HELP! "Use fast user switching" stopped working

[h3ctic]

Hi all!!

Info:
* Dell Dimension 8300
* Windows XP Home (all sp's & win-updates done)
* 2 users defined (in addition to Guest and Administrator).

I go into "User Accounts" and choose "Change the way users log on or off",
and check the "Use the welcome screen" and "Use fast user switching", then I
press "Apply Options"

But,,,alas....when I press "Start" - "Log off" - "Change User" the screen
will "blink" for a microsecond and nothing happens, I dont log off, I dont
get to change user, no welcome screen....windows simply "continues"
sortof...heh

So, when I go back to "User accounts" - "Change the way users log on or off"
I see that "Use the welcome screen" is checked, but the check I put next to
"Use fast user switching" now is gone !!??

I've tried to set these options as Administrator both in regular mode and
safe mode, but that check next to "Use fast user switching" wont stick....
:////

I kinda like this ability to use "Change user" so I'd REALLY appreciate it
if someone got any tips on how to get this to work again (short of doing a
reinstall, that I would like to avoid)

Thanks for reading,
rgrds,
H3ctic

 

[Jon]

Don't think it works if you're part of a domain or if you've got less than
64 mb of RAM.

(1) Could try going start > run > sfc /scannow
which will replace any corrupted system files (especially user32.dll in
which the switching function lives)

(2) Also could try creating a shortcut (rightclick desktop and choose "New
shortcut" ) and then typing

rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation

for the shortcut. Could try clicking on that to switch users, to see if that
works

Jon

 

[h3ctic]

(inline)

Don't think it works if you're part of a domain or if you've got less than
64 mb of RAM.

The computer is part of a workgroup, no domain afaik. It got 512MB Ram.

(1) Could try going start > run > sfc /scannow
which will replace any corrupted system files (especially user32.dll in
which the switching function lives)

I ran this command (also tried /scanonce) but this did not help, I still
have the same problem.

(2) Also could try creating a shortcut (rightclick desktop and choose "New
shortcut" ) and then typing

rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation

for the shortcut. Could try clicking on that to switch users, to see if
that works

Nah, when I tried that shortcut I got the login-box like the one you get
whenever you disable the welcome-screen, and if I try to key in the other
user I get a prompt saying the current user will be logged off and that all
work not saved will be lost blah...

:////

Please !! More ideas anyone ???

 

[Jon]

Couple of other ideas...

(1) If your user accounts are of type "limited" you could try changing them
both (eg temporarily) to type "administrator" (via user accounts logged on
as Administrator). Could then also try enabling / disabling fast user
switching from within one of these accounts. If all then works well you
could later switch them back to type "limited", if you so choose.

(2) Check these 3 registry value keys which should have the following values
when Fast User Switching & Welcome screen are enabled....

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

AllowMultipleTSSessions = 1 (type reg_dword)
LogonType = 1 (type reg_dword)
Background = "0 0 0" (type reg_sz)

(3) Perhaps a recent application you've installed is conflicting with the
function. Try uninstalling it and seeing if the switching works then.

Jon

 

[h3ctic]

Thanks alot Jon for your tips and suggestions, I did however figure it out
before reading this last post:

I solved the problem !!!

)

For some reason I started thinking about "services" and went and checked if
there was some service named "fast user switching" or similar and
yuhh..there was,,,,and.....it was disabled !?

So I tried to enable it and got a errormessage (translated from norwegian)

---------
Services
---------
Can not start the service Fast User Switching Compability on Local Machine.
Error 1068: A subservice or group that it depends on, could not start
<OK>
---------

So, I checked the service properties and found the dependencies tab and
found out that it is dependend on Terminal Services as well as RPC, so I had
to enable again the Terminal Services since it was disabled!? And when I did
this its all good again )))

/me very happy

Thanks anyways !! )

rgrds,
h3ctic

 

[h3ctic]

Thanks alot Jon for your tips and suggestions, I did however figure it out
before reading this last post:

I solved the problem !!!

)

For some reason I started thinking about "services" and went and checked if
there was some service named "fast user switching" or similar and
yuhh..there was,,,,and.....it was disabled !?

So I tried to enable it and got a errormessage (translated from norwegian)

---------
Services
---------
Can not start the service Fast User Switching Compability on Local Machine.
Error 1068: A subservice or group that it depends on, could not start
<OK>
---------

So, I checked the service properties and found the dependencies tab and
found out that it is dependend on Terminal Services as well as RPC, so I had
to enable again the Terminal Services since it was disabled!? And when I did
this its all good again )))

/me very happy

Thanks anyways !! )

rgrds,
h3ctic

 

[Jon]

Excellent! - Pleased you got it working.

Good thinking.

Jon