Have i killed my comp?

[Carrie Brown]

Not completely sure Im positive as to what you mean …. do you mean you are now logged on as this other user?? If so to swap back I think you can do the following:

Click “Start”
Click “Log Off”
Click “Switch User”

Probably completely wrong but worth a try maybe??? Im sorry if the above completely kills your comp though 😮 :lol1:

Carrie 😀

[Andy Gorman]

I don’t know the answer, but a similar thing happened to me a while back.

Firewall wouldn’t let me do anything: internet, e-mail etc. Kept saying I didn’t have supervisor access, when there are no other profiles on my puter. Big bro (who is a IT manager for a Blue Chip) spent ages on it with no success. Reformatted in the end, after backing up.

Haven’t helped much, have I? Sorry. Try some WD40. 😕

[Robert Lambie]

thanks folks.

the log off thing carrie? tried it but only shows the new account, mine is gone!

andy, i think the reformat maybe a last option.. but looks on the cards.
i can handle that, as long as i can backup all the files i can see. coz they are still there… i just cant access my buring software to do it 😕
im sure the guy tommorrow will be able to sort that though.. (fingers crossed)

[Gary Davis]

Hi rob,

maybe way off but if i understand you correctly your main account is the administrator account? And you have added a new account? This has caused the admin account to dissapear from log in?

is your admin account called administrator?

The only things i can think of is to check permissions in Control Panel> Administrative Tools>Local Security Policy>Local Policies>Security Options

and check admin accounts are enabled under account status in the list.
perhaps also check your account isnt listed in “deny logon locally”

hope the above is helpful or may point you in the right direction.

[Andy Gorman]

Of course, on a XP based system, reformatting is unnecessary as I believe the system restore function will….well…..restore the system to it’s factory settings. Never used it, but I assume it works.

[Gary Davis]

system restore will restore settings etc. but is only useful if you created a recent restore point before the problem occured maybe worth a try rob.

[Nicola McIntosh]

your account – administrator is probabley the winxp pro default account, if there are other accounts on the computer the administrator account is hidden and only displayed in safe mode.

Nik

[Robert Lambie]

thats what we did mate.. system restore, back 2 days and it worked great.. second time it didnt 😕

[Robert Lambie]

that sounds like whats happend nik… but we cant seem to get it back.. 😕

[Nicola McIntosh]

To start the computer in safe mode
You should print these instructions before continuing. They will not be available after you shut your computer down in step 2.
Click Start, click Shut Down, and then, in the drop-down list, click Shut down.
In the Shut Down Windows dialog box, click Restart, and then click OK.
When you see the message Please select the operating system to start, press F8.
Use the arrow keys to highlight the appropriate safe mode option, and then press ENTER.
If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot system, choose the installation that you need to access using the arrow keys, and then press ENTER.
Notes

In safe mode, you have access to only basic files and drivers (mouse, monitor, keyboard, mass storage, base video, default system services, and no network connections). You can choose the Safe Mode with Networking option, which loads all of the above files and drivers and the essential services and drivers to start networking, or you can choose the Safe Mode with Command Prompt option, which is exactly the same as safe mode except that a command prompt is started instead of the graphical user interface. You can also choose Last Known Good Configuration, which starts your computer using the registry information that was saved at the last shutdown.
Safe mode helps you diagnose problems. If a symptom does not reappear when you start in safe mode, you can eliminate the default settings and minimum device drivers as possible causes. If a newly added device or a changed driver is causing problems, you can use safe mode to remove the device or reverse the change.
There are circumstances where safe mode will not be able to help you, such as when Windows system files that are required to start the system are corrupted or damaged. In this case, the Recovery Console may help you.
NUM LOCK must be off before the arrow keys on the numeric keypad will function.
Related Topics

might help!! Nik

[Gary Davis]

rob if all the above i mentioned seems to be set right there is a VBScript programme available on the web that you can run that enables ‘administrator’ to be shown in the welcome screen. as niknkax said it isnt displayed in XP when users added, for security reasons, in Xp home even after running the above programme admin is only available in safe mode, however is available on welcome screen in Pro. All of the above only applies if your admion account is called ‘Administrator’
I cant vouch for the programme nor say it will work 100% but i can post a link if you would like to try it?

