G
R
rccomputer
guru777 said:
THis is what I did to get the problem fixed. I got these instruction
off of Expert Exchange.
Accepted Answer from CrazyOne
Date: 04/29/2004 12:29PM PDT
Grade: B
Accepted Answer
Hmm perhaps
How Do I Do a "Repair Installation"?
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_install.htm
Repair
How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP
http://tinyurl.com/2zgk
Visual aid to the above procedure
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm
Click on How To Run a Repair Install
You May Lose Data or Program Settings After Reinstalling, Repairing, o
Upgrading Windows XP
http://tinyurl.com/d2w8
Data Loss May Occur After Reinstalling, Repairing, or Upgrading Window
XP
http://tinyurl.com/7yv3q
Comment from sunray_2003
Date: 04/29/2004 12:29PM PDT
Comment
Hi Mordanthanus,
Have you tried last known good configuration ? May be something i
screwed. Try that and post back if it would function well. Did youd
any changes in your system recently ?
Check for virus and spyware in the system
Post back
Thanks
Comment from SheharyaarSaahil
Date: 04/29/2004 12:29PM PDT
Comment
Hello Mordanthanus =)
Did u activate the XP ??
!! GOOD LUCK !!
Comment from sunray_2003
Date: 04/29/2004 01:11PM PDT
Comment
check this too: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=313322
Comment from asrobinson
Date: 05/11/2004 05:51AM PDT
Comment
I am seeing the same problem on an XP system right after cleaning
virus. Click on profile to log in. Wall paper flashes briefly then log
me right back off. Anyone else seen this, any suggestions?
Comment from highway-computers
Date: 05/17/2004 11:04PM PDT
Comment
I have a customers Compaq laptop with the same problem, only I ca
login under administrator in safe mode but that account only. I hav
scanned for viruses in another computer, but found nothing.
This really has me stumped. Please help! I cannot install service pac
1 either and my customer requires all his data in one piece. I want t
avoid a repair install if possible.
HELP:!!!
Comment from pizza_man
Date: 05/22/2004 09:02PM PDT
Comment
I am having exactly the same problem. I try to log in with either m
username or administrator and just logs out immediately. The sam
behaviour happens when I try it on safe mode. I've tried reinstallin
windows (repair installation) several times but the same behaviou
persists after. Any ideas?
Comment from quintoncomputers
Date: 05/24/2004 03:45PM PDT
Comment
I have just fixed this issue for a client with the same simptoms b
doing the following: using ESD commander, I was able to edit th
registry and change the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Window
NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Userinit key from a garbled value hi
broadband provider's software set, to C:\WINDOWS\system32\Explorer.exe
for WinXPPro, home may have a different location for Explorer.exe, bu
this is almost always the problem with that behaviour. Re-installin
windows is almost never necessary in this situation, changing th
registry has worked the 5 or 6 times I have seen this problem.
If you have access to another computer to burn a disk, there ar
several options to modify the registry, such a
http://sourceforge.net/projects/austrumi .. google is your frien
here.
Good luck! This situation IS recoverable with a little work, withou
data loss.
Andrew Quinton
Comment from pizza_man
Date: 05/25/2004 08:10PM PDT
Comment
I just checked that registry key in two computers, one with the lo
on-log off behavior and one that works okay and in both that key ha
this value : "C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe," and not explorer.exe
There is no explorer.exe in the system32 directory.
Comment from pizza_man
Date: 05/25/2004 09:13PM PDT
Comment
I tried quintoncomputers solution and it worked for me.
Comment from pizza_man
Date: 05/25/2004 09:14PM PDT
Comment
Although I did a slight modification in his solution, to th
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Userinit i added "C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.exe,"
and not "C:\WINDOWS\system32\Explorer.exe,". Yes, including the comma.
Comment from eksperten
Date: 06/02/2004 04:03AM PDT
Comment
Where do you find ESD Commander and how to use it??
Comment from pizza_man
Date: 06/02/2004 01:56PM PDT
Comment
Actually what he was referring to is ERD Commander from Winternals.
http://tinyurl.com/2fkdq . But any other product which you could use to
edit the registry from an unbootable system will work.
Comment from quintoncomputers
Date: 06/02/2004 07:24PM PDT
Comment
Yes, I had an unfortunate typo there, ERD is spendy, but worth it, I am
working on instructions on how to fix this with Open Source Software,
but modifying the Windows registry from Linux can be a dangerous
proposition, i should have complete instructions in a day or so (my
wife is having a baby any day, so my computer interest is taking a back
seat.)
