Logs In then Immediately logs out

[Paul]

Today I updated my XP Home Laptop with the most current
critical updates. (Had about 4 or 5 of them). After it
rebooted when I tried to login it would appear to login
in and begin to process the personal settings, even gives
me the login jingle, and immediately logs back out, and
plays the logout jingle.
Any ideas?
/Paul

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

This is a symptom of anti-spyware software removing a spyware file.

Boot from the XP CD and let setup begin. When you're prompted to Repair the installation (first time), select R to enter the Recovery Console.

You'll need the Administrator password for that machine to enter Recovery Console.

Once there, and at the C:\Windows prompt, type in CD System32

Then enter COPY USERINIT.EXE WSAUPDATER.EXE

Reboot the computer normally. Once its rebooted, log on to an account with Administrator privileges and click Start, Run and enter REGEDIT Go to:

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

In the right pane look for the Userinit value. It probably reads wsaupdater.exe. Double click the Userinit value and change it to C:\Windows\System32\userinit.exe, The comma on the end is intentional.

You can then delete the WSAUPDATER.EXE file that you created earlier.