I work at the IT department at a business and recently we upgraded some of the computer to windows 7. For safety reasons, the computers must be Locked when they are inactive for 30 minutes. The problem is that if a different user needs to use the computer, it needs to be plugged off, because even the "shut down" and "restart" were removed from the "locked screen". Now on XP, besides those two options, we could also log in as a different user. So my question is: Is there a way to unlock the computer besides unplugging the power cable ? Should't the Administrator be able to unlock it ? Thanks, Andre

If this is a computer that is in a common area where this will happen often, you should force the logoff of the logged on user if there is no activity for 30 minutes. In windows 7 you do have the ability to logon as a different user, simply click the SWITCH USER button from the lock screen. This will bring you back to a login window where you can choose to login as a different user. Keep in mind that the user who was initially logged in that caused this scenario would still have their session and any applications running in the background making this new logon session possibly run slower. I believe you can only have two logged in users, one locked, and one active, or both locked at the same time. r/ johnJohn Wildes | Senior Enterprise Architect | United Airlines | Desktop Engineering

Hi Adnre, The Switch User button may be disabled by Group Policy. Please check if from the following Policy. Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Logon To Enable Fast User Switching: Set Hide entry points for Fast User Switching to Not configured Best Regards, NikiPlease remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Hi, My kid got a netbook which the whole family is now using, but it seems that Win 7 Starter edition does not have this feature. Is there another way to get access to the Switch user function? BR Jan

Hi, Navigate to the following branch: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System In the right pane, create a DWORD (32-bit) Value named HideFastUserSwitching by right clicking on the right side of the editor and selecting New -> DWORD(32bit) Value. Set the Value data for HideFastUserSwitching to 1 Best Regards, L.S