How to make a guest account in Windows 11

In this guide we will tell you how to create a guest account in Windows 11 step by step to give occasional users access to your computer.

A  guest account in Windows 11  helps you provide access to the computer to people who are going to make occasional use. It is useful on public PCs, but also at home. Read on to find out how to create a guest user on your device.

Index of contents

• Create the guest account from the CMD
  • Change the account type of the Users group to Guests
  • Prevents changes to the hard drive
• How the guest account works in Windows 11

Create the guest account from the CMD

The first step is to register the guest account in Windows 11 . The easiest way to do it is with the CMD, as long as you have administrator privileges.

Follow these steps to achieve it:

1. Open Windows search and type  CMD.
2. Click on the first result and select  Run as administrator.
3. In the command prompt window, type and run the following command:  net user Guest1 /add /active:yes. You can use any other name, but not  Guest . For this reason, we have selected  Guest1 as the name of the account.

If you received the Command completed successfully message  in the Command Prompt window, it means that the Guest1 user has already been generated. You can check it by clicking on your account avatar from the start menu and clicking on  Change user . The new account should appear in the context menu.

Even though you already have the new account, you need to undertake some additional tasks to increase the security of the environment for guest users. Let’s see what are the steps to follow.

Change the account type of the Users group to Guests

The user you just created, despite being named Guest1, belongs to the  Users group . This gives you some privileges that are not required for an account that will be used occasionally. Therefore, it is best to change this value and adjust it to the most convenient parameters for this class of profiles.

You can do it in the following way:

1. Open Windows search and type  netplwiz.
2. Run the command by clicking the first result or by pressing the Enter key.
3. In the User Accountswindow  , select the guest account and click on Properties .
4. Again, a popup dialog will open. In it, check the Otheroption   and open the dropdown to select  Guests .
5. Apply the changes and completely close both windows.

This is one more step to protect your equipment from possible modifications. Now the permissions of this user are very limited. However, there is still something else you can do.

Prevents changes to the hard drive

A Guest account does not need to have permissions to alter the contents of the hard drive . Otherwise, information may be lost or other important changes may be made. Therefore, ideally guests should  not have permission to change anything on the hard drive .

You achieve it in the following way:

1. Open the file explorer and access the drives of the computer.
2. Right click on the partition you want to protect. The logical thing is that it is the system one, although you can follow these instructions with the rest of the storage units.
3. In the context menu, click on  Properties.
4. Open the  Securitytab  in the pop-up window.
5. Click  Edit.
6. Click  Addto add the Guest user to the permissions list.
7. In the bottom text box, type the username you chose for the account. In our case, we use  Guest1. Use the Check Names button   to verify the account.

The guest account now appears in the Group or user names list  . Select it and change the permissions in such a way that it cannot access the hard drive. You can even prevent the reading of files , if you consider it appropriate.

Our recommendation is that, after changing the disk access privileges, you check that the guest account is working correctly.

How the guest account works in Windows 11

After following the instructions in this guide on our test computer, we logged in as a guest to test the functionality of the new account . It is important to emphasize that we have withdrawn all permissions to access and read the hard drive for guest users. With such restrictions, what has been the result?

• The web browser does work. Most of the time, guest users only need to access the Internet. Microsoft Edge runs perfectly in the guest account and allows you to sign in normally to all web services. By the way, despite the fact that we have completely limited access to the hard drive, we have been able to install Google Chrome. This browser can be downloaded and installed without administrator privileges.
• The app store is inaccessible. The Microsoft Store does not work in the guest account when an absolute access and read restriction is applied to the hard drive.
• External applications cannot be installed. Although we have managed to install Google Chrome, it is an isolated case. The vast majority of applications downloaded from the Internet cannot be installed in the guest account, as they require administrator privileges.
• File Explorer does not allow you to browse the storage drive. If a guest user tries to view the files on the hard drive, an error appears on the screen indicating that they do not have sufficient permissions.

Surely you have noticed that the guest account in Windows 11 that we have created  is used to browse the Internet and little else . If you think that the people using this account will need some specific software, you need to install it from your administrator account for all users.

And you,  what do you use the Windows 11 guest account for on your computer?  Leave your comments below and participate in our community. Know the opinion of other users or help them with your knowledge.