Delete a local user account

Applies To: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012

Administrators is the minimum group membership required to complete this procedure. Review the details in "Additional considerations" in this topic.

To delete a local user account

  1. Open Computer Management.

  2. In the console tree, click Users .

    Where?

    • Computer Management\System Tools\Local Users and Groups\Users
  3. Right-click the user account that you want to delete, and then click Delete .

Additional considerations

  • To perform this procedure, you must provide credentials for the Administrator account on the local computer (if you are prompted), or you must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer.

  • When you need to delete a user account, it is recommended that you first disable the account. When you are certain that disabling the account has not caused a problem, you can safely delete the account.

  • A deleted user account cannot be recovered.

  • The Administrator account and the Guest account cannot be deleted.

Additional references

Local user accounts

Disable or activate a local user account