there's just zero resources left for Aero when you try to alt-tab. Does this happen with every game you play?

There’s also this little registry trick—you’ll want to navigate to the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ Directory key.

Inside there, create a "Restart Aero folder," and then inside that one, create a "Command folder."
Within the Command folder, create a new string value, leave the name as "Default," and then paste this into the Data field:

CMD /C NET STOP UXSMS & NET START UXSMS

Once you've done that, right-clicking on your desktop will give you a new option in the menu to "Restart Aero." You should give it a shot and see if forcing Aero back on causes the game to crash or anything.

I always ran into this issue with Civilization 5—that game just eats every single resource you throw at it.

Benjamin King2 said:You can head over to System Properties -> Advanced tab -> Performance, select "Adjust for best performance," and then just uncheck Aero Peek (or whatever else you want). Honestly, it’s probably disabling itself because your video RAM is getting totally choked by the game, leaving zero resources left for Aero when you try to alt-tab. Does this happen with every single game you play?

There’s also a little registry trick involving the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ Directory\Background\shell key.

Inside there, you create a "Restart Aero folder," and then inside that, you create a "Command folder."
In the Command folder, create a new string value, leave the name as "Default," and paste this into the Data field:

CMD /C NET STOP UXSMS & NET START UXSMS

Once that's done, right-clicking on your desktop will give you a custom option to "Restart Aero." Give it a shot and see if forcing Aero back on actually causes the game to crash.

I used to run into this all the time with Civilization 5—it just eats every resource you throw at it.

It happens occasionally with certain titles (Battlefield 3, Dead Space 3...), but not every time. I've got 16 GB of RAM that never even hits its limit, so it's a bit weird to me.

I read online that this might fix it— View on imgur —so if it happens again, I'll try your method.

Aero's performance depends entirely on your GPU and its VRAM—your system RAM doesn't have anything to do with it, really. Aero is going to eat up about 200 MB of your video RAM, so if you're rocking a card with only 1 GB of VRAM, that could actually become a major choke point when you're trying to run more demanding games.

Benjamin King2 said:Aerodynamics—well, performance-wise—depends entirely on your GPU and its dedicated VRAM. Your system RAM won't make a difference here. Aero is going to gobble up about 200 MB of video memory, so if you're rocking a card with only 1 GB of VRAM, that could definitely become a major bottleneck when you're running more demanding titles.

I've got 1.2 GB of VRAM on my card. 😁If that's enough to cause trouble, then I'm officially screwed.