Logong then instant logoff

[Steve Barrow]

Trying to fix a friends PC running XP Home. the main ID
is the admin and there are 2 more for her kids. try logon
any account and the desktop flashes, then performs a
logout. I've tried numerous things including a repair and
even sticking the drive in another PC to get the data at
the very least. I can get at the contents of the 2 kids
profiles as they are "limited users" but I can't get at
the main profiles data.

Anyone know a way around this or have seen this condition
before? I'd rather not rebuild until I have done all I
can to retain this data.

any assitance would be greatly appreciated

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

Boot with the XP CD (assuming you have a retail version, and not an OEM "Recovery" CD). Begin Setup. You'll be given the option to Repair an existing installation. Select this option. This takes you into Recovery Console. You'll be prompted for the Administrator password. If there is a password on this account, you will need to remember it. This is not the password for any "administrator" level account, it is the password for THE Administrator account.

Once in the Recovery Console, enter the following commands:

CD System32
COPY USERINIT.EXE WSAUPDATER.EXE

Reboot the computer. You should now be able to log on. Once you have, click Start, run and enter REGEDIT Go to:

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

Look in the right pane for the Userinit value. Double click the Userinit value and change it to C:\Windows\System32\userinit.exe, The comma on the end is intentional, and it must be there. Now, if desired, you can delete the WSAUPDATER.EXE copy that you created.

http://www.lavahelp.com/articles/v6/04/06/0901.html
Unable to Log On To Windows XP After Removing wsaupdater.exe