Backdoor to restore, but admin probs stop me - HELP!!

[Guest]

All of my file association losses and the inability to run or import any
executable, .com, or .reg fix file because they all have to be opened,
double-clicked, or ran - leading to the same error over and over. I decided
that I would just restore the system to a point before this all happened as
one gentleman suggested. However, the help and support is an executable the
same, ending that solution very quickly. I finally found the
c:/Windows/System32/Restore/rstrui.exe file that I could right click on and
selected "run as", "current user", clicked ok, and whalla!, it opened.
However, it tells me that in order to do a restore I have to be an
administrator. Now I'm back at the drawing board because the user accounts
icon in the Control Panel has no association and will not let me in to change
to admin status. Please help!

 

[Phil]

Log into the hidden admin account and do your restore from there.
Ctrl-alt-del twice at the welcome screen, user=administrator, pass=blank or
what you changed it to.
In xp home if ctrl-alt-del doesn't work, boot to safe mode and log in as
admin.

 

[Guest]

Hey Phil -
Everything went smoothly. Came into XP and typed ctrl-alt-del twice and the
amdin account window came up. However, when I typed in the the username:
administrator and left the password blank, it told me that I couldn't do it
because of account restriction settings. What do you think? Regardless,
thanks for your help.

 

[Phil]

I've seen that before. Try booting to safe mode. That should let you in with
the admin account.
Tap F8 every second when computer first starts to boot until the boot menu
comes up, choose safe mode.

 

[Guest]

Excellent Phil -
It worked! However, I had to use the safe mode procedure rather than the
ctrl-alt-del way. I selected normal safe mode and then clicked "no" so it
would conduct a system restore versus just allowing me to go into windows to
assess hardware errors, etc. It worked wonderully and I am back in the game.
This procedure will probably help a lot of others and the similar problems
that they have posted.
Thanks guru!
Scott

 

[Guest]

Thanks again. Btw, do you think this is a worm? And/or, My ad-ware SE Plus,
more specifically Ad-watch (that sits in the sys tray) keeps coming up
(prompt after prompt after prompt) stating that reg files are being added or
changed, I can't tell. Regardless, last time this happened before the
association or reg problems, I clicked "block" rather than "accept" with each
prompt (over and over) which I now think may have removed the associations to
begin with. Would you recommend I get rid of adwatch and just run ad-ware
scanning manually? You have helped me enough, so If you don't reply, It's
still Christmas on this end. Thanks again and again.

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP\)]

Phil, if the setup he is currently using is a factory installation, many
manufacturer's use the sysprep tool to facilitate installation. This has
been known to cause a problem with logging on to the recovery console with a
blank password. Because this effects the administrator account, I'm
suspicious this may be the same issue.

You might want to check the following for more information on this issue:
http://www.theeldergeek.com/recovery_console.htm
scroll down to: Recovery Console Password

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308402
'The Password Is Not Valid' Error Message Appears When You Log On to
Recovery
Console in Windows XP


I'm not positive the cause is the same, there is a "remote desktop" issue
with blank passwords as well but this is suspiciously similar to the issue
reported in this thread. Good to see he was able to get into Safe Mode to
resolve it.