6

Is there a software limit on Windows 7 Home Premium that stops you making over a certian number of local user accounts? I need to make up to 50 different user accounts on one PC.

How does Windows manage this? Obviously, it cannot show 50 different user profile pictures on the Welcome screen, so does it revert to the traditional two 'Username' and 'Password' fields?

5 Answers 5

9

In the interests of curiosity, I created 50 accounts on my Windows 7 Professional VM.

I used net user testx /add where x was a value between 1 and 50 (inclusive).

While I realise this is different to Home Premium, I can at least answer the second part of your question: it looks ridiculous.

This is on my Windows 7 Professional virtual machine running in VirtualBox: enter image description here

I imagine with the Local Policies you might be able to change the default login screen.

To change the login screen to show Ctrl + Alt + Del prompt, use netplwiz from an elevated command prompt, click on Advanced, and select "Require users to press Ctrl+Alt+Del".

Change login screen to Ctrl+Alt+Del

As @BloodPhilia has pointed out, you're only limited by resources, but I'd say if only two or three people are logged in at the same time, you'll be fine.

7
  • 2
    I'd love to see a screenshot of that!
    – Pylsa
    Jan 24, 2011 at 22:59
  • 1
    There you go. It looks silly.
    – user3463
    Jan 24, 2011 at 23:09
  • 1
    Wow, thanks for taking the time to do that! I would hate to be the person at the end of the list, so looks like I'll have to find a way to enable the traditional login screen.
    – Connor W
    Jan 25, 2011 at 21:49
  • 1
    I've modifed my answer to add how to change the login screen.
    – user3463
    Jan 25, 2011 at 22:19
  • Be careful if you are using switch user feature as some applications will be locked to the first person who logged in and locked the screen.
    – Phillip R.
    Feb 5, 2013 at 5:13
5

The number of accounts is not limited by software limitations. However, at a certain point you will run out of system resources to facilitate more user accounts.

Do take note of the fact that only 20 users at a time can connect to a network share that is located on that computer.

5
  • W7 upped it to 20....social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7network/thread/…
    – Moab
    Jan 24, 2011 at 22:00
  • One of the few hidden perks in Windows 7
    – Moab
    Jan 24, 2011 at 23:25
  • I assume though that as long as only one account is logged in at a time, having multiple accounts only eats up hard drive space and no other resources? Thanks for the info on networks shares too, quite handy to know.
    – Connor W
    Jan 25, 2011 at 21:51
  • @Connor Yes, true
    – Pylsa
    Jan 25, 2011 at 21:57
  • I decided to try it out, using Windows 8.1 though. VM using 1GB RAM, I created 10,000 users. Still working just that start up takes 45 minutes.
    – rboy
    Aug 16, 2016 at 7:17
2

I don't know if it still holds true but here's what I found in one of my old notebooks...

Maximum number of local user accounts = 4,294,967,296

This was tested by someone on a 32-bit system many years ago.

Maximum number of local user accounts that can be displayed in Welcome Screen = 100

I wrote this information in some notebook many years ago but I forgot to reference or record the tester. I think he tested it on Win2K and XP Professional. The credit goes to him folks.

Every user account created will receive a unique number or ID which increments each time someone or something performs a delete-create a user account with the same name or create a new user account operation.

Limitations also apply to the hardware where Windows is running.

1

I created 97 users in my windows 7 professional (All with admin attribute). When I created the 98th user, the Windows created it but problems appears with this user:

  • The little square of this user appears with a blank image in Logon screen (no flowers, no dogs, no robots, just a blank square)

  • I cannot change the picture ) whenever I log in as this 98th user or as another admin user.

  • I cannot remove the 98th user (logged as another admin user, of course) once that the 98th simply does NOT appears in Manage Accounts window.

To remove the 98th, I had to remove another user before (1 to 97th still appears in Manage Accounts), then the 98th now appears in Logon screen (with his flower avatar), and also in the Manage Accounts window.

I removed the 98th and created the user that previously I had to delete. Note that this user I had to created like a new user. So, before remove an user, pay attention to copy his documents to a safe place.

Will

-1

I know exactly what you were thinking. For more secured PC, users must type-in their usernames instead of just clicking the user profile on your screen then all the user have to do is to just type-in their password. In order to do that, you need to access your group policy editor. The steps are as follows:

  1. Type gpedit.msc on your search field from Your Windows Start menu. (Search programs and files)
  2. On your Local Group Policy Editor, under Local Computer policy, select Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options\
  3. Search for "Interactive Logon: Do not display last user name".
  4. The seeting for this policy must be change or set to "Enabled"
  5. You will also notice below/next to that setting "Interactive Logon: Do not require Ctrl+Alt+Del" for more secured access, it must be changed or set to "Disabled"
  6. Close the Local Group Policy Editor and try to log-off.

Note:

  • In able to access your Local Group Policy Editor you must use an administrator account.
  • You must remember your username exactly in order to match the password. (Sometimes if users forgot to type-in the "complete" username it will result an error due to username mismatch)
  • If Settings does not effect. Try to restart the computer as well.

I really hope this could help!

1
  • 2
    Not sure that actually answers the question… Feb 5, 2013 at 5:10

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .