WinXP User Accounts Issue

[Stack Overflow]

Hello,

I apologize if this thread isn't in the proper area. Simply, I am experiencing a slight problem managing user accounts in Windows XP Home Edition. When running in an existing account, non-administrative, I run into an IE script error and am unable to view the User Accounts dialog found under Control Panel.

I am unable to run as Administrator unless I boot in Safe-Mode. I can access the User Accounts page without a problem while running as Administrator, though I wanted to change the Restricted Users to Power Users. To accomplish that, I ran a Command Prompt and went to the second User Account interface: "control userpasswords2"

Once there, I tried to update an accounts' access level from Restricted to Standard. I received an error notifying me that the "Group" could not be found, et cetera. After this occurred, I could no longer find the user account amongst the list of others. It was literally gone.

The account still exists, and I can log into it if I don't use the Welcome screen. As of now, the Welcome screen and other account interfaces can't find the user. Note, if I try to create the user again, it informs me that the account already exists. While logged into Administrator, I also tried using the Administrative Tools->Computer Management, but the Local Users and Groups tab was also missing.

I have tried everything to my knowledge, and can't find a remedy to this problem. Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.


- Stack Overflow

[zencoder]

Uhm, I'm not a windows specialist, but I thought one of the big beef's with XP Home was that ALL USERS are considered Administrators.

Perhaps changing this broke some of the XP Home policies and such. If you don't get the answers you need here, you might try http://www.windowsitpro.com

[Stack Overflow]

Alright,

Cool. Thanks. I'll check it out.


- Stack Overflow

[tdezarn]

Could you open an MMC (start > run > mmc) and then add the snap-in (console > add/remove snap in > add > local users) local users and groups to restore access to this portion of your computer management.

Does the account show back up?

XP Home does not offer the Power Users group.

Here is a good website (offshoot of the windowsitpro.com website) that will breakdown the good/bad of xp home vs pro.

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase...p_home_pro.asp

or you can use Microsoft's version

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/e...n/compare.mspx

I had this problem with a user. The solution was to upgrade the user to XP Pro.

[digitalgadfly]

I do not believe that MMC is available in XP Home. And nor do I think you can download the administration pack for it. What you can do is right click on my computer and select 'Manage' this will take you to something similiar where you can manipulate users.

May I also suggest investing in XP Professional, although both carry the title of 'XP', Home and Pro are two completely different animals. I'd like to say Home Edition is nothing more than a 'beefed' up version of ME.

As to the erroring out when you try to access the control panel, it sounds like a DLL has been hijacked (not uncommon spyware behavior). You might want to look into downloading Spybot SD and just giving the system a quick once over to see what it discovers. I'd be interested in knowing what you come up with.

Best of luck, and work on upgrading

[Stack Overflow]

Alright,

Well I never got to try tdezarn's suggestion. I ran a System Restore that reverted back to the 7th of Febuary, just one day before the accounts went bizarre. After the restore, I only had to re-install one application that went smoothly. The user accounts still gave an IE script error if I tried to access them, so I inserted my XP CD and ran an OS Repair.

Once that finished, the user accounts were back to normal. I added a few more accounts to ensure the stability. So far so good.


Thank you for your time,
- Stack Overflow

[zencoder]

Originally posted here by digitalgadfly
I'd like to say Home Edition is nothing more than a 'beefed' up version of ME.

That would be generous of you. I like to say it is a steaming, rancid, repugnant pile of...well, you get the point. XP Home is more trouble than it's worth, IMHO. I bought a laptop recently from Dell, and I forgot to explicitly demand it have XP Pro installed, so they happily shipped it to me with Home. I called and complained, I offered to send it back on my own dime to have it reimaged with Pro, etc. They refused. They also refused to 'comp' me a copy of Pro Upgrade, so I had to buy it out of pocket.

Dell got a big from me that week. Don't buy XP Home if you have any choice in the matter. It's the lame crippled half-wit version of Pro, and they charge you the same point-of-sale price usually, regardless of which version you get.

[SDK]

The Local Users and Groups Snap-In is unavailable in XP Home. The Snap-In is there if you want to connect to other computer (Control a XP Pro Local Users Remotely?)

[foxyloxley]

XP Home has it 'Administrator' account in Safe mode ONLY.
All other accounts are either admin or limited user.

I'm not sure if the 'Administrator' account has more authority than the standard admin account, but you HAVE to assume that M$ put it there for a reason

And as for calling XP Home names ........................ Just watch out for Pooh !!!!

[flabdablet]

This is probably a tad late for the original poster, but I'm sticking it here anyway in case anybody else is up the same Google garden path as I was half an hour ago.

I didn't have the IE Script errors, but I the same thing as Stack Overflow with "control userpasswords2", for the same reason, with the same result: user "stephen" became inaccessible.

Turns out that the "control userpasswords2" misadventure had removed user "stephen" from the local group "users", leaving stephen with no local group memberships at all. The various user-chooser mechanisms probably work by enumerating this group.

XP Home is in no way a "beefed-up ME"; rather, it's the crippled runt of the XP litter. Although it doesn't allow the use of the usual "Local Users and Groups" GUI, it still has "net localgroup" available at the command line. So the fix was to open a cmd window and do:

net localgroup users stephen /add

Incidentally, "net localgroup" can also create new local groups, so if you wanted to add a Power Users group to your Windows XP Home box, that's a way to do it. Try "net help", "net help user", and "net help localgroup" to get you started.

Of course, to make it worthwhile to add any users to your newly created Power Users group, you'd need to add security permissions for that group to every resource (i.e. file, folder, registry key) that you wanted Power Users to have upgraded access to - a very fiddly job to get right.

If you're seriously interested in messing with permissions in XP Home, you'll want the neat little "security for folders and files" patch available here; it saves an awful lot of Safe Mode reboots. Running AccessEnum over a stock XP Pro installation before you start would probably help as well.

Personally, I wouldn't be bothered; it seems easier to me simply to grant the standard Users group Modify permissions on just those resources that absolutely need them. You can find out exactly what to loosen by logging failed accesses with Regmon and Filemon.

Quite often, all you have to do is grant the Users group Modify permissions on the subfolder of Program Files where your cranky new software's been installed, and on the subkey of HLKM\SOFTWARE belonging to its irresponsible manufacturer.