How to Disable User Accounts in Windows 11?

You can easily create additional user accounts in Windows from the Settings app. It could be a family member account or independent user for accessing your computer. However, do you ever wonder how to temporarily disable a user account in Windows? Yes, you can disable user accounts in Windows using an administrator account. In this article, we will explain how to do that using different methods.

Disable User Accounts

Before proceeding, it is necessary to understand what happens when you disable a user account.

• When you disable an account, it will disappear from everywhere like in the lock screen and in the Start menu account list.
• Disabled user will never be able to access the computer.
• However, no data will be deleted and all files will be available.
• You can anytime enable the account back and allow the user to login and access the files.

Therefore, you can call it as a temporary withholding of an account and is useful when managing multiple users. You can also disable guest user account to remove guest login from your computer.

1. Disable User Account from Local Users and Groups

Windows Pro, Enterprise and Education editions comes with additional features that are not available in Windows Home edition. Local Users and Groups app is one such a useful feature which you can use for enabling or disabling a user account. Make sure you are logged in with an administrator account and follow the below steps:

• Press “Win + R” shortcut keys to open Run prompt.
• Type lusrmgr.msc in the text box and press “OK” button.
• This will open Local Users and Groups app and click “Users” option.

• Select the user you want to disable and go to “Action > Properties” menu.

• When the account properties dialog box opens, check “Account is disabled” option.
• Click “Apply” and then “OK” button to instantly disable and block the account.

Note: If an account is locked out, you can unlock it from the properties dialog by unchecking “Account is locked out” option.

2. Using net user Command from Command Prompt

You can use net user command in Command Prompt app with admin access to disable a user account.

• Click the search icon in taskbar and type “cmd” in the box.
• Hover over Command Prompt app in the result and select “Run as administrator” option.

• Make sure you know the correct username that you want to disable. You can easily find the username by going to C:\Users in File Explorer. However, it is also possible to find all usernames from Command Prompt. Type powershell get-localuser in the prompt and press enter. You will see the list of users with the current status under “Enabled” column (True is enabled and False is disabled). Make sure the username that you want to disable is showing “True” and note down the name.

• Let’s say you want to disable Guest user, then type the following command and press enter.

net user "Guest" /active:no

• You will see a message showing “The command completed successfully”.

• Use the same powershell get-localuser command to confirm the user account is disabled and showing as “False”.
• You can anytime enable the account back using the following command.

net user "Guest" /active:yes

3. Using localuser Command from PowerShell

Though net user command also works from PowerShell, you can use localuser command to disable any user account.

• Use Windows Search and open PowerShell app in administrator mode.
• If you do not know the username, type get-localuser and press enter.
• This will show the complete list of users like Command Prompt app.

• When you find the username, type the following command and press enter. Make sure to replace Guest in the command with the correct name.

disable-localuser -name "Guest"

• You will not see any message in PowerShell.

• Again, run get-localuser command to confirm the disabled account is showing as “False” status under “Enabled” column.
• You can enable the user account back using the following command in PowerShell.

enable-localuser -name "Guest"

Note: Windows 11 also comes with a neat Terminal app as a console for accessing Command Prompt and Windows PowerShell apps in a single interface. You can either use Command Prompt and PowerShell in Terminal app or open them independently as explained above.