Mystery User Accounts

[Terry Pinnell]

I raised this a few weeks ago elsewhere, but still have no solution.

On my XP Home PC I am the sole user, and there is no network. Only 3
User Accounts are shown in Control Panel>User Accounts: Terry, Basic,
and Guest (which is disabled). But using the net user command in a
Command Prompt window I get 9.
Administrator Basic Guest
HelpAssistant Limited SUPPORT_388945a0
Terry Testing TP

TP, Limited, and Testing are 3 I remember creating myself while
experimenting a couple of years ago. For example, the user account
'Testing' is shown by the net user command as last logged on 3rd May
2002. So why is it not in Control Panel>User Accounts? And why no
folder for it under Documents & Settings?

I'd like to tidy up, removing these old redundant accounts, but I'm
apprehensive until I understand the above inconsistencies.

 

[Jon]

Try typing

net user Testing

and look at its Group Memberships


Administrator, Guest, HelpAssistant and SUPPORT_388945a0 are all standard
accounts with XP.
Google for more info on HelpAssistant and SUPPORT_388945a0.


Jon

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Try typing

net user Testing

and look at its Group Memberships


Administrator, Guest, HelpAssistant and SUPPORT_388945a0 are all standard
accounts with XP.
Google for more info on HelpAssistant and SUPPORT_388945a0.


Jon

Thanks, but what is that supposed to tell me please? Net user displays
the same for 'Testing' as for *all* accounts:
Global Group memberships *None

 

[Jon]

What about "Local group memberships" ?

These commands may come in handy too

net localgroup
net localgroup users
net localgroup administrators

Jon

 

[Terry Pinnell]

What about "Local group memberships" ?

These commands may come in handy too

net localgroup
net localgroup users
net localgroup administrators

Jon

What about them?! How do those commands (which I'd already used) help
me to answer my question? None of the results include any of the 3
'mystery accounts' I described (TP, Limited, and Testing).

 

[Jon]

One tip....
If you want a decent thread then supply the information requested

So for the last time...(otherwise end of thread)

When you type

net user Testing

What comes up on the line "Local Group Memberships"
ie is it blank or otherwise?


Jon

 

[Jon]

Try typing

net localgroup "Users" Testing /add

at a command prompt

Then look in Control Panel > User Accounts
The account should appear


Jon

 

[Bryce]

What about them?! How do those commands (which I'd already used) help
me to answer my question? None of the results include any of the 3
'mystery accounts' I described (TP, Limited, and Testing).

Paumpus or testy, testy.

Get a clue!

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Try typing

net localgroup "Users" Testing /add

at a command prompt

Then look in Control Panel > User Accounts
The account should appear

I think we're at cross-purposes. I'm looking for some explanation or
insight into the inconsistency. You keep rattling off Command Prompt
entries. Isn't it reasonable to ask what they are intended to achieve?

 

[Jon]

Basically for a standard user account on a standalone machine to be
operational, it needs to be a member of either the local groups "Users" or
"Administrators" (or both). So if your 'mystery accounts' are not members of
either of these groups then that would explain their non-appearance in
Control Panel > User Accounts. There are other possibilities (such as an
account being set up as hidden), but this is a first thing to check.

Not knowing the full nature of your previous "experimenting", it's possible
that you may have previously created user accounts eg via DOS commands or
scripts that were not attached to either / both of the "Users" or
"Administrators" groups, or you may have removed them from those groups
inadvertently at a later date.

So what you are basically looking for is that when you type

net user testing [or one of the other mystery accounts]

the line "local group memberships" should contain either "Users" or
"Administrators" or both. You can see this by trying the same command on one
of your "good" accounts.

Also if you have created an account (eg via DOS commands) the "Documents and
Settings" folder is only created when you first log into that account. So if
you have never logged into an account then that may explain the lack of a
folder in "Documents and Settings". If you have previously logged into it
then there are other possibilities eg your having manually deleted it, or
whatever.