Comment from quintoncomputers
Date: 06/02/2004 07:28PM PDT
Comment
Sorry, Here is a link to get you started
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html i have used it
with basic admin pasword changes (via the CD-ROM ISO) but haven't
delved into the registry to any degree yet. Good luck, I'll update when
I can.
Comment from DSoz
Date: 06/03/2004 01:58PM PDT
Comment
The free tool quintoncomputers mentioned worked well enough to show me
the bad registry entry (wsaupdater.exe) that AdAware had removed. Then
I went into Recovery Console to copy userinit.exe to wsaupdater.exe.
Once back to the full version of Windows, I could fix the registry &
remove the bad file again.
Comment from carbonmonoxyd
Date: 06/04/2004 02:39AM PDT
Comment
I am also having the same problem with Windows XP Home Edition.
I was wondering what free tool it is that you were able to use, DSoz?
Comment from DSoz
Date: 06/04/2004 04:42AM PDT
Comment
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html
I used the ISO to make the boot disk. That only allowed me to see the
registry key that was bad, not fix it. However, as I mentioned, it was
enough to let me know what to do to work around the bad key enough to
get into Windows & fix it right.
Comment from dercoss
Date: 06/08/2004 07:46AM PDT
Comment
I've checked a working xp pro sp1 machine and its path is
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Userinit
with a value of "C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe,"
not "C:\WINDOWS\system32\explorer.exe. I changed an affected pc to the
suggested setting but there was no difference the pc would still not
boot.
Anybody else had this problem and managed to fix it when this fix
hasn't worked??
dc
Comment from kaseylongwood
Date: 06/08/2004 10:48AM PDT
Comment
dsoz...
i was wondering how you had the program search to see which registry
value was bad. thanks
gvb
Comment from quintoncomputers
Date: 06/08/2004 12:31PM PDT
Comment
The value of 'userinit.exe' runs a program that does start-up tasks,
THEN is SUPPOSED to execute c:\windows\explorer.exe, - viruses, worms,
and plain poor programming can cause userinit.exe to not call
explorer.exe , which is the actual windows user interface - that's why
you see the desktop flash, then logout - there isn't anything specified
to run as a user interface - My mistake on an earlier post was to
specify 'c:\WINDOWS\system32\explorer.exe' - explorer.exe actually
resides in c:\WINDOWS on XP - change the registry entry to
'C:\windows\explorer.exe,' and try that out. You may have other
problems, but if you see the desktop flash then logout, this should at
least get you in to where you can run antivirus and ad/malware
detection software.
Hope this helps,
Andrew
Comment from bmerritt79
Date: 06/08/2004 12:59PM PDT
Comment
I, too, ran into this problem last night; and thanks to the web and
people like you, I was able to fix it.
My problem occurred as I was installing R-DriveImage demo software (on
an unrelated hard disk crash)... LavaSoft's Ad-Aware popped up and
wanted to run, I let it. Then I got a message that I needed to reboot
(I wrongly thought it had to do with the R-DriveImage software.), I let
it reboot... when it did, it logged on briefly to a blank desktop, then
logged off to the Welcome screen with only an Administrator icon
available. Every time I would click on the Admin icon, the computer
would log on and log off within a second or two. I remembered that the
R-DriveImage software had said something about needing Admin privileges
(I am the only user on my machine so I had never set up either another
user or input an Admin password.) so I thought maybe the password file
had been corrupted... that eventually led me to PNordahl's
http://home.ernet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html
I tried several times to change/reset to blank my Administrator
password... no joy... finally realized, duh, that the password was
fine... when I clicked on the Administrator icon at the welcome screen,
it didn't say I couldn't log on, it logged on and immediately off!
That led me to this thread. I decided to use the austrumi ISO disk
image mentioned by quintoncomputers and
http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm#1 to burn a
bootable CD Rom. (When it boots, don't take too long to type in
nt_pass at the boot: prompt or it will continue to boot to a Latvia
version of the Linux GUI, which does not appear to have a GUI versio
of a windows registry editor.)
"nt_pass" apparently runs a linux script that eventually runs chntp
(change nt passord?) that appears to be a version of the same progra
created by pnordahl.
The script will stop and ask you to hit enter to continue to load SCS
drivers, it then asked me if I wanted it to probe for SCSI drivers
[n], I took the default [n]o and hit enter. Next, it asked wha
partition contains your NT installation, I took the default again, i
this case [/dev/hda2] and hit enter. Then it asked: what is the ful
path to the registry directory, again select the defaul
[windows\system32\config]. Next came the question, which hives (files
do you want to edit (leave default for password setting, separat
multiple names with spaces), the default was [sam system security],
chose to type software and hit enter.
I then chose option 9 - registry editor.
A ? will get you a list of commands that are available, I used ls whic
appears to be equivalent to a DOS dir command... cd to chang
directories... cat to print the value of a key... and ed to change th
value of a key.
For instance (this is from memory, not notes... sorry) at the promp
[1020], type cd Microsoft and hit enter, then cd Windows NT and hi
enter, then cd CurrentVersion and hit enter, finally cd Winlogon an
hit enter (case is important).
Maybe you could just type one cd Microsoft/Window
NT/CurrentVersion/Winlogon and hit enter... I don't know. But it seem
to be the registry equivalent of
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Window
NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
At that point I typed cat Userinit and lo and behold, up came
C:\WINDOWS\System32\wsaupdater.exe... I don't know what compan
replaced userinit.exe with this entry, but I don't think I like them.
At any rate I typed ed Userinit and at the promp
[C:\Windows\System32\wsaupdater.exe] I type
C:\Windows\System32\userinit.exe and hit enter.
Then q to quit (you will be asked if there is something to save), q t
keep quitting and y when it asks if you're sure you want to write th
changes (careful, careful... good luck). The program then dumped m
out to a # prompt and said I could rerun the script if I typed a spac
followed by sh /script/main.rc
I removed the cdrom from the drive and rebooted to Windows XP, n
problems.
Good luck all and thanks for the help... did I mention I hat
computers?
Comment from kaseylongwood
Date: 06/09/2004 06:11AM PDT
Comment
thanks everybody who helped out, especially bmerritt. its all fixed an
i had the same thing wsaupdater.exe. i have never had a problem wit
adaware but it might be a different program that caused it. i had jus
used spysweeper for the first time and most likely that is what cause
it. oh well its fixed now. and thanks again to everyone.
Comment from mer_ner
Date: 06/09/2004 09:16AM PDT
Comment
Hi, I was having this problem and I still am. I can't even get in o
Safe Mode. I have installed Windows for a second time and I wish to b
able to use all my old setting. I don't know how to look at th
registry for the 1st Windows that was installed so I can change th
key. Can you help?
Comment from carbonmonoxyd
Date: 06/09/2004 09:19PM PDT
Comment
I had the same problem which stemmed from using Lavasoft's Ad-Aware an
I found a very simple fix;
First off, boot your computer from your Windows XP restore cd/OS cd
when the menu comes up hit the R key to get to the recovery prompt.
The prompt should start off at C:\Windows. Type 'cd system32'. Th
prompt should now read 'C:\Windows\system32'
Type copy userinit.exe wsaupdater.exe
Viola.
That did it for me. I'm not sure this will work for all cases, as min
stemmed from Ad-Aware deleting/replacing files. Hope this helps.
Matt Featherstone
Comment from avi_india
Date: 06/10/2004 07:13AM PDT
Comment
Hi All,
I am facing same issue :
This morning, I was working on my laptop at my home. then while comin
to work, I just closed the lid and brought notebook to my workplace.
(something which i do daily). When I opened the lid, it will not resume
(from standby position). At that time I cold rebooted the machine. I
get to login screen, but as soon as I log in, I am logged out back to
login screen. Happenes with all the users on the system.
What should I do in such a case? I can not use any of the tools
described above as I simply can not login. Can this be a virus? If yew,
how do i clean. I have antivitus but I never created a rescue disk..
(-Ajay
Comment from ndknightmare
Date: 06/16/2004 01:36AM PDT
Comment
Hi,
I had exactly the same problem after doing a repair on windows XP - i
was going to copy the userinit.exe to wsaupdater.exe, but it wasnt
there.
I started the recovery console and then did expanded it from the
windows xp cd
d:
cd i386
expand userinit.ex_ c:\windows\system32
i was then able to get in to windows.
