When you are sharing your computer with multiple people like your family members, it is very common to have separate user accounts for each user. In fact, that is what you should do when you are sharing a computer. When you no longer need a user account, you can delete it with just a few clicks.
However, what if you just want to restrict a user from logging into their account temporarily?
One way is to delete the user account and recreate it as needed. The other way to is to disable the account. When you disable a user account, all the data and settings stay intact, but the user will not be able to log in, and the account will not be displayed on the lock screen.
Windows 10 doesn’t make it very obvious to disable user accounts. You can disable user accounts in two different ways and both are relatively easy. This article will show you how to do it.
Disable User Account Using Computer Management Tool
You can disable any user account in Windows using the Local Users and Groups module within the Computer Management tool.
1. Search for Control Panel in the Start menu and open it. In the Control Panel, click on the option “Administrative Tools” and double-click on the “Computer Management” shortcut. Alternatively, open the Run dialog box with the keyboard shortcut Win + R, type C:\Windows\system32\compmgmt.msc and press Enter.
2. In the computer management window expand “Local Users and Group” and select “Users.” Now, right-click on the user account you want to disable and select the option “Properties.”
3. In the Properties window just select the checkbox “Account is disabled” and click on the “OK” button to save the changes.
4. You’ve successfully disabled the account. There is no restart required. To let you know that the account is actually disabled, every disabled account is displayed with a tiny down arrow icon.
When you want to enable the account, just unselect the “Account is disabled” checkbox in the user account properties window.
Disable User Account Using Command Prompt
The other way to disable a user account in Windows is to use the good old command prompt. The best thing about this approach is that you can enable or disable any user account with just a single command.
1. First, search for Command Prompt in the start menu, right-click on it and select the option “Run as Administrator.”
2. Now, execute the below command while replacing <username> with the actual username.
net user <username> /active:no
3. Unlike the above method, Command Prompt will not display anything meaningful. Instead, it just prints out “The command completed successfully.” Of course, you’ve successfully disabled the account.
In the future, to re-enable the account, simply replace “no” in the above command with “yes” and execute it. Once replaced, this is how the command will look.
net user <username> /active:yes
Comment below sharing your thoughts and experiences about using the above methods to disable a user account in Windows.
Vamsi is a tech and WordPress geek who enjoys writing how-to guides and messing with his computer and software in general. When not writing for MTE, he writes for he shares tips, tricks, and lifehacks on his own blog Stugon.
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Another way to restrict the user’s access to resources in your computer, is to transform the users account in a common user, without administration privileges: “net localgroup USERS User-Name /add”
this command will put the user User-Name into a group of common users without administrator privileges.