Jon

 

[Terry Pinnell]

<snip: a very comprehensive explanation>

Excellent, thanks a lot - that's very helpful

Here's a comparison of net user outputs for my regular account and one
of the 'mysteries'. The other couple of mysteries I created give
identical results. The 'Administrator' account gives identical results
to 'Terry', apart from its Last logon being 16th March 2002. (Which is
another puzzle, BTW; I signed on as Administrator a couple of weeks
ago in Safe Mode.) Anyway, it does indeed seem that the crucial
difference is that 'Testing' has no Local Group Membership. Not even
'*None', which I assume is different to the intuitive interpretation?

So that squares precisely with the diagnosis in your opening para.

'Mystery' Main a/c
--------- ----------------
User name Testing Terry
Full Name Testing Terry Pinnell
Country code 000 (Syst 000 (System Def)
Account active Yes Yes
Account expires Never Never

Password last set 9/22/2004 9/22/2004 12:38
Password expires Never Never
Password changeable 9/22/2004 9/22/2004 12:38
Password required Yes No
User may change pw Yes Yes

Workstations allowed All All
Logon script
User profile
Home directory
Last logon 3/7/2002 10/27/2004 7:00

Logon hours allowed All All

Local Group Memberships *Administrators
Global Group memberships *None *None
=============================================================

Assuming that 'non-membership' is not the default for a user-created
account (which presumably should normally appear in Control Panel>User
Accounts), I must have caused the inconsistency in one of the ways you
described.

I'm still slightly puzzled about the lack of a Documents and
Settings folder, as I certainly logged on to 'Testing' a few times.
And that net user entry above shows a Last Logon date in 2002.

Also, if an account is not in the User Accounts window (or
Welcome/Log-On screen), how *could* I then log in anyway?

I wonder whether the trauma of installing SP2 and then rapidly
uninstalling it a few days later has a bearing? (I reckon that must
have been around 22 Sep, the date that appears against the Password
entries for all accounts.)

Anyway, those residual puzzles apart, it would seem that, thanks to
your help I should now be able to go ahead with some confidence and
use net user to delete the mystery accounts!

Finally (!), one further puzzle from the above comparison is the
Password Required line. I *do* have a password on my main account,
'Terry'. In fact, I understand I *must* have one in order to use
Scheduled Tasks, which I do. Is this inconsistency perhaps connected
with the fact that, at present, I *bypass* the log-in screen on my
rare boots, and so don't *need* to enter my password? (I use TweakUI
to set that logon option. I only remove it on th every rare occasions
I want to sign in as Administrator.)

Thanks for your patience, which is much appreciated.

 

[Jon]

Thanks for your response

Think the password required setting refers more to whether you are allowed
to use a blank password (ie no password) with that account or not, should
you so choose (ie whether that account is permitted to or not) -not whether
you currently have a password set up or not.

That said, it seems to be a pretty redundant setting on a standalone
machine, as you can easily remove an account password for an account that
has the "Password required yes", and use a blank one. Possibly only
relevant / functional for computers connected to domains.

Think the first account that you intially setup, on installing, has the
"Password Required No" setting, whereas subsequent accounts created have it
set to yes.


Others may know more about the mysteries of that particular setting though


Jon

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Thanks for your response

Think the password required setting refers more to whether you are allowed
to use a blank password (ie no password) with that account or not, should
you so choose (ie whether that account is permitted to or not) -not whether
you currently have a password set up or not.

Thanks, that makes sense now.

That said, it seems to be a pretty redundant setting on a standalone
machine, as you can easily remove an account password for an account that
has the "Password required yes", and use a blank one. Possibly only
relevant / functional for computers connected to domains.

The passwords area on XP Home confuses me considerably. This PC was
supplied by an OEM called MESH (UK). Despite their insistence that
they set it up with no password, I recall on the one occasion that I
tried to get into the Recovery Console, it appeared to *want* a
password. I can't remember the precise outcome (>2 yrs ago, but I'm
not looking forward to having cause to use Recovery Console again!

Think the first account that you intially setup, on installing, has the
"Password Required No" setting, whereas subsequent accounts created have it
set to yes.


Others may know more about the mysteries of that particular setting though

Thanks for that follow-up.