How to Delete a User Account
After you’ve backed up all the important files from the user account, it’s time to delete it. Here’s how to delete a user account in Windows 7.
Back Up Before You Delete
Before deleting a user account, you have the option to save many of that user’s files. However, it’s best to do a manual back-up of user files first, in case something goes wrong. Confirm that you want to delete the user account by choosing Delete Files. The last thing you want to do is delete a user account and take that person’s music or photos with it. If they haven’t backed anything up, ask for their log-in details—or create a password reset disk ahead of time—and then copy all their important user account folders to an external hard drive or high-capacity SD card.
Set Up a Guest Account
Deleting user accounts is easy enough, but you can save yourself the trouble of doing this by thinking ahead. If, for example, you’re creating a new user account for a house guest, a better option might be to use Windows 7’s built-in guest account feature. The guest account is hidden by default but is easy to activate via the Control Panel. It’s available in the User Accounts and Family Safety section. Once you are there, choose User Accounts > Manage Accounts > Turn on Guest Account to select Turn On. The great thing about the guest account in Windows 7 is that it has only the most basic permissions and restricts its users from accidentally messing up your PC. To find out more, check out the tutorial on How to Use Guest Accounts in Windows 7. Whichever type of account you use in Windows 7, getting rid of it—or disabling it, in the case of the guest account—is a simple and straightforward process.
