Fast User Switching Stopped Working

[Gruff the Elder]

Windows XP Pro, Service Pack 3 with current updates. Checked for malware
with Spybot S&D; Ad-Aware 2008; MalwareBytes Antimalware, all updated -
nothing found. Running Symantec Antivirus Corporate.

Fast User Switching has been enabled and running well since XP Pro Gold. It
has recently stopped working. If User A is logged in and you go to the
Welcome screen and click on the icon for User B, the screen clears and then
returns to the welcome screen. User B is not logged in.

It behaves the same whichever user is logged in. That is, after a reboot,
any user can log in. FUS does not work. When the user is logged out, any
other user can log in.

I have seen no clues in Event Viewer. Even so, I tried installing the User
Profile Hive Cleanup utility, but that didn't help. I do get the standard
Welcome screen, so it appears as if MSGINA has not been replaced. There are
26 GB free on the system partition, so there shouldn't be a problem with
space to swap things out.

Any suggestions?

 

[Gruff the Elder]

Update:

I tried System Restore. Restore Points from 2, 3, and 4 days ago failed
("can't restore; no changes were made"). A restore point from yesterday (set
by Spybot S&D before I removed a bunch of tracking cookies) seemed to work
and brought back Fast User Switching, but corrupted one of the profiles (the
desktop background was gone, the desktop icons were rearranged, and a
"modified theme" was in effect; the left hand column of the Start menu was
completely blank; also, many of the startup programs didn't start, even
though they were still listed in msconfig).

I decided that an uncorrupted profile was better than no FUS, so I tried to
undo the System Restore. System Restore failed to undo the restore.

Fortunately, I had a complete disk image taken at just past midnight last
night. I restored this image and things appear to work now. I'm going to
flush all of the restore points, make a new restore point, and keep my
fingers crossed.

 

[Kelly]

See line 32: http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

--

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP/DTS&XP)

Happy Birthday if today is your birthday!

Taskbar Repair Tool Plus!
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm