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

  • Thread starter Thread starter Marianne B.
  • Start date Start date
M

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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
Marianne B. said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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