When I restored my laptop, it created two versions of my name as user accounts. I'd like to get rid of the superfluous one.

Then I want to add a Windows password to the remaining user account.

Yes, I've Googled but trust some of the techies here to give better and more understandable instructions.

TIA

Have you come across this bulletin board posting in your Googling? Windows created a new user with the same name, I moved all my files to - Microsoft Community

More potentially related info via this Google search link: When I restored my laptop, it created two versions of my name as user accounts. I'd like to get rid site:answers.microsoft.com - Google Search

That happened to me once. What I did was make sure I knew which account to delete (put a unique file on the desktop of the account you want to keep). Delete the account that you don't want and then set the password. Which version of Windows did you restore to?

I am not a techie, but have just done similar as part of a cyber resilience audit.

You should make the one you want to keep an "Administrator". Then using that one you can delete the other account. That assumes that you only want one account on your machine and that account can have full administrative rights. I have recently been advised that this is not a good idea!

The advice I have received was that I should keep my daily user account as a "Standard" user, and then in addition create a new "Administrator" account. Only the administrator is allowed to install new software, and so if a bad actor tries to download and install something nasty as an attachment etc then it wont automatically do it when you are within your "Standard" user account but will immediately flag up that an administrator account and password are required. That will alert you to the potential threat. Hope that makes sense?

First of all. If you go to Settings > Accounts > Sign in options, scroll down to mid page, under "Additional Settings", where it says "For improved security, only allow Windows Hello Sign-in for Microsoft accounts on this device (Recommended).

Next. Hold down windows and R keys. Type in netplwiz and hit enter key. When launched, check the box that requires username and password. Restart the computer and the second “ghost account” will be gone.

Windows 10

1. Type netplwiz in the Start menu search bar, then click the top result to run the command.
2. Uncheck the tick from the box next to Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer and hit Apply.
3. Enter the username and password, then re-enter the password. ...
4. Click OK again to save the changes.

I'm all set. Thanks, all, for your help.