Missing Users

[Monika]

Hello,

I tried two other groups but nobody seems to know how to solve my XP
problem. Perhaps the good people of this group are more knowledgable.

On Windows XP Home SP1a.

Recently I discovered that there is a way to restrict users without
doing it to the extent the "Limited" account does in Control Panel.

Here's what I did:

Start > Run > "Control Userpasswords2"
In the "User Accounts" dialog:
clicked user name > "Properties" > "Group Membership" tab > "Standard
User" > OK

Here's what happened:

I received an error that the user could not be modified because the
group name was not found, so I clicked "Cancel" on everything and the
user vanished. When I tried to create the user again (from "Control
Userpasswords2" and the Control Panel) I received a message the user
already exists. I did not accidentaly delete the user.

The users are also gone from the Welcome Screen. The only place they
exist is in the Profiles dialog. The folders for the vanishing users
also remain.

Note: I know about System Restore but at the time I forgot about it and
haven't made a restore point. Further, since this happened I updated
Windows, updated key software and installed two more. So, using System
Restore is a last resort option for me.

How do I get those user accounts back?


Thank you kindly for your assistance.

 

[Monika]

Hello,

I tried two other groups but nobody seems to know how to solve my XP
problem. Perhaps the good people of this group are more knowledgable.

On Windows XP Home SP1a.

Recently I discovered that there is a way to restrict users without
doing it to the extent the "Limited" account does in Control Panel.

Here's what I did:

Start > Run > "Control Userpasswords2"
In the "User Accounts" dialog:
clicked user name > "Properties" > "Group Membership" tab > "Standard
User" > OK

Here's what happened:

I received an error that the user could not be modified because the
group name was not found, so I clicked "Cancel" on everything and the
user vanished. When I tried to create the user again (from "Control
Userpasswords2" and the Control Panel) I received a message the user
already exists. I did not accidentaly delete the user.

The users are also gone from the Welcome Screen. The only place they
exist is in the Profiles dialog. The folders for the vanishing users
also remain.

Note: I know about System Restore but at the time I forgot about it and
haven't made a restore point. Further, since this happened I updated
Windows, updated key software and installed two more. So, using System
Restore is a last resort option for me.

How do I get those user accounts back?


Thank you kindly for your assistance.

I solved a piece of the puzzle. The accounts have become disabled. The
dialog I used is an old NT dialog and is available standard in XP Pro,
where it's easy to enable an account disabled this way by opening the
Computer Management console and under the "Local Users and Groups" node
double clicking the account(s) in question and clearing the "Account is
Disabled" checkbox.

So, the question now becomes how do I enable the missing account in XP
Home where the "Local Users and Groups" node in not available in
Computer Management.

Thank you.

 

[Colin Nash [MVP]]

Monika wrote:

I solved a piece of the puzzle. The accounts have become disabled. The
dialog I used is an old NT dialog and is available standard in XP Pro,
where it's easy to enable an account disabled this way by opening the
Computer Management console and under the "Local Users and Groups" node
double clicking the account(s) in question and clearing the "Account is
Disabled" checkbox.

So, the question now becomes how do I enable the missing account in XP
Home where the "Local Users and Groups" node in not available in Computer
Management.

Thank you.

Yes, the tool you used is not supported under XP Home and causes problems

Try this to re-enable the accounts...

Go to Start --> Run and type CMD. Hit OK and this opens up a command
prompt.

Type this command:

NET USER bob /active:yes (replace bob with the username... you can get a
list of usernames by typing just NET USER)