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Applies to Windows | Windows 8 | Security, privacy, & accounts
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Duplicate User accounts appear on login screen

RA

rajamohammed2010 asked on December 10, 2012

original title: Duplicate User accounts

I have windows 8 pro and it was running fine. In few days i can see my windows 8 account screen shows
up 2 on each name that is I have two local user account, my name as administrator account and
standard account for my family. say for example, 1 john and 2Steve. It shows fine. in last one week
now its shows 1 john, 2Steve, 3Steve, again 4john. I have created only 2 account but it shows 4 in
each twice. But in control panel It shows only 2 accounts are created so for. I have updated my windows.
All are fine but if anyone can give the best answer really appreciated.

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Answer
Dena B replied on December 14, 2012
Accomplishments

In reply to rajamohammed2010's post on December 12, 2012

Hi rajamohammed2010,

Are you able to login to each user account shown on the login screen? If so, are the duplicate accounts
identical? If they are identical or you know which user accounts you want to keep, rename the user
accounts that should be deleted. You can so something as simple as add a 1 at the end of the name.
Follow the steps below to see how many user account show in the registry. This is a delicate process so
at this point, making a backup of your important data is strongly advised. It also is not a bad idea to
backup the registry and create a System Restore Point.

Backup Registry
1. From the desktop screen, press the Windows key + R
2. Type regedit and press Enter Select Yesif prompted by User Account Control
3. Select File
4. Select Export
5. Type a file name Hint: Using the date makes the file easy to recognize
6. Select Save
Restore Registry if needed
1. Follow steps 13 from above
2. Select Import
3. Select the file you saved when backing up the registry
4. Select Open
5. Select OK
You should now see a message that says "The keys and values contained ... have been successfully
added."

Create a System Restore Point

1. From the desktop screen, press the Windows key + C
2. Select Control Panel
3. Select Recovery
4. Select Configure System Restore
5. Select Create
6. Type a restore point name Hint: The date is easily identifiable
7. Select Create
You should see a message that says "The restore point was created successfully." You can then select
Close.

Deleting the duplicate accounts from the registry

1.Follow steps 12 from Backup Registry
2.Access the ProfileList
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
How many profiles are listed? If more than 2, proceed with the next steps.
3. Select one of the user profiles the ones with the long list of numbers
4.Look at the ProfileImagePath to identify which accounts you want to delete. These should be
the ones you previously renamed.
5.Rightclick on and select Delete.
6.Restart the computer
Let us know if this resolves the issue.

*** Modifying REGISTRY settings incorrectly can cause serious problems that may prevent your
computer from booting properly. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting
from the configuring of REGISTRY settings can be solved. Modifications of these settings are at

your own risk.

Dena

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JO

JoydeepAstapati replied on December 10, 2012

Hi Raja,

Thank you for post on Windows Community Forum.

From the issue description, it appears that the computer has four User accounts instead of two.

I would like to ask a few questions for a better understanding.

1 Do you have any Antivirus software installed in the computer?

2 Has there been recent hardware/software change after which this issue occurred?

Lets try the following instructions and check.

Method 1: Please perform Microsoft Safety Scanner to scan your computer for infections.

To download and run the Microsoft Safety Scanner, follow these steps:

a Go to the Microsoft Safety Scanner site at: Microsoft Safety Scanner

http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/enus/default.aspx
b Click Download Now.
c If prompted, click Run. Follow the onscreen instructions to download and install the Microsoft Safety
Scanner. When prompted, add a shortcut to the Microsoft Safety Scanner to your desktop.
d From your desktop, double click the Microsoft Safety Scanner icon. When the Microsoft Safety
Scanner program launches, click Scan Type, then click Full Scan, then click Next.
e After the scan is complete, remove all detected malware entries

Note: Any data files that are infected may only be cleaned by deleting the file entirely, which means
there is a potential for data loss.

However, we can always delete the User Accounts

Method 2: Delete User Account

a Login to your default account.
b Click on Start and type User Accounts.
c Now, select Settings and then select the User Accounts icon.
d Click on Manage another account and then select the user account that you want to delete.
e Click on delete the account.
f Depending on whether you want to Keep the files or delete the files choose the appropriate
option.
g You can delete the other accounts similarly.
h Note: Once deleted, the user accounts cannot be recovered. Make sure you back up any data if
required.

Hope this information helps.

Please reply with the status of the issue and we will be glad to assist you.

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rajamohammed2010 replied on December 12, 2012

In reply to JoydeepAstapati's post on December 10, 2012

Hi Joydeep, I have Microsoft Defender inbuilt in Windows 8 pro and all antivirus definitions and
spyware definitions are uptodate. I had a scan and all are fine. Also as I said before in control panel on
user account, as I can see only 2 account which I have created already but there is no more than that but
on start screen I see there are 4 accounts with the same name. I have followed as you quoted 1 & 2.

