Enable or Disable a Windows 10 User Account

 

Windows 10 Home and Pro Users: Disable User Accounts with the Command Prompt

No matter which edition of Windows 10 you’re using (Home, Pro, or even Enterprise), you can use a quick command at the Command Prompt to enable or disable a local user account. While there is a graphical way to do this for Windows 10 Pro users (which we’ll cover in the next section), the Command Prompt is available to all and very quick.

First, open Command Prompt as an administrator. Hit Start, type “cmd” into the search box, and you’ll see “Command Prompt” listed as the main result. Right-click that result and choose “Run as administrator.”

At the prompt, type (or copy and paste) the following command, where <username> is the name of the user account you want to disable:

net user <username> /active:no

After the command has completed, you can close Command Prompt. The user account will be disabled and will no longer show up as an active account for signing in. You can repeat the same process for any other accounts you want to disable.

Note: If you don’t know the exact name of the account, type in the command  net user to get a full list of all users.

If you want to re-enable the account again all you have to do is open another elevated Command Prompt session, but this type “no” instead of “yes” for the active: switch. The command will look like this, again replacing <username> with the name of the user account you want to enable:

net user <username> /active:yes

Windows 10 Pro Users Only: Disable a User Account with the Computer Management Tool

For this method, we’re going to be using the Computer Management Tool. It’s a quick and powerful way to access a myriad of administrative tools, like Task Scheduler, Performance Monitor, Device Manager, Disk Manager, and more. Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise users can use the Local Users and Groups section to grant and restrict a user’s access to your device. (Again, though, if you’re running Windows 10 Enterprise, you’re likely part of an Active Directory Domain and won’t have a use for, or access to, this tool.)

In Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise, open the Start Menu and search for “Computer Management.”

Alternatively, you can press Windows+X and then select “Computer Management” from the Power Users menu.

In the Computer Management window, navigate to System Tools > Local Users and Groups > Users. On the right, you’ll see a list of all the user accounts on your system.

Right-click the user account you want to disable and then click “Properties.”

In the Properties window that opens, select the “Account is Disabled” checkbox and then click “OK” to save the changes.

Repeat the previous steps for any other user accounts you want to disable. Afterward, you can close Computer Management, and the disabled accounts will no longer show up on any sign-in screens.

To re-enable a user account, back to the Properties window for that account and cleat the “Account is Disabled” checkbox.