Previously, we have written how you can change the look and usability of Windows XP start menu and make it look like Windows Vista. By default, the start menu in Windows XP shows the name of the logged in user at the top.
This is fine, but may lead to problems when you are working in your office and do not want to reveal the user who is currently logged in. Here is a simple registry trick which will hide the username from the Start menu in Windows.
Before going further, it’s recommended to backup Windows registry to be on the safe side. Following are the steps involved:
Click Start menu and select the “Run” dialog box. Type “regedit” (without quotes) to open the Registry editor.
You will see two panes in the registry editor – left and right. In the left pane, navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer
In the right pane, right click on an empty area and select “New > Dword Value”
Name the value as NoUserNameInStartMenu.
5. Double click the Dword item and set the value as 1.
- You are all done. Log off from the user account and log back in to see the changes. The username will be gone from the start menu as shown below:
How easy was that? Do share your favorite registry tricks in the comments section.
Snippet is a short tip/trick or just a quick fix for a certain issue that we discover from time to time. Don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS feed for more up to date tutorials/tips/tricks.
Soumen is the founder/author for Ampercent, a tech blog that writes on computer tricks, free online tools & software guides.
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