Windows 10: Should one rename the built-in Admin and the built-in Guest accounts

From a security standpoint, should one rename the built-in Admin and the built-in Guest accounts even if they are disabled by default?

During Windows 10 installation, I already created my own Admin account which is named something else other than Administrator. But the built-in Administrator and Guest accounts are disabled already by default. For extra security, should I rename those even if those are disabled accounts?

:)

 

Built-in Guest account errors

I agree, and here's how to do it:-

Firstly, open an elevated command prompt by going to Start menu/All Programs/Windows System, right-click Command Prompt, select More, select Run as administrator, then;

• Enter "net user Visitor /add /active:yes" (ignore quotes) to create a new account. You can replace “Visitor” with whatever name you wish, but be sure to change it for every command on this list. “Guest” is reserved by the Windows system.
• Enter "net user Visitor *" (ignore quotes) to create a password for the account.
• Press Enter key twice to create a blank password.
• Enter "net localgroup users Visitor /delete" (ignore quotes) to remove Visitor from the regular Users group.
• Enter "net localgroup guests Visitor /add" (ignore quotes) to add Visitor to the guests user group.

You now you have a brand new "guest" account! This account will have the same privileges as the old guest accounts, but peted66616 cautions that it does not wipe settings and local files on logout.

(Super User via Laptop Mag gratefully acknowledged)

 

Built-in Guest account errors

Well researched. Perhaps MS will get around to fixing the explorer crash/reload loop.

I activated the in-built Guest account August 01, 2015, by following the
howto-connect.com instructions (net user guest /active:yes
from an elevated command prompt (right-click Start/Windows button and select Command Prompt (Admin)). Guest then appeared in the list of available accounts on the lock screen.

I have, in the past couple of days, activated the Guest account on two more Win 10 PCs. The command line echoed that this had succeeded, and Guest appears, as one of the alternatives, when I click on my account name at the top of the Start Menu, but when
I select it, instead of switching to the Guest account which is not password protected, it takes me to the lock screen, where Guest is no longer shown.

Microsoft appear to be suppressing the Guest account, for reasons that I/we do not know. We should be told.

 

Built-in Guest account errors

Note that the reason the account doesn't show up in the sign-in/lock screen is that the Guest account is included in the security policy "Deny log on locally" (under "Local Policies/User Rights Assignment"). Removing the Guest account from that policy allows
logon.

However, in my experience it's still broken. Logging on, you then find that sihost.exe (the "shell infrastructure host") crashes several times, leaving you with a blank screen. You can still run Task Manager (Ctrl-Shift-Esc, or from the Ctrl-Alt-Del screen),
and using that you can try to start explorer.exe, but much of the Windows Explorer shell UI still will not work.

So far, the best work-around I've been able to come up with (and this has been independently reported by others) is to leave the built-in Guest account disabled, create a whole new user account (named whatever you like, e.g. "Visitor", "Guest Actual", etc.),
remove that account from Users group, add it to the Guests group, and then change its display name to "Guest" (so that from the login screen, it looks the same as the built-in account).

Unfortunately, while this account does have limited rights as compared to a standard account (which is good), it does not wipe settings and local files on logout.

I find it bizarre that Microsoft has made it harder and harder (and now, apparently, impossible) to use the built-in Guest account. I (kind of) get why they did this to the built-in Administrator account, because that one apparently is more dangerous to
use than a regular user added to the Administrators group. But there's a real benefit to having a good, locked-down Guest account. From a safety perspective, it's counter-productive to not support this feature!