Administrative Account :(:(

[J]

I have Windows XP Pro. My power went out the other day & when I turned the
computer on my desk top was gone. It was back to the original XP desktop. I
lost all my icons. I am pretty good with computers however I am having
problems. While working on it I realize that I am running under the
"Administrator Guest Account" which gives me very limited access.

This is what I have tried, with no success:

-Run " control userpasswords2 " It brings up User Account but @ the top it
says "you must be a member of Admin group and "J" account is not a member of
the admin group. In the box it says "Administrator" with no password so I hit
ok (because I never set up an admin password during setup) I get this error
message "User Options could not be started with the supplied info" I then
tried using the above "J" with & with out a password still got the same
message.

Went into safe mode. Went into my computer> C drive> and clicked on Docs &
Settings 3 files came up "Admin", "J", "All Users". I can access "Admin" "All
Users" but not "J" an error comes up Access Denied.

I would be happy to just use the new "admin guest acct" but i have very
limited access & can not download.

I also went into computer management & user accounts. I see "J" account but
can not access it.

I have my original disc to reload OS but it tells me I need to be the
Administrator to do this & will not allow me to go any further.

I would be very blessed if someone could help me through this I have a Dell
4400. I have also tried to get into the boot menu to boot from disc but it
wont come up.

Thanks in advance for everyone's help in this matter!!!!

 

[Malke]

I have Windows XP Pro. My power went out the other day & when I turned the
computer on my desk top was gone. It was back to the original XP desktop.
I lost all my icons. I am pretty good with computers however I am having
problems. While working on it I realize that I am running under the
"Administrator Guest Account" which gives me very limited access.

This is what I have tried, with no success:

-Run " control userpasswords2 " It brings up User Account but @ the top it
says "you must be a member of Admin group and "J" account is not a member
of the admin group. In the box it says "Administrator" with no password so
I hit ok (because I never set up an admin password during setup) I get
this error message "User Options could not be started with the supplied
info" I then tried using the above "J" with & with out a password still
got the same message.

Went into safe mode. Went into my computer> C drive> and clicked on Docs &
Settings 3 files came up "Admin", "J", "All Users". I can access "Admin"
"All Users" but not "J" an error comes up Access Denied.

I would be happy to just use the new "admin guest acct" but i have very
limited access & can not download.

I also went into computer management & user accounts. I see "J" account
but can not access it.

I have my original disc to reload OS but it tells me I need to be the
Administrator to do this & will not allow me to go any further.

I would be very blessed if someone could help me through this I have a
Dell 4400. I have also tried to get into the boot menu to boot from disc
but it wont come up.

There is no such thing as "Administrator Guest" account, just "Guest".
Hopefully you weren't using the built-in Administrator account for daily
work (hadn't renamed it to "Admin") because your regular user account
apparently is corrupted. Let's think positively for now.

Restart the computer and at the Welcome Screen click "Administrator". If you
are using the classic logon box, enter "Administrator" (without the quotes)
as the username. In either case you would use the password you originally
assigned to the built-in Administrator account. Once in, go to Control
Panel>User Accounts and create another account with administrative
privileges. If you prefer to do your daily work from a Limited account,
create it now. Copy your data from your original user account to the new
account. Log into the new account. If all is well, delete the corrupted
user account.

If for some reason you did assign a password to the built-in Administrative
account and have forgotten it, use NTpasswd to reset it to a blank.

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

As I said, this assumes that the user account that is corrupted is *not* the
built-in Administrator account. If it is and you neglected to create
another user account with administrative privileges, you will need to back
up your data and try a Repair Install. If the Repair Install fails, you'll
need to do a clean install. This time protect yourself by not using the
built-in Administrator account for daily work and creating another
administrative user account for yourself. The bottom line is that you
should never have only one user account with administrative privileges on
the system for exactly this eventuality.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm - Repair Install
How-To
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install How-To
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Reinstalling_Windows - What
you will need on-hand

Malke

 

[J]

Thank you for responding unfortunatley I believe I was using just the admin
acct...I went into control panel & user accts and there is no where to add
another user w/ admin settings or another user at all. I was trying to do a
screen shot but I lost my word & note pad wouldnt let me paste it. I set a
password to it (b/c it would just load to desktop) & rebooted it. it came up
Administrator requesting a password. Put in password & when i go into control
panel & user accts it says "Administrator w/ the chess icon & under it is
says "Guest Account" I am not even able to add another acct. I tried to click
on the your link for clean install b/c I cant even get into bios to try a
boot from disc but ie kept closing down on me. and I am getting very
stressed...it has been a long few days with this computer luckily i have my
laptop. The Dell is my kids computer. So I will try again later to do a
repair or clean install. Thank You for all your help & if there is anything
else you can think of please let me know. God Bless!

 

[Malke]

Thank you for responding unfortunatley I believe I was using just the
admin acct...I went into control panel & user accts and there is no where
to add another user w/ admin settings or another user at all. I was trying
to do a screen shot but I lost my word & note pad wouldnt let me paste it.
I set a password to it (b/c it would just load to desktop) & rebooted it.
it came up Administrator requesting a password. Put in password & when i
go into control panel & user accts it says "Administrator w/ the chess
icon & under it is says "Guest Account" I am not even able to add another
acct. I tried to click on the your link for clean install b/c I cant even
get into bios to try a boot from disc but ie kept closing down on me. and
I am getting very stressed...it has been a long few days with this
computer luckily i have my laptop. The Dell is my kids computer. So I will
try again later to do a repair or clean install. Thank You for all your
help & if there is anything else you can think of please let me know. God
Bless!

