unable to logon to windows xp

[brian]

i recently installed mcafee fire wall on home computer.
everything installed properly and now i am unable to
logon to computer. my desktop appears for about 2 seconds
and then goes straight to logging off. how can i logon?

 

[RoyBro]

This may have something to do with an earlier post "xp
logon problem."

I wonder if we are seeing a new virus or variant. I've
never seen this kind of behavior. It seems too much of a
coincidence that I've seen several posts dated today
about this.

I sort of found a way around this but it's kind of
drastic.

I booted from the CD and got into the recovery console. I
then renamed the files DEFAULT, SYSTEM, SOFTWARE, SAM,
and SECURITY (in C:\Windows\System32\Config\) with todays
date (example: SAM.111003). I then copied the files with
the same names from C:\Windows\Repair\ into
C:\Windows\System32\Config\.

When I rebooted the system it told me I had to activate
Windows, which I did and was able to get into Windows.
Of course, now the registry is out of sync with the
software installed, so I'm going to back up the data and
wipe and reinstall.
..