Running Local Users and Groups snap-in on XP Home

[billtodd]

Last week I asked for help in changing the username reflected by the screen-saver return screen in XP Home (the login and return-from-standby screens do reflect changes made with XP Home's User Accounts manager in Control Panel but for some reason that change does not propagate to the screen-saver return screen, which appears to use a more fundamental account name). While several people came up with potential ways to do this, they all had drawbacks involving risk and/or complexity.

The one straight-forward suggestion involved use of the Local Users and Groups Management Console snap-in, which is not available on XP Home (and Microsoft goes to some lengths to ensure that it won't be - e.g., even trying to run lusrmgr.msc from my Win2K SP1 installation disk returned the error that it cannot be run on XP Home - perhaps if I'd had a Win2K installation disk with no service pack that would have preceded Microsoft's policy decision in this area).

I was not able to find any other information here about how to run lusrmgr.msc on XP Home, but finally did find it elsewhere and it appears to work just fine - so since the question has been asked here multiple times in the past with no real response that I could find I thought I'd pass it on (quoted from http://www.techbytes.ca/techbyte106.html ):

How to access Local Users and Groups in XP Home

In Windows XP Professional the Local Users and Groups can be displayed and edited through the Computer Management (compmgmt.msc) console. This feature has been removed from Windows XP Home, however there is a workaround.

Note: This article is intended for experienced system administrators. If you are not familiar with using Local Users and Groups, we highly recommend that you use the built-in Windows XP Home user management tools.

To create your own Local Users and Groups utility in XP Home, perform the following steps:

1. Click Start -> Run.... Type mmc.exe and press Enter.

2. Click File -> Add/Remove Snap-in... and click the Add button.

3. Scroll down until you find Local Users and Groups and click the Add button.

4. In the dialog box that opens, choose Another computer and enter 127.0.0.1 (the local loopback address) and click Finish. Note: Even though there is an option on this screen for Local computer, if you choose this you will be presented with the following message: "This computer is running Windows XP Home Edition. This snapin may not be used with that version of Windows. To manage user accounts for this computer, use the User Accounts tool in the Control Panel." By selecting Another Computer you can work around this warning.

5. Click the Close button then OK button to return to the newly created MMC console.

6. Click File -> Save to save the new console. By default it will be saved to the Administrative Tools folder.

7. Close the MMC window.

Edit: Found another obscure (but apparently supported) way that might have addressed my specific goal (quoted from http://www.howtofixcomputers.com/forums/xp...oups-84888.html ):

QUESTION:

==========

Is it possible to create a new group in Windows XP Home Edition. I do not

see an option from Computer Management view

RESOLUTION:

=============

1. Restart your computer. Then boot into safe mode by pressing F8

2. Log in as the Administrator

3. Click Start -> Run

4. Type "control userpasswords2" (without quotes)

5. Click Advanced tab

6. Click Advanced button under Advanced User management

7. Click Groups folder. Then Right-click Groups folder and select "New

Group..."

The above facility does not appear to be completely comfortable in XP Home, since the way it tells you to change the Administrator password (CNTL/ALT/DEL) does not work (I was somewhat surprised to find that this safe-mode Administrator account had no password, and think I'll continue to try to find out how to give it one), but it seems to offer the ability to change the account name as well as the 'full name'.

A third option was suggested in http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qi...22224529AA7F7FB (haven't tried that either, but the download still exists). And there are shareware apps that may address such issues as well.

- bill

Edited February 11, 2009 by billtodd

[toomuchforkids.co.uk]

Yea, Done That Before!

But This Time It Cannot Connect To 127.0.0.1?

Any Ideas?