Here are a few other things to try before you starting reinstalling Windows:

1. Boot into Last Known Good. You get to this option from the same menu as
Safe Mode.

2. If LKG doesn't work, then I think you can run a System Restore from a
Limited Account. If you can't, then I think you can find the rstrui.exe
file in c:\Windows\System32\restore\. Right-click on it and choose "run as
Administrator". If that works, restore to a date when things were working.

3. And here's another thought - From the Limited account, locate cmd.exe in
C:\Windows\System32. Right-click on it and choose "run as Administrator".
Now you'll be able to create another user account like so:

net user <username> <password> /add /active:yes [enter]
Substitute some name for "username" (ex. joe) and 1234 for the password.

Hopefully that will create an account with administrative privileges (or
someone else will come along and correct me) since that's the default in
XP. Then you can log onto that new account and do what you need to.

Since the machine belongs to your kid, it may also be extremely infected
with viruses/malware and that could be why the account got corrupted.
That's just a WAG on my part. If you think that's the case, then don't
bother yourself with all of this. Grab his data and flatten the system,
clean-install Windows. It's not the end of the world and sometimes the best
choice.

Malke

 

[J]

You Rock Malke....and I told the kids about all of this, which is why I
bought myself a laptop & instructed them on what to download & what not to. I
have mc afee on there but from I was reading on your links....it is garbage.
The computer is also in my dinning room where I have constant sight of it but
that doesnt mean crap. 4 kids & a sometimes destracted mother can cause kids
to click on sights telling them they just won a free wii which = viruses!!!
Well once I get it fixed guess what I will be doing.... each one will have
limited access & I will have my own admin acct (not the built in one )
Thanks again & I will let you know the outcome. God Bless u and all.
--
J

Thank you for responding unfortunatley I believe I was using just the
admin acct...I went into control panel & user accts and there is no where
to add another user w/ admin settings or another user at all. I was trying
to do a screen shot but I lost my word & note pad wouldnt let me paste it.
I set a password to it (b/c it would just load to desktop) & rebooted it.
it came up Administrator requesting a password. Put in password & when i
go into control panel & user accts it says "Administrator w/ the chess
icon & under it is says "Guest Account" I am not even able to add another
acct. I tried to click on the your link for clean install b/c I cant even
get into bios to try a boot from disc but ie kept closing down on me. and
I am getting very stressed...it has been a long few days with this
computer luckily i have my laptop. The Dell is my kids computer. So I will
try again later to do a repair or clean install. Thank You for all your
help & if there is anything else you can think of please let me know. God
Bless!

Here are a few other things to try before you starting reinstalling Windows:

1. Boot into Last Known Good. You get to this option from the same menu as
Safe Mode.

2. If LKG doesn't work, then I think you can run a System Restore from a
Limited Account. If you can't, then I think you can find the rstrui.exe
file in c:\Windows\System32\restore\. Right-click on it and choose "run as
Administrator". If that works, restore to a date when things were working.

3. And here's another thought - From the Limited account, locate cmd.exe in
C:\Windows\System32. Right-click on it and choose "run as Administrator".
Now you'll be able to create another user account like so:

net user <username> <password> /add /active:yes [enter]
Substitute some name for "username" (ex. joe) and 1234 for the password.

Hopefully that will create an account with administrative privileges (or
someone else will come along and correct me) since that's the default in
XP. Then you can log onto that new account and do what you need to.

Since the machine belongs to your kid, it may also be extremely infected
with viruses/malware and that could be why the account got corrupted.
That's just a WAG on my part. If you think that's the case, then don't
bother yourself with all of this. Grab his data and flatten the system,
clean-install Windows. It's not the end of the world and sometimes the best
choice.

Malke

 

[Malke]

You Rock Malke....and I told the kids about all of this, which is why I
bought myself a laptop & instructed them on what to download & what not
to. I have mc afee on there but from I was reading on your links....it is
garbage. The computer is also in my dinning room where I have constant
sight of it but that doesnt mean crap. 4 kids & a sometimes destracted
mother can cause kids to click on sights telling them they just won a free
wii which = viruses!!! Well once I get it fixed guess what I will be
doing.... each one will have limited access & I will have my own admin
acct (not the built in one ) Thanks again & I will let you know the
outcome. God Bless u and all.

No problem. Please do let me know the outcome. Remember that unless your kid
is writing The Great American Novel or creating the Cure For Cancer (and if
s/he is, then s/he is old enough to know how to Back Up!), that none of
this is World Shaking. Keep them off your computer and if they mess up
their own machine, wipe and reinstall. They didn't back up? How sad (not).

Take it easy,

Malke

 

[J]

U GOT IT MALKE. Will let you know probably sometime tomorrow. Still trying to
have a most stress free night watching the unit on stc. Peace & God Bless. Be
looking for my post tomorrow Good Night

 

[J]

Hey Malke...I had to re-install OS. I was finally able to find what F key put
me into Bios & it was F12, the one key I didnt try. I did boot from disk &
reloaded the orginal OS which is XP Home. I took your advice & set up my own
acct w/ admin priv & my 3 girls there own acc t's w/ limited priv. Thank You
for all your help. I hope you had a Blessed Thanksgiving.

 

[Malke]

Hey Malke...I had to re-install OS. I was finally able to find what F key
put me into Bios & it was F12, the one key I didnt try. I did boot from
disk & reloaded the orginal OS which is XP Home. I took your advice & set
up my own acct w/ admin priv & my 3 girls there own acc t's w/ limited
priv. Thank You for all your help. I hope you had a Blessed Thanksgiving.

I think you did the right thing. Thanks for taking the time to let me know.
You might be interested in a small informational article I wrote to hand
out to my clients after their kids (or they!) infected their computer:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/staying-safe.pdf

Note that it is a .pdf.

Take care and have a great Holiday Season,

Malke