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Dena B replied on December 14, 2012

Accomplishments
In reply to rajamohammed2010's post on December 12, 2012
Hi rajamohammed2010,
Are you able to login to each user account shown on the login screen? If so, are the duplicate accounts
identical? If they are identical or you know which user accounts you want to keep, rename the user
accounts that should be deleted. You can so something as simple as add a 1 at the end of the name.
Follow the steps below to see how many user account show in the registry. This is a delicate process so
at this point, making a backup of your important data is strongly advised. It also is not a bad idea to
backup the registry and create a System Restore Point.

Backup Registry
1. From the desktop screen, press the Windows key + R
2. Type regedit and press Enter Select Yesif prompted by User Account Control
3. Select File
4. Select Export
5. Type a file name Hint: Using the date makes the file easy to recognize
6. Select Save
Restore Registry if needed
1. Follow steps 13 from above
2. Select Import
3. Select the file you saved when backing up the registry
4. Select Open
5. Select OK
You should now see a message that says "The keys and values contained ... have been successfully
added."

Create a System Restore Point

1. From the desktop screen, press the Windows key + C
2. Select Control Panel
3. Select Recovery
4. Select Configure System Restore
5. Select Create
6. Type a restore point name Hint: The date is easily identifiable
7. Select Create
You should see a message that says "The restore point was created successfully." You can then select
Close.

Deleting the duplicate accounts from the registry

1.Follow steps 12 from Backup Registry
2.Access the ProfileList
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
How many profiles are listed? If more than 2, proceed with the next steps.
3. Select one of the user profiles the ones with the long list of numbers
4.Look at the ProfileImagePath to identify which accounts you want to delete. These should be
the ones you previously renamed.
5.Rightclick on and select Delete.
6.Restart the computer

Let us know if this resolves the issue.

*** Modifying REGISTRY settings incorrectly can cause serious problems that may prevent your
computer from booting properly. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting
from the configuring of REGISTRY settings can be solved. Modifications of these settings are at
your own risk.

Dena

1 person found this helpful

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AJ_XD replied on May 2, 2013

AJ

original title: Duplicate User accounts

I have windows 8 pro and it was running fine. In few days i can see my windows 8 account
screen shows up 2 on each name that is I have two local user account, my name as
administrator account and standard account for my family. say for example, 1 john and
2Steve. It shows fine. in last one week now its shows 1 john, 2Steve, 3Steve, again 4john. I
have created only 2 account but it shows 4 in each twice. But in control panel It shows only 2
accounts are created so for. I have updated my windows. All are fine but if anyone can give
the best answer really appreciated.
If you have facial/fingerprint recognition software, try removing it and restart and install it again.
Cheers

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Nirmal S replied on May 9, 2013

Accomplishments

In reply to AJ_XD's post on May 2, 2013

Hi,

Thank you for contacting the Microsoft Community and sharing this information with us.

Feel free to contact the Community for any issues pertaining to Windows in the future. We will be happy
to help.

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BU

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Bumsteer replied on May 18, 2013

Accomplishments

In reply to Dena B's post on December 14, 2012

I have this issue also, and the accounts only appear once in the registry, but twice on the logon screen. I
can login with the same pwd in either account. Please advise how to rid this screen of these extra icons.

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Someguyfromseattle replied on May 30, 2014

In reply to Bumsteer's post on May 18, 2013

I have this issue also, and the accounts only appear once in the registry, but twice on the
logon screen. I can login with the same pwd in either account. Please advise how to rid this
screen of these extra icons.
I am having this exact same issue on a brand new install of Windows 8.1. No viruses, no
fingerprint/facial software, only one user showing in registry and I still have duplicate accounts showing
at login.

Did you ever fix the issue?

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GEORGEGOMPF replied on December 26, 2015

In reply to Someguyfromseattle's post on May 30, 2014

Same issue. 1 user profile, but two appear on the login screen. I can't get into one though. No idea
where the other profile came from. New windows 10 computer, everything updated and virus scans do
not show anything.

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TiffanySmith9767 replied on August 3, 2016

I as well have this problem with Windows 10. I have one account for microsoft that I can log into that
shows email the other one pops up first saying the password isn't rightsomething like that. I cannot
log into this other profile that shows just tiffa and the password with a greyed out profile pic. I have
tried going into user accounts and seeing if there was something I could do there but there wasn't. this
is getting annoying to me. This started happening to me a few days ago. My virius scans show nothing
wrong. I did have it auto login where I didn't need a password then it started back up again where I
needed login with a password.

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