Thanks for all the helpful suggestions above.
ndk
Comment from lewisrw
Date: 06/20/2004 06:41PM PDT
Comment
Hi - just had the same problem with my son's laptop and Win XP;
although since he doesn't have Lavasoft Ad-Aware installed, I can't
blame it on Ad-Aware. Thank you for all of the ideas in this thread. I
fixed the problem by 1) booting to a Repair Console (IBM provides this
on their laptops), 2) changing to C:\WINDOWS\System32, and 3) copying
userinit.exe to wsaupdater.exe (there was no wsaupdater.exe present). I
then 4) reboot into Safe mode and successfully logged-on as
Adminstrator (for the first time in several days!) Next step was to 5)
edit the registry and change userinit in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon from "wsaupdater.exe," to "userinit.exe,";
6) final reboot and back to normal! Thanks everyone. --Rick Lewis--
Comment from janedoe
Date: 07/11/2004 01:00AM PDT
Comment
Hey, I changed the registry key
(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon) to 'explorer.exe,' from 'userinit.exe'
which didn't fix the problem. I am unsure of what to do next. I'm
running Windows Xp Home
Comment from Packet1009
Date: 07/12/2004 10:28AM PDT
Comment
tried this today on a client box - wsaupdater.exe was missing but
referenced in the registry. copying userinit.exe over to it worked just
fine. thanks
Comment from supergjsy
Date: 07/25/2004 05:02AM PDT
Comment
I Love clever people (compared to me thats most of you guys) I had this
thing on friends pc
tried many things no joy
Friend had already had a play Any way long story short bmerritt thankyou for the noddys guide you are
now adistinction
and pnordhal who has saved me many hours in the past with pass word
changer should now be elevated to god status
thanks agian bmerritt/pnordahl you guys are way to clever for me
Comment from Syncubus
Date: 08/25/2004 09:40AM PDT
Comment
Just wanted to post a quick "thank you" to the solution providers for
this topic. It was helpful to me, as well.
Comment from yogi_bear_rulez
Date: 08/25/2004 03:37PM PDT
Comment
Yo,
I had almost the same problem, but I was so foolish to delete the
entire Userinit Value !
Here is my solution for that !
Took a while to figure it out.Boot with the Windows XP install CD-rom and go to the Recovery Console
(pressing R)
Log on to the correct WINDOWS partition, normally the 1.
Go to C:\WINDOWS\system32\config
Give the command dir and you will see the hive called software.
Copy this "corrupted" hive to e.g. C:\software.bak using the following
command:
copy C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\software C:\software.bak
This is to have your Software Hive / Registry handy to edit it later
with the REG tool.
Now to get your system bootable again.....
Copy the REPAIR version of this SOFTWARE hive (kind of registry) to the
operational location.
Do this with the following command:
copy C:\WINDOWS\Repair\software C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\software
Now a running SOFTWARE hive is copied to the operational location.
exit the Recovery Console using the exit command.
Reboot the system and see if the system starts.
If the system starts. you need to get the backed up software hive up
and running
Open a DOS prompt
Use the command REG
REG LOAD HKLM\WRONG C:\software.bak
It should say import successfuly.
Now open regedt32 and Go to HKEYLOCALMACHINE and then WRONG
You will see that the entire SOFTWARE tree is located there....
Add the key as mentioned above Userinit type REG_SZ with the value as
mentioned above
C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe,
Don't forget the comma !
Now exit regedt32
Now save this WRONG subkey as a file again.
Open a DOS box again and use the REG command again to save the subkey.
REG SAVE HKLM\WRONG C:\sofware.new
Open the regdt32 again and delete the key WRONG, because it is not
doing anything usefull.
Reboot the system with the Windows XP install CD
Go to the recovery console (R)
Now copy the new software hiv to the operational location:
copy C:\software.new C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\software
It will ask for overwrite,...choose Y ofcourse.
Your done ,... reboot the system and it should work.
G
GeneXian
http://www.lavasofthelp.com/articles/v6/04/06/0901.html
Lavasoft Knowledge Base Article 04060901
Unable to Log On To Windows XP After Removing wsaupdater.exe
---------------------------------------------------------
SYMPTOM
After removing wsaupdater.exe from BlazeFind using Ad-aware 6 Build 18
and reference file 01R314 02.06.2004 or 01R320 19.06.2004, the abilit
to log on to the system may be compromised
-
GeneXia
Lavasoft Knowledge Base Article 04060901
Unable to Log On To Windows XP After Removing wsaupdater.exe
---------------------------------------------------------
SYMPTOM
After removing wsaupdater.exe from BlazeFind using Ad-aware 6 Build 18
and reference file 01R314 02.06.2004 or 01R320 19.06.2004, the abilit
to log on to the system may be compromised
-
GeneXia