Windows 10: While Troubleshooting A Critical Error, Noticing An Unknown User Account At Sign-in Screen!

Hi, This is kind of unsettling - there's a 2nd, never seen before user account listed beneath my own... My laptop has not been outside of my possession... I don't know how it got there, if my pc is compromised in any way nor how to remove that account... This is all happening while trying to troubleshoot a blue screen critical error screen, that occurred while attempting to update Windows via Windows Update. Can anyone advise on what to do?

:)

 

How to troubleshoot an error that appears only at Restart or Sign out?

I get an error pop-up error message not every, but almost every time I Restart or Sign out. It's the screen with blue background and on top of Restart or Sign out text an error window says:

Explorer.exe - Application error. The instruction at 0x000… referenced memory at 0x000... The memory could not be written.

Sometimes the error code is just zeros, sometimes random numbers. I have tried so much already to troubleshoot this. For example these did not help in any way:

• MemTest86+ (no problems)
• Disabling any Services, Autoruns/ShellExView entries
• Low resolution mode
• BIOS settings are fine, no overclocking etc.
• DISM.exe and sfc
• etc.

However, these do make the error go away:

• End process for explorer.exe before Restart or Sign out
• Safe Mode
• Creating a new user profile (almost the same as clean installing Windows, many full days of work)
• Uninstalling NVIDIA graphics driver (then the card is unusable, of course)
• Disabling Device Manager / Display Adapters / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080

I already contacted NVIDIA and the graphics driver is not the culprit. Something has gone wrong with the user profile as the same driver works just fine in a new profile (and there's nothing wrong with the driver anyway, it's just the Restart or Sign out process that has a problem).

What can I do to fix this? One useful thing would be to have a step-by-step procedure for the Sign out. So that it'd ask before continuing to the next step and list what it's doing. Or if I could just disable whatever it does when the error appears.

 

force default user account to always be selected on sign-in screen

A PC has Windows 10 (version 1703, build 15063.726) installed on it. A person named Robert has a user account on it, named Robert. A person named Jennifer has a user account on it, named Jennifer. The user accounts Robert and Jennifer are "Standard" type accounts. There is a third user account, named Adm, and it's type is "Administrator".

The PC specs are: laptop, brand Asus, model X550CA, cpu Intel Celeron 1007U 1.50GHz, 8 GB RAM DDR3, 500 GB HDD 5200 RPM, 120 GB SSD.

Windows 10 default behavior, case 1 - the Robert and Jennifer user accounts are both password protected

1. Jennifer turns PC on.
2. At the sign-in screen, the password field for the account Robert is shown.
3. At the sign-in screen, Jennifer clicks on the account Jennifer in the lower left part of the sign-in screen, then types her password and presses Enter.
4. Jennifer clicks on the "Start" button on the taskbar, clicks on the "Power" button, then clicks "Shut down".
5. Robert turns PC on.
6. At the sign-in screen, the password field for the account Jennifer is shown.
7. Robert clicks on the account Robert in the lower left part of the sign-in screen, then types his password and presses Enter.

Windows 10 default behavior, case 2 - the Robert user account is password protected, the Jennifer user account is not password protected

1. Jennifer turns PC on.
2. At the sign-in screen, the password field for the account Robert is shown.
3. At the sign-in screen, Jennifer clicks on the account Jennifer in the lower left part of the sign-in screen, then clicks on the "Sign-in" button.
4. Jennifer clicks on the "Start" button on the taskbar, clicks on the "Power" button, then clicks on "Shut down".
5. Robert turns PC on.
6. Windows 10 signs in automatically into the Jennifer user account.
7. Robert clicks on the "Start" button, clicks on the "Jennifer" button, then clicks on "Sign out".
8. At the sign-in screen, the button "Sign in" for the user account Jennifer is shown.
9. Robert clicks on the account Robert in the lower left part of the sign-in screen, then types his password and presses Enter.

Question 1

Is it possible for Robert to change Windows 10's default behavior, to the behavior described below?

1. Robert or Jennifer turns on the PC.
2. At the sign-in screen, the password field for the Robert user account is shown, even if Jennifer was the last person to sign-in and then click on "Shut down" from the "Start" menu.

Question 2

If the answer to question 1 is yes, then what settings does Robert have to make, in order to get the behavior described at question 1?

Changing "dontdisplaylastusername" is not the solution

By changing the "dontdisplaylastusername" registry DWORD from 0 to 1, Robert doesn't get the behavior described at question 1. After setting "dontdisplaylastusername" to 1, Robert has to type both his user account name, and his password, at the sign-in screen. Robert wants to type only his password, at the sign-in screen, and nothing else.

Why does Robert want to change the default behavior

The reasons Robert would like to change to the behavior described at question 1:

• he is the owner of the PC;
• he uses his PC frequently, Jennifer uses his PC rarely, therefore it makes sense that Robert should have one less click to do in order to sign in;
• he doesn't want to click on something in order to get at his password field, he wants to press the power button on the PC and then type his password (doesn't want unnecessary intermediate steps between pressing the power button and typing his password).

 

Unknown account keeps forming in Windows 10 64bit

Hello Nearchos,

There are different ways for us to remove this unknown user account from your computer. Let's try these troubleshooting steps below:

Troubleshooting 1:

• Access your Microsoft account here.
  
• Click on Manage my Microsoft account as it will lead you to the website of Microsoft Account configuration.
• Once logged in, you can manage any Microsoft accounts that have been created on your PC and you may attempt to delete the unknown user account.
  

Troubleshooting 2:

• Click on Family & other users.
• Look for the unknown user account and click on "Remove" or "Delete".
  

Troubleshooting 3:

• Enable the built-in Administrator account or create a new administrator user.
• Convert the first administrator account that you created during the Windows 10 installation to the local account. (If applicable)
• Sign-in to Windows 10 using the built-in Administrator or additionally created administrator account.
• Remove the first administrator account.

We'll be here if you need additional assistance.