Windows XP Logon

My roommate just came down to me and asked why he couldn't logon to his Windows XP computer. At the logon screen there aren't any users available to logon to. The screen just has the welcome picture and nothing else. All 3 users were of the administrator account, so I thought maybe that account became disabled and for some reason didn't show up on the screen. I went to recovery console and was able to logon to the system admin account. Any ideas of what I can do. He said the only difference since it last worked was that the system forced him to run checkdisk. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Ok I got a question first.

Are you using the firewall that comes with XP?

Whizkid2300

boot into safe mode (lets you log in as administrator) and create an account. Start---->control panel---->user accounts---->create new user.

Hmmmmm....

Never had that problem.

Also instead of using recovery CD, can you pres ctrl+alt+delete and hold it down. It should give you a box to type in your username and password. Just type administrator as your password and then whatever your password is.

Can you logon and see if you can still see the accounts under User Accounts in Control Panel. Try making a couple accounts then reboot and see if you see them at the welcome screen.

[edit] Lol gues I posted to late.

hey whizkid, where does the firewall come into play with user accounts?[edit]

not using the XP firewall and unfortunately safe mode hung while displaying the files it was loading...i believe the last file it would load was agp*.dll

also, i tried ot hit alt-ctrl-del and nothing happened. does it make a difference to hold it down for a second?

yeah try holding it down for a second or two and see what happens.

If that doesn't work then log back in throught the recovery console and see if you can see any user accounts.

Well I was going to ask if he had that one because there was a chance he had been hacked and it were changed that way.

I could be wrong though.
Ok do you have a Dos Boot DIskette.

To get the 'old' logon box in Windows XP press ctrl+alt+delete TWICE when you see the Welcome Screen.
This will allow you to type in a user name and a password. Ofcourse they must be a valid user name and a pasword.
If I am correct TeakUI XP has an option to remove users from the Welcome Screen.
Do you have this program installed ?
Otherwise someone has probably been editing the registry to hide the users from the welcome screen.

After hitting control+alt+delete twice liek the above poster said to do use

Usernam: Administrator
password:

leave the password blank. this is the Admin aco**** that is only accessable through safe mode. chances are your friend did not set a password for this. If it doesnt work use

Username: Admin
password:

once again leave the pass word blank, one of the two should work. if not poast back and we can try to come up ith more ideas for you. GL.

Hey guys, thanks for all of your help. Hitting alt-ctrl-del worked. Fortunately I knew the administrator's password, but unfortunately that's because my buddy uses the same password for everything. Not a good idea, but up to him I guess. Thanks again.

Weird. Im glad I did a search before asking the same quiestion. Thanx guys!

so coleycole3 I am glad you got into your system Here's the next question, were the accounts still there? And here's a thought, if they still were could you use the "old styled" login screen to log into them? I would suggestion doing a defrag, that might help your system from locking up when going into safe mode (that's what happens to me). I'm very interested on hearing what's going on.

Plus here's a question that wasn't asked, are you using any sort of firewall and/or antivirus software?

Just a thought...
~AciD

I've a good idea of what happened to your computer. I live in a dorm when school is in session and also have a roomate and we'd mess around with people's accounts by logging into the administrator account by turning off the computer and log in under safe mode. We would then change their password just to freak them out. (we'd eventually tell them what the new password was) If a person did something like this, they could easily delete the accounts without having to know the password....I think it's retarded that XP made it so easy to destroy someone's computer like that. Anyway, I'm glad that you regained access to your computer but everyone reading this thread should do something to prevent this from happening to them. I don't know if it's possible, but password protecting the admin account would be a great start. You might also want to disable boot keys (f5 and f8 in particular).

Yes it is possible to password protect the admin account and everyone should do it.

two questions, how do you disable the boot keys and password protect the admin account. also, my roommate didn't like the idea that his computer had messed up and decided to just do use his recovery disks from the pc manufacturer.