Logging into an existing user account

[Guest]

Using XP Home, all was working fine with a user account. Lately though, on
startup the username and password are accepted, "Loading Personal Settings"
appears and the system starts up. However, only the basic desktop icons
appear, not the usual desktop icons for the user account. Further, there are
no documents in the My Documents folder that appears on the desktop.

The Documents and Settings folder contains a folder with the User Account
name logged into. The Desktop and Documents subfolders for the User Account
contain all the correct desktop icons and documents. However, as said
earlier, the desktop icons do not appear nor do the documents in the desktop
My Documents folder.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Pegasus]

Using XP Home, all was working fine with a user account. Lately though,
on
startup the username and password are accepted, "Loading Personal
Settings"
appears and the system starts up. However, only the basic desktop icons
appear, not the usual desktop icons for the user account. Further, there
are
no documents in the My Documents folder that appears on the desktop.

The Documents and Settings folder contains a folder with the User Account
name logged into. The Desktop and Documents subfolders for the User
Account
contain all the correct desktop icons and documents. However, as said
earlier, the desktop icons do not appear nor do the documents in the
desktop
My Documents folder.

Thanks for any help.

Use System Restore to go back to a point well before the
problem became apparent.

 

[John Wunderlich]

Using XP Home, all was working fine with a user account. Lately
though, on startup the username and password are accepted,
"Loading Personal Settings" appears and the system starts up.
However, only the basic desktop icons appear, not the usual
desktop icons for the user account. Further, there are no
documents in the My Documents folder that appears on the desktop.

The Documents and Settings folder contains a folder with the User
Account name logged into. The Desktop and Documents subfolders
for the User Account contain all the correct desktop icons and
documents. However, as said earlier, the desktop icons do not
appear nor do the documents in the desktop My Documents folder.

Thanks for any help.

Windows apparently detected a problem with your profile. When this
happens, it creates a new one with the symptoms you describe. Your
files can usually be accessed by going to the
C:\Documents and Settings
folder and looking for a folder that closely matches your login name.
System Restore may work to put things back the way they were, but if it
doesn't, simply move your files from your old profile folder to your
new one.

See:
"Windows XP Problems if Your Profile Is Damaged"
<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326688/en-us>

HTH,
John