Missing the switch user option?

So.. an odd thing that came up today – I had 2 people ask me about the same basic issue – from opposite sides of the planet.

As it turned out – I suspect the issue looked the same but was a different problem – so let me tell about the problem and then the possible solutions to try.

If you have a machine with Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 and you are greeted with a login screen that only gives you one user to log in with – ie you are missing the switch user option.

There are a couple of things to have a look at.

1. Check that you have users in the Users group on the local machine – this obviously is mainly if you are using a machine with local logins – but if the Users directory is empty then you cannot log in as a user – apart from the nominated local administrator account. In this particular case the issue was not only the above but that someone had added the user accounts to have remote access – so it meant that users could connect remotely using RDP – but not locally – in a word.. awesome.

2. If the above is not your case then you might have an issue with account corruption – so to fix this a couple of options exist – boot off the Windows installation disk and take the recovery option – and try and system repair – or use if you have access to it – then try the Diagnostics and Repair toolkit in the Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack (MDOP).

So there you go – 2 problems that looked the same – but with different solutions.. and that my friends is why I love IT..

Cheers

Kyle