Losing cursor focus on XP Pro welcome screen

[Guest]

I am frequently losing the cursor focus on the welcome screen for all of the
user accounts. I have to constantly rebot to get it back. I recently
installed ZoneAlarm antivirus, but I uninstalled it today and installed
Windows Live One Care instead. But the problem persists. It has happened
rarely in the past, but has increased to constantly now. Any ideas?

 

[Guest]

You have some intermittant hardware problem. Probably the keyboard or it's
driver.

 

[Nepatsfan]

In

I am frequently losing the cursor focus on the welcome screen
for all of the
user accounts. I have to constantly rebot to get it back. I
recently
installed ZoneAlarm antivirus, but I uninstalled it today and
installed
Windows Live One Care instead. But the problem persists. It
has happened
rarely in the past, but has increased to constantly now. Any
ideas?

If by "cursor focus" you mean the you're unable to enter your
password, see if this helps.

Courtesy of Ramesh Srinivasan, MS-MVP
Go to Start -> Run and enter regsvr32 shgina.dll in the Open
box.
Click OK.

Note: Should the problem continue, there's a workaround that
will allow you to logon without having to reboot the computer.
The next time you're unable to enter a password at the Welcome
Screen, hit Ctrl + Alt + Del twice. This should bring up the
Logon to Windows dialog where you can enter your credentials.

Good luck

Nepatsfan

 

[Guest]

This worked...at least so far. I have logged on and off several times with
no problem. Exactly what does this file do? What did I do when I ran it?

 

[Mike]

The fix was short lived. I'm having the same problem again. I've checked
the keyboard & mouse and they seem to be working okay. At least the device
manager says they're working. I'm not having problems with anything else.

Since it's just my wife and I, I'm thinking about just deleting our user
accounts and removing the password from the Admin account and just eliminate
the log on screen. I don't know what else to do.

 

[Nepatsfan]

I've got one system here that experiences the same problem you
were having. It would come and go with no discernable pattern.
I tried the regsvr32 shgina.dll fix and like you found that it
solved the problem for a short time only to have it reappear.
At that point, I used the "hit Ctrl + Alt + Del twice" routine
at the Welcome Screen to bring up the Logon to Windows dialog.
Finally, since I had no need to retain Fast User Switching on
that system, I went into Control Panel -> User Accounts ->
Change the way users log on or off -> Uncheck Use the Welcome
Screen -> Hit the Apply Options button. This bring up the
Windows 2000 style log on dialog which will allow you to enter
a user name and password to log on to your computer.

I would strongly advise against deleting your user accounts and
using the built in Administrator account for your day to day
computing activities. The Administrator account should be left
for emergency use only. If it was me, I'd turn off the Welcome
Screen or take the passwords off the user accounts first.

I've researched this issue pretty well and have yet to find a
permanent fix for when the problem occurs on an intermittent
basis. As for why it happens, most sources feel it is the
result of an update to Windows released earlier this year.

Good luck

Nepatsfan

In