Changed Name & Lost Access

[Thomas]

The computer vendor used "Preferred Customer" for the computer in Win 2K Pro,
so I went into "Local Users and Groups" and changed it to my name. I did
not check any box requiring a password. Upon rebooting, I now get a log on
screen that pops up with the "preferred customer" log on name and it asks for
a password--which I never set or chose. I cannot boot into my Win 2K Pro w/
5 1/2 years of customization. I CAN get "in" by typing "Administrator", but
it is new desktop that does not even have network access. I cannot get "in"
using my name that I typed in and I cannot get past the password requirement
in conjunction w/ my name. What happened & can it be fixed?

 

[Ace Fekay [MVP]]

In

The computer vendor used "Preferred Customer" for the computer in Win
2K Pro, so I went into "Local Users and Groups" and changed it to my
name. I did not check any box requiring a password. Upon rebooting,
I now get a log on screen that pops up with the "preferred customer"
log on name and it asks for a password--which I never set or chose.
I cannot boot into my Win 2K Pro w/ 5 1/2 years of customization. I
CAN get "in" by typing "Administrator", but it is new desktop that
does not even have network access. I cannot get "in" using my name
that I typed in and I cannot get past the password requirement in
conjunction w/ my name. What happened & can it be fixed?

You posted to a DNS forum usually for DNS questions, not this.

If you can get in using the local administrator account, then you have the
ability to change anything on the sytem. Therefore simply go into Local
Users and rename the Preferred Customer to whatever you want it to be.

--
Regards,
Ace

This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees and
confers no rights.

Ace Fekay, MCSE 2003 & 2000, MCSA 2003 & 2000, MCSE+I, MCT,
MVP Microsoft MVP - Directory Services
Microsoft Certified Trainer

Infinite Diversities in Infinite Combinations

 

[Thomas]

Dear Ace:
Thank you for your response.
I may have been unclear: The "Preferred Customer" name is already gone
& my name is there under "Local Users". The problem seems to be the pop up
screen asking for a password (which I never checked a box requiring one).
When I use the RENAMED account name (mine), I cannot get the "Preferred
Customer" log in and settings. I get another Administrator acct. probably
because I cannot get past the log in screen requiring a password. Here's the
steps: Control Panel>Users & Passwords>Advanced>Advanced User
Management>MyName/Administrator>General>Full Name. I cannot find ANYWHERE
how to change the name & get rid of the password requirement, which did NOT
exist before. I need a step-by-step, as rudimentary as that may seem to you.
I don't want to get locked out completely if I compound my error.

 

[Ace Fekay [MVP]]

In

Dear Ace:
Thank you for your response.
I may have been unclear: The "Preferred Customer" name is
already gone & my name is there under "Local Users". The problem
seems to be the pop up screen asking for a password (which I never
checked a box requiring one). When I use the RENAMED account name
(mine), I cannot get the "Preferred Customer" log in and settings. I
get another Administrator acct. probably because I cannot get past
the log in screen requiring a password. Here's the steps: Control
Panel>Users & Passwords>Advanced>Advanced User
Management>MyName/Administrator>General>Full Name. I cannot find
ANYWHERE how to change the name & get rid of the password
requirement, which did NOT exist before. I need a step-by-step, as
rudimentary as that may seem to you. I don't want to get locked out
completely if I compound my error.

As I said, if you an administrator, you can rename any local account to
whatever you desire.


I believe you were already here?

Rt-click My Computer, choose Manage. Drill down to Local Users and Groups/
Expand Users. Select the account you want to alter, rt-click Properties,
make your changes. You can also select the account you want to alter,
rt-click the account, choose Rename.

Is that what you mean?

 

[Thomas]

Hello, Ace:
I have been trying to solve the issue by reading my MSFT Press books on
Win2K Pro. The "name" involved is the USER NAME. It was set by the IBM
vendor as "Preferred Customer". No password was required on boot-up. When I
changed it from Preferred Customer to my name, I wrote down EXACTLY as I
typed my name. But, even so, I also made sure NOT to ck. any box requiring a
password screen. On next boot-up, it should NOT have popped-up a log-in
screen and required a password. I am miffed. I cannot regain the
configuration I've been working w/ for several years. When I type in
ADMINISTRATOR & hit ENTER, I get a whole new user configuration. I cannot
figure out how to get my old user configuration & eliminate the new
log-on/password pop-up that did not exist before. THAT is the problem.
Thank you very much for attempting to assist me.

 

[Ace Fekay [MVP]]

In

Hello, Ace:
I have been trying to solve the issue by reading my MSFT Press books
on Win2K Pro. The "name" involved is the USER NAME. It was set by
the IBM vendor as "Preferred Customer". No password was required on
boot-up. When I changed it from Preferred Customer to my name, I
wrote down EXACTLY as I typed my name. But, even so, I also made
sure NOT to ck. any box requiring a password screen. On next
boot-up, it should NOT have popped-up a log-in screen and required a
password. I am miffed. I cannot regain the configuration I've been
working w/ for several years. When I type in ADMINISTRATOR & hit
ENTER, I get a whole new user configuration. I cannot figure out how
to get my old user configuration & eliminate the new log-on/password
pop-up that did not exist before. THAT is the problem. Thank you
very much for attempting to assist me.

It will only pop up with a logon box if two factors are set:
Multiple users are created o rexists and fast user switching is disabled.
The default administrator account is a user account and if you have fast
user switching disabled, then both will come up on the blie XP logon screen.
Server does not do this but rather get the Windows security box. You can set
XP in a non-domain environment to use this method too.

Honestly, with all due respect, this is the first time I've ever heard of
such a thing in the numerous years I've been in this business,

How about this, just create another user account, put it in the
administrator goup, logon as it, then logoff (so it creates a profile), then
log back on as administrator, right-click on My Computer, choose properties,
Advanced, User profiles, and copy the "Preferred Customer" profile to the
new user account you just created. If you are not sure which profile is the
"Preferred Customer" profile, it will be the one with the largest size. Then
logon as the new user account.

Ace

 

[Herb Martin]

Hello, Ace:
I have been trying to solve the issue by reading my MSFT Press books on
Win2K Pro. The "name" involved is the USER NAME. It was set by the IBM
vendor as "Preferred Customer". No password was required on boot-up. When
I
changed it from Preferred Customer to my name, I wrote down EXACTLY as I
typed my name. But, even so, I also made sure NOT to ck. any box
requiring a
password screen. On next boot-up, it should NOT have popped-up a log-in
screen and required a password. I am miffed. I cannot regain the
configuration I've been working w/ for several years. When I type in
ADMINISTRATOR & hit ENTER, I get a whole new user configuration. I cannot
figure out how to get my old user configuration & eliminate the new
log-on/password pop-up that did not exist before. THAT is the problem.
Thank you very much for attempting to assist me.

I don't know precisely what you did, but your PROFILE with all of your
settings is almost certainly safe and right there on your hard drive.

It is either in the Profile directory (likely C:\Documents and Settings\
with your
username as a suffix) or on the server if you were using a Roaming profile.

First thing to do is FIND and SAVE that profile -- with something like:

xcopy "C:\Documents and Settings\username" c:\saveprofile\ /s /h /k /o /c

The key here is that your profile can be used to modify your new profile OR
when you eventually get logged on correctly.