Starting XP with user that is not in the Admin group.

I can not start Windows XP with a user that is not in the administrators group. I have tired both the user and power user group. This started after I tried to change the security settings in the registry for a program that has to update a registry key when starting up. I do not have a back up. I create a user, joined them to the user group, went in to the registry, found the three entries for the program and added the user group with full control to those keys. This did not work so I went back to the three keys and removed the user group. Now when I try to log on using that user I get the start up sound but nothing on the desktop In task manager the only service I can stop is the taskmgr for the user I am trying to log on. I also can not start a tast through task manager like say Explorer. When using a user that is in the admin group everything works fine. Any ideas? Thanks in advance

You may need to also remove the user group that you added, or the user's membership in that group. If that "group" no longer has permissions to access those registry keys, then the users in that group won't be able to either. Generally the more restrictive permissions setting, take precedence.

--
Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows XP/ Windows Smart Display
Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
http://www.dougknox.com
--------------------------------
Per user Group Policy Restrictions for XP Home and XP Pro
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_securityconsole.htm
--------------------------------
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"Nidawi" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:9FD5CE45-A58E-4EAC-AF00-09B71E78E741@microsoft.com...
> I can not start Windows XP with a user that is not in the administrators group. I have tired both the user and power user group. This started after I tried to change the security settings in the registry for a program that has to update a registry key when starting up. I do not have a back up. I create a user, joined them to the user group, went in to the registry, found the three entries for the program and added the user group with full control to those keys. This did not work so I went back to the three keys and removed the user group. Now when I try to log on using that user I get the start up sound but nothing on the desktop In task manager the only service I can stop is the taskmgr for the user I am trying to log on. I also can not start a tast through task manager like say Explorer. When using a user that is in the admin group everything works fine. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
>

I did delete the users that I created, one in the group "Users" and on in the group "Power Users". Then created a new user as a member of the "Power Users" group. I did not create a group. The group "Users" did not seem to have permission on the keys in the first place. I am thinking that there might be another key somewhere that the group "Users" needs to have permission but has been removed. I did not add or remove the "Power Users" group so I do not understand why a member of this group would not be able to log on

Nidawi

You'll have to provide the specific keys that you modified the permissions on, so the defaults can be checked (assuming they're not application specific).

--
Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows XP/ Windows Smart Display
Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
http://www.dougknox.com
--------------------------------
Per user Group Policy Restrictions for XP Home and XP Pro
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_securityconsole.htm
--------------------------------
Please reply only to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
Unsolicited e-mail is not answered.

"Nidawi" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:3D056C87-4CAA-4CA5-8D1D-225AADC80CF8@microsoft.com...
> I did delete the users that I created, one in the group "Users" and on in the group "Power Users". Then created a new user as a member of the "Power Users" group. I did not create a group. The group "Users" did not seem to have permission on the keys in the first place. I am thinking that there might be another key somewhere that the group "Users" needs to have permission but has been removed. I did not add or remove the "Power Users" group so I do not understand why a member of this group would not be able to log on.
>
> Nidawi

The keys were specific to the application. But what I am afraid happened is in removing the permissions from those keys some how another key (or keys) lost the default permission also. Do you know of a utility that could check the registry and for the standard XP Pro install w\SP1a reset the security setting to the default based on group membership?

Thanks
Nidawi

Not that I'm aware of for the Registry.

--
Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows XP/ Windows Smart Display
Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
http://www.dougknox.com
--------------------------------
Per user Group Policy Restrictions for XP Home and XP Pro
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_securityconsole.htm
--------------------------------
Please reply only to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
Unsolicited e-mail is not answered.

"Nidawi" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:838922C5-49D7-4496-A590-B21F227622FB@microsoft.com...
> The keys were specific to the application. But what I am afraid happened is in removing the permissions from those keys some how another key (or keys) lost the default permission also. Do you know of a utility that could check the registry and for the standard XP Pro install w\SP1a reset the security setting to the default based on group membership?
>
> Thanks,
> Nidawi