Admin Access Isn't Available and Control Panels Do Not Appear

[Guest]

I'm helping a friend that had a babysitter allow quite a few viruses to
infect the Dell PC with Windows XP Home Edition. I've run the AT&T Yahoo
virus software to delete/quaranteen the viruses. I've run Norton Utilities to
fix problems (127 all repaired) but when I tried to access the control panels
then it doesn't even appear under the Start command. There are only 2 user
accounts at log in but neither of these appear to be admin accounts. I'm at a
loss of what to do next but I want to set up the husband/wife account as the
admin account and maintain the guest account for the children. Any
suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Richard

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I'm helping a friend that had a babysitter allow quite a few
viruses to infect the Dell PC with Windows XP Home Edition. I've
run the AT&T Yahoo virus software to delete/quaranteen the viruses.
I've run Norton Utilities to fix problems (127 all repaired) but
when I tried to access the control panels then it doesn't even
appear under the Start command. There are only 2 user accounts at
log in but neither of these appear to be admin accounts. I'm at a
loss of what to do next but I want to set up the husband/wife
account as the admin account and maintain the guest account for the
children. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Boot into Safe Mode, log in as the user "Administrator" (The administrator's
password is commonly blank on Windows XP home systems - systems not setup by
the user themselves in general), utilize:

- SuperAntiSpyware
- Spybot Search and Destroy
- Lavasoft Ad-Aware

To scan for/clean up any left overs. Use CCleaner to cleanup old unused
files/etc. You can check what the other user accounts are in safe mode as
the true built-in administrator.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I'm helping a friend that had a babysitter allow quite a few viruses to
infect the Dell PC with Windows XP Home Edition.

Ugh! Each to his own, but I can't imagine allowing a babysitter to use
my computer. The risk of a major screwup, whether viruses or something
else, is much too great.

I've run the AT&T Yahoo
virus software to delete/quaranteen the viruses. I've run Norton Utilities to
fix problems (127 all repaired) but when I tried to access the control panels
then it doesn't even appear under the Start command. There are only 2 user
accounts at log in but neither of these appear to be admin accounts. I'm at a
loss of what to do next but I want to set up the husband/wife account as the
admin account and maintain the guest account for the children. Any
suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

There were/are *127* viruses? As far as I'm concerned, if a machine is
that badly infected, the only satisfactory course will be to reformat
and clean install Windows. First copy off any data your friend needs.

Anything short of a clean installation will probably leave remnants of
problems around forever.