How to enable / disable a user account in Windows 11 / 10

Do you know that you can disable or enable user accounts on your computer at your will? Yes, you can take control of the existing standard/local accounts on your computer and enable or disable them anytime you want. If you want to just do that, follow the steps we have mentioned in this article.

How to enable/disable user accounts in Windows 11

There are some easy ways you can enable/disable a user account in Windows 11.

NOTE

Due to tool limitations by Microsoft on the Windows Home Edition, we have given two methods to do this. The method for Windows 11 Home Edition will also work for the Windows 11 Pro Edition, but the opposite is not true. Choose the method according to your OS or your preference.

You will need an administrator account to do this. You can’t do anything with a standard account.

Method 1 – Using Command Prompt

If you are using Windows Home Editon, this method is just for you. You can enable/disable a user account using the Command Prompt terminal.

1. At first, press the Windows key and start to type “cmd“.

2. Then, right-click on the “Command Prompt” and then tap on “Run as administrator“.



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3. When the Command Prompt opens up, type this command. modify it according to your need and hit Enter.

net user username/active:no

 

You have to replace the “username” with the username you want to disable.

Read: – How to know your username in Windows PC

Example – Suppose, you are trying to disable an account named ‘Sambi‘, the command will be ~

net user Sambi /active:no

 

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4. Same way, if you want to re-enable the account, you have to run this command.

net user accountname /active:yes

 

Just like before, you have to replace the “accountname” with the name of the account you want to re-enable.

Example – Suppose, you are trying to disable an account named ‘Sambi‘, the command will be ~

net user Sambi /active:yes

 

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This way you can enable the user account again on your computer.

That’s it! This way you can easily enable/disable the user accounts on your computer.

Method 2 – Using Registry editor

1 – Press Windows and R key to open RUN

2 – Type regedit in it and hit enter key

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3 – No, Go to the following path given below , Just copy and paste this path in registry editor address bar.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

4 – Now, Right click on Winlogon and create a new key 

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5 – Name it SpecialAccounts

6- Right click on SpecialAccounts and create a new key again

7 – Name it UserList

 

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8- In the right side, right click and choose New > DWORD (32 bit) value

 

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9 – Rename this with username you want to disable.

So for example if the username I want to disable is alex1, then I will create a new Dword value named alex1

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10 . Restart PC.

Method 3 [FOR WINDOWS 11 PRO ONLY]

Just follow these steps to enable/disable the user accounts in Windows 11.

1. At first, right-click on the Windows icon and click on “Computer Management“.

 

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2. When the Computer Management opens up, on the left-hand pane, expand this way ~

System Tools > Local Users and Groups > Users

 

3. Now, on the right-hand side, you will see the list of users.

4. Then, double-click on the user account you want to enable/disable.

 

System Tools Users Expand

 

5. Once the Properties window opens up, go to the “General” tab.

6. Here, you will notice an option called “Account is disabled“.



If you want to disable the account, you have to check this option.

Or,

If you want to enable the account, you have to just uncheck the option.

 

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7. Once you have done that, click on “Apply” and “OK” to save the modification.

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8. Same way, if you want you can modify the account of other users also.

 

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Now, close the Computer Management window and restart your computer once.

That’s it! It is that easy to activate or deactivate multiple user accounts on the go.