HELP!! Lost User Account

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lynne W
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Lynne W

As I share a computer I created a user id so I could log in myself at the
Welcome screen. However when I switched the computer off tonite and then
switched it on again the main user "Administrator" had disappeared and she
can't get into her e-mail now. The computer is running Windows XP. I have
tried system restore but it said it was unable to restore it to the dates I
tried. Any help would be very much appreciated.
 
Lynne W said:
As I share a computer I created a user id so I could log in myself at the
Welcome screen. However when I switched the computer off tonite and then
switched it on again the main user "Administrator" had disappeared and she
can't get into her e-mail now. The computer is running Windows XP. I
have tried system restore but it said it was unable to restore it to the
dates I tried. Any help would be very much appreciated.
Click to expand...

The account is not lost. The Administrator account, by default, stops
displaying on the welcome screen when a second user account is created.

You can turn the display back on easily using the XP Powertoy TweakUI. You
can also press control+alt+delete twice at the Welcome screen to get the
login dialog; enter Administrator and the password.

You should migrate the settings from the Administrator account to the user
account.

And no, system restore won't do anything for this. You'd be asking it to
delete an account and user data files.

HTH
-pk
 
If I delete the new account I created will it default back to Administrator
on the Welcome screen? Also would just add that Administrator is also
missing from User Accounts in Control Box!

Lynne
 
Lynne W said:
If I delete the new account I created will it default back to
Administrator on the Welcome screen?
Click to expand...

You really don't want to do that; it's asking for real trouble. The
Administrator account should *not* be used as a regular user account. It
should be reserved as a fallback maintenance account.

Consider what would happen should you only have the Administrator account,
and it corrupts, as profiles sometimes do. You will have no quick or easy
way to recover - in that context, "quick and easy" can involve a new hard
disk and a clean XP install.


Simply migrate your files and settings to the new account. This isn't
difficult and doesn't take long. You should be done inside half an hour,
and be in a much safer position.

The directions here are pretty clear:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151
Also would just add that Administrator is also missing from User Accounts
in Control Box!
Click to expand...

This is the same reason as below. It really isn't recommended to use the
Administrator account for regular use. TweakUI will turn this back on,
but don't let that encourage you to use the Administrator account regularly.

HTH
-pk
 
Consider what would happen should you only have the Administrator account,
and it corrupts, as profiles sometimes do. You will have no quick or
easy way to recover - in that context, "quick and easy" can involve a new
hard disk and a clean XP install.
Click to expand...

Eh? New HDD? For a corrupt PROFILE? Since when did a corrupt profile kill a
HDD? Repair install only.
 
OMG thank you so much for this. The same thing happened to me so this post
and your response is very timely. thanks a lot
 
Gordon said:
Eh? New HDD? For a corrupt PROFILE? Since when did a corrupt profile kill
a HDD? Repair install only.
Click to expand...

Doesn't kill the HD.

But if there's *only one* profile, and it's toasted, I haven't found repair
installs fix that, just like they don't fix many registry problems.

And in that case, using a new disk is quicker because the old one is what
you use to restore files from - otherwise, you have to back it up to another
drive first, unless you're throwing away the data.

HTH
-pk
 
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