Windows 7 Fast user switching. Can't enable.

milltown

We have a good few PCs here in work with the same problem. In short, we can't seem to get fast user switching to work on various Windows 7 boxes. We work shifts in our area and invariably the last person to use the shared PCs just hits ctrl/alt/del and locks the PC when they are heading home. This means the next person in has to do a hard shutdown and restart to log on which is a PITA. Several PCs in the area are still on Vista and the user switching works like a charm for the most part. PCs only need to be rebooted maybe once a week when the amount of users and the amount of stuff open for each overwhelms the available resources and drags performance down.

Have done plenty of googling and tried the most commonly recommended method of using Gpedit.msc to change the "hide entry points for fast user switching" configuration. Have tried that set to both "disabled" and "not configured". Neither worked.

Also tried going in and editing the registry directly. Again with no success.

The "switch user" option is greyed out in the Start>Shutdown options and doesn't appear at all on the lock/unlock screen. Oddly though, after a hard shutdown, when the logon screen appears, it defaults to logging on the last user but gives the option to switch user then the new user option. Once logged on though, there is no sign of user switching anywhere.

Has anyone come across this problem before?

Cuddlesworth

I would chat to your IT department, as its obviously been disabled. And changes to group policy will simply be reverted back as long as the machine is on the network.

milltown

Thanks. I had kind of figured it was something like that.