Vista - One user but Switch User at Welcome Screen upon waking from sleep

I am using Vista Home Premium, I only have one user active. When I initially
start up the computer, at the Welcome Screen there no option to "Switch" or
select a user. When I resume from "Sleep" there is an option to switch user.
If I select switch user, it shows the same user as when the system started.
Is this normal behavior?

Hi Grayhair,

Since you only have one user account, then this is normal. The startup logon screen will show all user accounts like the "Switch User" screen; this is why there is no "Switch User" option here.

When you resume from sleep, it takes you to basically the "Lock" computer logon screen for only the user that the computer went to sleep from. This is why there is an option to "Switch User" here.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

"Brink" wrote:
Brink,
Thanks for your answer but I still do not understand why there is a switch
user option when there is no user to switch to. I understand that when I
awake from sleep it return to the user that put the machine to sleep but if
there are no other active users, why offer a switch? See redundent.

Its a security measure. It comes from Windows 2000 and XP where a resume from standby (or even from screen saver) requires you re-enter your password in order to unlock the machine. This is from the Corporate side of the house where this setting is actually useful and you generally have tons of users who might have access to a machine. Because you dont have a password and only have 1 account its stupid.

If you want you can just turn it off.
The instructions I am about to give you are from XP but the same option exists in Vista although it may be slightly more buried.

Control Panel
Power Options
Advanced Tab
[ ] Prompt for password when computer resumes from standby
You uncheck that box and it will stop harassing you.

Similar place for Screen Saver
Control Panel
Display
Screen Saver
[ ] On resume, password protect
This one should already be OFF, but just in case I am including it so you can check.

Hi Grayhair,

I believe Casper stated why pretty well. If you need more details on Casper's posted solution, you can find them here.

Password Protection on Wakeup


It is pretty redundent when there is only one user on the computer though.

Shawn

So Brink's reply reminded me of 1 more thing.

The REAL reason it asks to switch user is because there ARE other users on the machine. The Administrator account for instance is on there but is hidden by default in Vista.

I dont remember if its Vista or XP (or perhaps both) but if you press CTRL+ALT+DEL *TWICE* at the pretty choose a user screen, you get the old Windows 2000 style logon window in which you can specify (meaning TYPE in) an account to logon with, or in this case unlock the machine with.

If you knew the Administrator password, technically doing the above and then entering Administrator and its password would log you on with a second account and therefore technically would allow you to "Switch User"

I would gladly test that for you but I wiped out my Vista Partition on my machine to make room for more games about a month ago.

Anyway, hope that answers the existential side of your original question.
Hopefully a better answer than "Vista is stupid"

-Casper42