[SOLVED] Windows 10 Ghost Account ?

[thewinged98]

Hey!

Normally, my PC automatically signed me in my Windows 10 account on startup, but after the last update, it's been asking me to enter a password. So I went to netplwiz and unchecked the box once again. But next time I launched my PC, there was another account with the same name as mine, with no profile picture, instead of my actual account. It said that the "password I entered is incorrect" and I had to switch to the other account (my actual account) and log in like that. It's been a real pain in the ass to do that every time, especially since the so called "ghost account" doesn't even show up on netplwiz. I've Googled this issue, in order to find out why it might be happening, but no answer managed to fix my issue.

 

[Colif]

how dumb, the way to fix it is to turn off auto login and turn it back on again...

1. Run NETPLWIZ as admin. (For me only 1 account was showing in this dialog.)
2. Enable checkbox "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer".
3. OK. Restart PC.
4. Log in with password.
5. Run NETPLWIZ as admin again.
6. Disabled "Users must enter..." checkbox.
7. Apply.
8. Prompt appears. Fill in default username and password.
9. OK. Restart PC. Goes right in.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...ndows-10/2350cc52-4e97-44db-8ee8-6ec42560adac

 

[thewinged98]

how dumb, the way to fix it is to turn off auto login and turn it back on again...

1. Run NETPLWIZ as admin. (For me only 1 account was showing in this dialog.)
2. Enable checkbox "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer".
3. OK. Restart PC.
4. Log in with password.
5. Run NETPLWIZ as admin again.
6. Disabled "Users must enter..." checkbox.
7. Apply.
8. Prompt appears. Fill in default username and password.
9. OK. Restart PC. Goes right in.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...ndows-10/2350cc52-4e97-44db-8ee8-6ec42560adac

While you found a solution I couldn't find in my hours of searching on the internet, sadly it doesn't work either. What I came across again and again however, is that Windows seems to be creating the so called "ghost account" while trying to fill in the username for the account, but it messes it up. So I guess that's the reason the "ghost account" exists in the first place. I've even tried changing my username in the registry, didn't work.

 

[Colif]

try this
right click start button
choose powershell (admin)
type SFC /scannow and press enter
once its completed, copy/paste this command into same window:
Repair-WindowsImage -Online -RestoreHealth and press enter
SFC fixes system files, second command cleans image files, re run SFC if it failed to fix all files and restart PC

there is a solution on here as well - https://www.sysnative.com/forums/th...ts-after-upgrading-to-windows-10.30249/page-2

 

[thewinged98]

try this
right click start button
choose powershell (admin)
type SFC /scannow and press enter
once its completed, copy/paste this command into same window:
Repair-WindowsImage -Online -RestoreHealth and press enter
SFC fixes system files, second command cleans image files, re run SFC if it failed to fix all files and restart PC

there is a solution on here as well - https://www.sysnative.com/forums/th...ts-after-upgrading-to-windows-10.30249/page-2

Do I have to do this before or after the other way, because the ghost account only appears when I've disabled "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer."

 

[thewinged98]

This is what I got from the PowerShell btw:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> SFC /scannow Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.

Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located at
windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offline
repairs, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag.
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Repair-WindowsImage -Online -RestoreHealth


Path :
Online : True
ImageHealthState : Healthy
RestartNeeded : False

 

[Colif]

it could be microsoft have broken netplwiz again. I used to use it but one time my user profile corrupted and would auto log me into a guest account (which was what I suspected you had from topic) so now days I just put my password in at startup. Slower but safer in my eyes.

it shouldn't matter when you run that as it would have fixed the underlying system files in either case.

 

[thewinged98]

it could be microsoft have broken netplwiz again. I used to use it but one time my user profile corrupted and would auto log me into a guest account (which was what I suspected you had from topic) so now days I just put my password in at startup. Slower but safer in my eyes.

it shouldn't matter when you run that as it would have fixed the underlying system files in either case.

While I agree about it being safer, it's slower for sure as well hahah
But the issue here is that I've had to fix this issue around 3 times already, every time using a different way. It just seems to me that every time there's some kind of a security update, netplwiz gets broken yet again. I guess this time they broke it for real...
I appreciate your help anyway, man! Be good and have a good day!