Alternatively hit CTRL+ALT+DEL twice at the welcome screen with NO other users logged on and you will get the standard logon screen and be able to access admin account.

[Gary Davis]

the other option is to disable the welcome screen, this has the same effect as hitting ctrlaltdel twice, but does it automatically and brings up the logon screen when you boot up, you then just type in administrator and the password. Disabling welcome screen also disables fast user switching though.

[Carrie Brown]

Not sure but:

Go to Start/Run, and type ‘control userpasswords2’.
From Users Tab, Uncheck “Users must enter ….”
A dialog will allow setting a user and password to be used automatically.

????

[davebrittain]

you should be able to roll you computer back again if you tryed a too day try to go back futher you sould be able to do this from help > start and suport>fixing a problem>using system restore to undo changes.

[steve]

get a MAC!!

[Nicola McIntosh]

i’ve got one too, there worse!! 😀
not in the meaning of being unreliable, they are slick machines, but oh!! 😮 i’ve only ever used pc, and when i bought a mac i thought..okay lets go 😮 it’s never been switched on for months!! 😛

Nik

[J. Hulme]

Macs are OK, just OK nothing more, apart from the horrid interface (even X), which is still a very unfriendly interface and they still crash as often as windows millenium (I have an XP machine running here that doesn’t crash, ever, the Mac next door to it crashes everyday, without fail) but saying that I have another XP machine running next to that which crashes *every* 15 minutes cheap (but a very expensive laptop) crap.

Software *is* limited no matter what anyone says, they are hard to set up and hard to work with, how on earth is it still making money?
Linux is far easier. 😉

Best addition for your Mac?

It’s called Virtual PC, then you may become productive again.

[Nicola McIntosh]

outline!! been intrigide with linux for a few years now, and still have not took the plung !! meant to be really stable ……… virus free so they say.. and without the hasle of windows updates!! 😀

you could keep me right on this one outline !! 😉 never tried virtual pc yet!!

nik

[J. Hulme]

Hi Nik, it ain’t for the faint hearted, its a UNIX based, open sourced set-up
Hardware compatibilty issues are the problem although support through open source is far better than a few years ago.
Its cheap, theres no huge outlay for the O/S, and there’s quite a few breeds of linux to choose from for a first timer it has to be Mandrake, although you could go the WinLinux route ( maybe, I’d start with this ) It runs as Virtual PC would on a Mac, you run Linux through your windows environment, this will give you the feel if you actually like it or not, with linux everything depends on the Kernel, within the Kernel are the drivers etc, to update the drivers you have to update the kernel, if using redhat or mandrake or any other of the breeds, the kernel version should be latest to support new hardware . It’s a bit geeky and sad, looks like the old Atari desktop era, I’m not too not fond of it, well I don’t know, and saying that the new laser printer I’m about to buy is supported by it, RPMs come by the thousands free so is it so bad? I don’t know, everyone seems to be looking for an alternative to Windows, unfortunately whilst every other O/S is many many years behind Windows, Windows will always be market leader, why?
Simply because it’s modern, well supported and very very easy to use .
None of the others, Linux, BEOS, Mac etc are.

http://www.linux.org/

If you decide to try, get a book for the version of the distrubution specific O/S you have as they do differ slightly. Prepare to be baffled 😉

[Gary Davis]

rob did you manage to fix your computer? was just interested what the solution turned out to be!

[Robert Lambie]

Hi Gareth (dti)
Yes I did get it fixed mate. Thanks very much!
I meant to actually reply here and forgot to due to leaving for Alton towers very early Thursday morning.
After reading the various replies from yourself, nik & others, I thought… ive messed up so far I think ill waite till morning and get the guy that built it to do it for me. Glad I did, he had it up and running again in 5 mins. He waffled on about what he did to get it back, but to be honest it went right over my head. what he said I think has been said between stuff mentioned by you and nik. Sorry I can’t give a better answer, I just know stuff he was saying sounded along the lines of what had been mentioned here.

Thanks a million everyone for the help here though, outstanding help… and I do appreciate it very much. 😉