Can't change User login passwords, picture, account type, etc.

[Marianne B.]

Windows XP Home SP2

When I open "Users" in Control panel, I get an error message that says "The
group name could not be found" and no users are listed. The only thing I can
do is add a new user. Users can log in, but I can't create or change passwords
and other User settings.

A search turned up 2 possible solutions:

1. Extract a fresh copy of nusrmgr.cpl (suggested by Kelly)

and

2. the following command:
mshta.exe "res://C:\WINDOWS\system32\nusrmgr.cpl/nusrmgr.hta"
(suggested by Ramesh)

I tried both - no luck.

Also tried to open "Users"
from within a new account,
from the Administrator account,
after running UPHclean,
after running SFC, and, finally,
after a repair install of XP SP2.

I still get the error message.

Help would be greatly appreciated - I really don't want to do a complete
reinstall of XP and all the apps.

Thanks,

M.B.

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Hi Marianne,

Check this article:
http://www.jsifaq.com/SF/Tips/Tip.aspx?id=6488

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


Windows XP Home SP2

When I open "Users" in Control panel, I get an error message that says "The
group name could not be found" and no users are listed. The only thing I can
do is add a new user. Users can log in, but I can't create or change passwords
and other User settings.

A search turned up 2 possible solutions:

1. Extract a fresh copy of nusrmgr.cpl (suggested by Kelly)

and

2. the following command:
mshta.exe "res://C:\WINDOWS\system32\nusrmgr.cpl/nusrmgr.hta"
(suggested by Ramesh)

I tried both - no luck.

Also tried to open "Users"
from within a new account,
from the Administrator account,
after running UPHclean,
after running SFC, and, finally,
after a repair install of XP SP2.

I still get the error message.

Help would be greatly appreciated - I really don't want to do a complete
reinstall of XP and all the apps.

Thanks,

M.B.

 

[R. Nolan]

Hi Ramesh,

Thanks for the suggestion.

To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever used the Userpasswords2 applet on
that PC (I know I haven't and the owner doesn't even know how to use the
command line), so I don't know what could have caused the problem or what I can
do, short of a complete, fresh install, to fix it. I can't believe a repair
install didn't fix it! I wonder if some application installer could have tried
to alter groups or policies? The owner recently installed a new version of
eTrust EZ Antivirus.

Do you have any other ideas?

Thanks,

M.B.


Hi Marianne,

Check this article:
http://www.jsifaq.com/SF/Tips/Tip.aspx?id=6488

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com



Windows XP Home SP2

When I open "Users" in Control panel, I get an error message that says "The
group name could not be found" and no users are listed. The only thing I can
do is add a new user. Users can log in, but I can't create or change passwords
and other User settings.

A search turned up 2 possible solutions:

1. Extract a fresh copy of nusrmgr.cpl (suggested by Kelly)

and

2. the following command:
mshta.exe "res://C:\WINDOWS\system32\nusrmgr.cpl/nusrmgr.hta"
(suggested by Ramesh)

I tried both - no luck.

Also tried to open "Users"
from within a new account,
from the Administrator account,
after running UPHclean,
after running SFC, and, finally,
after a repair install of XP SP2.

I still get the error message.

Help would be greatly appreciated - I really don't want to do a complete
reinstall of XP and all the apps.

Thanks,

M.B.

 

[Marianne B.]

Hi Ramesh,

Thanks for the suggestion.

To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever used the Userpasswords2 applet on
that PC (I know I haven't and the owner doesn't even know how to use the
command line), so I don't know what could have caused the problem or what I can
do, short of a complete, fresh install, to fix it. I can't believe a repair
install didn't fix it! I wonder if some application installer could have tried
to alter groups or policies? The owner recently installed a new version of
eTrust EZ Antivirus.

Do you have any other ideas?

Thanks,

M.B.


Hi Marianne,

Check this article:
http://www.jsifaq.com/SF/Tips/Tip.aspx?id=6488

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com



Windows XP Home SP2

When I open "Users" in Control panel, I get an error message that says "The
group name could not be found" and no users are listed. The only thing I can
do is add a new user. Users can log in, but I can't create or change passwords
and other User settings.

A search turned up 2 possible solutions:

1. Extract a fresh copy of nusrmgr.cpl (suggested by Kelly)

and

2. the following command:
mshta.exe "res://C:\WINDOWS\system32\nusrmgr.cpl/nusrmgr.hta"
(suggested by Ramesh)

I tried both - no luck.

Also tried to open "Users"
from within a new account,
from the Administrator account,
after running UPHclean,
after running SFC, and, finally,
after a repair install of XP SP2.

I still get the error message.

Help would be greatly appreciated - I really don't want to do a complete
reinstall of XP and all the apps.

Thanks,

M.B.

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Do you have any other ideas?

Perhaps a System Restore rollback would help? System Restore restores the registry hives, system files and other components.

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


Hi Ramesh,

Thanks for the suggestion.

To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever used the Userpasswords2 applet on
that PC (I know I haven't and the owner doesn't even know how to use the
command line), so I don't know what could have caused the problem or what I can
do, short of a complete, fresh install, to fix it. I can't believe a repair
install didn't fix it! I wonder if some application installer could have tried
to alter groups or policies? The owner recently installed a new version of
eTrust EZ Antivirus.

Do you have any other ideas?

Thanks,

M.B.

 

[Nightowl]

When I open "Users" in Control panel, I get an error message that says "The
group name could not be found" and no users are listed. The only thing I can
do is add a new user. Users can log in, but I can't create or change passwords
and other User settings.

Hi Marianne

Something to try. . .

When you're logged in as Administrator, open a Command window and at the
prompt type:

net localgroup <enter>

What do you see? Is there actually a Users group listed?

If there is, at the prompt type:

net localgroup Users [one of the "invisible" accounts] /add <enter>
e.g. net localgroup Users John /add

If you see the message "The command completed successfully", switch back
to Windows and see if the account is now visible in Control Panel/Users.

If the Users group isn't listed, in the Command window type:

net localgroup Users /add <enter>

then try adding back one of the missing users as above.

Please let us know if any of this helps.