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Hi,
We've been upgrading our Windows 7 machines to Windows 10. For the most part this has been pretty painless. On a couple of the machines, we've noticed that we're seeing duplicate users. Each one has an avatar in a circle and then one in a square box. We've tried all the things that others have suggested but no luck. If you click the username in the circle, you get the normal Windows 10 Login Screen (complete with blurry picture). But if you select the one in a square, you get what looks like the old style (Windows 7) login screen (no picture, plain background and a switch user button at the bottom).
Anyone experience this before or perhaps have some insight into why this happens (and maybe even a workaround)? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Hi Andre,
Well, that was not the solution either. However, I decided to do a little digging through the registry and discovered the cause. The problem was due to some old software (Dell Data Protection Security Tools) that was installed when these machines were first acquired. That software hasn't been updated in years and is probably not even supported by Dell anymore. Once it was removed, the problem disappeared with it.
Thanks for the suggestions :)
Truthfully, I don'recall exactly what I was looking for, but something caught my eye regarding logins and that's when I discovered that DDP | ST was the culprit. It apparently mucks around with the login process and is totally incompatible with Windows 10. If you're using older Dell machines and have this software installed, removing it will resolve the problem. If not, you might have some other software that mucks around with logins that could also be doing it. I'm convinced that modifying the registry isn't sufficient and you must get the offending software removed.
Hope that helps.
It certainly did help! I ran into this issue upgrading my organization's Windows 7 computers to Windows 10. Due to the fact Microsoft does not publish the purpose of each registry key..., I was left using procmon to find the issue. Following the information in your post, I was able to determine Dell One Identity Secure Password Extension was causing the issue. Thank you!
Hi Andre,
Appreciate the answer, but I've already gone down that road. It's definitely not a phantom account and the fact that depending on which one you select (circle or square) you get a different formatted login screen. I'm sure there's some registry setting that's hosed and needs to be repaired, but so far no clue.
Thanks.
Hi ABTechCTO
My name is Andre Da Costa; an Independent Consultant, Windows Insider MVP and Windows & Devices for IT MVP. I'm here to help you with your problem.
Sounds like its a phantom account.
Press Windows key + R
Type: control userpasswords2
Hit Enter
Select your account then click Properties.
You might see that account has two names. One user name, and other is full name. User name will be your ghost account name. Copy your full name paste it to first line (user name).
Click Apply then OK.
Click Apply then OK again
Try to shut down computer. Only way to shut it down will be by ctrl+alt+del. Turn it on again, ghost account should be removed.
