Log in problem after user name change.

[MS]

Hi,

I changed the user name on a laptop running XP Pro (fully up-to-date) in
'User Management' of 'Control Panel'. Now when the laptop boots up, a
dialog box pops up saying 'Windows could not log you in' and behind that
dialog is a grayed-out user login dialog with the old name in it. When you
click 'Ok' on the 'Windows could not log you in' dialog, Windows proceeds
to the area where the usernames + pics are shown, and you can click on the
new username - even though it is the only account enabled (even the guest
account is disabled) and all passwords are switched off.

All I want is Windows to boot straight into the user account or to go
straight to the usernames + pics screen, without the annoying dialog box
'can't log you in' popping up. The problem is that the laptop is someone
else's and I changed the name at their request, now they're unhappy about it.

Please advise me, 'User Management' does not seem to allow me to set this up.

Many thanks, regards, etc..

 

[Guest]

Hi,

I changed the user name on a laptop running XP Pro (fully up-to-date) in
'User Management' of 'Control Panel'. Now when the laptop boots up, a
dialog box pops up saying 'Windows could not log you in' and behind that
dialog is a grayed-out user login dialog with the old name in it. When you
click 'Ok' on the 'Windows could not log you in' dialog, Windows proceeds
to the area where the usernames + pics are shown, and you can click on the
new username - even though it is the only account enabled (even the guest
account is disabled) and all passwords are switched off.

All I want is Windows to boot straight into the user account or to go
straight to the usernames + pics screen, without the annoying dialog box
'can't log you in' popping up. The problem is that the laptop is someone
else's and I changed the name at their request, now they're unhappy about it.

Please advise me, 'User Management' does not seem to allow me to set this up.

Many thanks, regards, etc..

Does this machine in a domain?.
You cannot log on after you remove the computer from the domain
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;317049
The "Administrator Logon" Dialog Box May Be Hidden Under the Welcome
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300433/en-us
HTH.
nass

 

[MS]

nass emailed this:
Thanks for your reply nass.

Does this machine in a domain?.
You cannot log on after you remove the computer from the domain
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;317049

It's not the domain problem - the laptop has never been on a domain, its
only ever been used as a standalone laptop, never even connected to a LAN,
unless you count a wireless connection at the person's home.

The "Administrator Logon" Dialog Box May Be Hidden Under the Welcome
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300433/en-us

This sounds more like it. But the article says:

"The Administrator Logon dialog box may be hidden under the Welcome screen
when the AutoAdminLogon feature is enabled and the user account is either
deleted or missing."

The account was not deleted or missing - it was just renamed - could it
now be 'missing' as a result of the rename? It is the administrator
account and does have auto-login enabled (I assume because that is what it
was doing). The article says to use Alt+Tab to bring the login dialog to
the front while the 'can't log in' dialog is still there, but this does
not work and clicking on the login dialog also does not work since the
'can't log in' dialog won't give up its focus.

The article advises to change the registry which I don't particularly want
to do. Might there be a procedure, like enabling passwords, then later
disabling them, to help Windows 'know' which account to auto-log into?

Many thanks.

 

[MS]

Ok I've had a look at the registry details.

The article says this:

The registry and its settings are:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
DefaultDomainName (REG_SZ) : Computer name
DefaultUserName (REG_SZ): User name (admin)
DefaultPassword (REG_SZ): Password
AutoAdminLogon (REG_SZ): 1
AutoLogonCount (REG_DWORD) : any value greater than one (1)

Can I just change the 'DefaultUserName' to the new username? And would it
matter if the setting for 'AltDefaultUserName' is already set to the new
username?

Note, when I say 'new username' I mean the name that I renamed the account
with.

Thanks all.


MS emailed this:

 

[John John]

Log on with the built-in administrator account (press Ctrl-Alt-Del
twice) and give the user account a password! Trying to autologon
without a password is not supposed to work or be allowed by Windows but
for some reason or other it seems that the procedure is often allowed
even when no passwords are used and the result usually is that the user
can't login when the computer is rebooted.

John

 

[MS]

John John emailed this:

Log on with the built-in administrator account (press Ctrl-Alt-Del
twice) and give the user account a password! Trying to autologon
without a password is not supposed to work or be allowed by Windows but
for some reason or other it seems that the procedure is often allowed
even when no passwords are used and the result usually is that the user
can't login when the computer is rebooted.

Thanks. Actually that did not sort the problem out but changing the
following registry entry fixed it.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

Changing 'AutoAdminLogon' from 1 to 0.

As described in:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300433/en-us

Thanks nass and John.

 

[Guest]

Let be clear about what you performed:=
Did you renamed the Built-In Administrator account or another account?.
If you Rename the Built-in account you will get the error and you need to
system restore hopefully will reverse the action.
If the later then you may be assign the account limited Privileges or a
corruption happened.
You can always back the registry [Key] and edit according to the KB and see
if that will help, if not then you can restore from the backup.
Try to create another account with privileges and see if that will come up
with the welcome screen.
If you create another account with Admin privileges the windows built-in
account will not be on the welcome screen but you can access it with ALT +
DEL + CTRL set of keys or you will see it when you log into safe mode.
HOW TO: Rename the Administrator and Guest Account in Windows Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;816109
Read this: Rename the Default Administrator Account:>
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/se...rsecurity/administratoraccounts/aapgch03.mspx
How to copy data from a corrupted user profile to a new profile
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;811151
Administrator and User Passwords in Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_passwords.htm
HTH.
nass

 

[Guest]

Glad you got this sorted MS, thanks for letting us know.
Good luck.
nass