Lost XP User Account Settings

  • Thread starter Thread starter Fred Jones
  • Start date Start date
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Fred Jones

Because I frequently need to make changes to the system, I always
login as Administrator (it's the only user account on the box).
Unfortunately, after replacing our LAN's old NT4 Server with a 2003
Server, I had to change my Admin password (to meet 2003 Server's more
stringent password parameters), which apparently also reset the
Administrator account on my XP box back to its defaults and, in so
doing, I lost all of my system preferences, desktop shortcuts, and,
most importantly, most of my program settings.

However, I see that there are now multiple Administrator folders under
c:\documents and settings\, and one of them, C:\Documents and
Settings\Administrator.MYCOMPANY.000 appears to be my original Admin
folder as it contains all of my missing user configurations,
application ini's and desktop shortcuts. So, based on Microsoft
Knowledge Base Article 308421 ("How to take ownership of a file or
folder in Windows XP"), I successfully retook ownership of the
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.MYCOMPANY.000 folder.
But, unfortunately, it didn't reset the Admin account back to my old
settings.

Can someone point me in the right direction?
 
Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\) said:
Try treating the old account as a corrupt profile as follows and note, where
the KB article says make a new user account, simply use the current new user
account:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q318011

If that fails to resolve it, please try your question on the
windowsxp.network_web newsgroup.
Click to expand...

Michael,
Thank you for the reply.
Per the KB article you cited, I was able to create a new user account
called "test" and give "test" Administrator group privilages. But when
I logged back into XP Pro and tried to access my old c:\Documents and
Settings\Administrator.MYCOMPANY.000 folder, I got a "Access is
denied" error. Is there something I need to do for the new "test" user
account to grant Administrator privilages?
Thanks
 
Now you need to take ownership of those files as follows:

Note, file ownership and permissions supersede administrator rights. How
you resolve it depends upon which version of XP you are running.

XP-Home

Unfortunately, XP Home using NTFS is essentially hard wired for "Simple File
Sharing" at system level.

However, you can set XP Home permissions in Safe Mode. Reboot, and start
hitting F8, a menu should eventually appear and one of the
options is Safe Mode. Select it. Note, it will ask for the administrator's
password. This is not your administrator account, rather it is the
machine's administrator account for which users are asked to create a
password during setup.

If you created no such password, when requested, leave blank and press
enter.

Open Explorer, go to Tools and Folder Options, on the view tab, scroll to
the bottom of the list, if it shows "Enable Simple File Sharing" deselect it
and click apply and ok. If it shows nothing or won't let you make a change,
move on to the next step.

Navigate to the files, right click, select properties, go to the Security
tab, click advanced, go to the Owner tab and select the user that was logged
on when you were refused permission to access the files. Click apply and
ok. Close the properties box, reopen it, click add and type in the name of
the user you just enabled. If you wish to set ownership for everything in
the folder, at the bottom of the Owner tab is the following selection:
"Replace owner on subcontainers and objects," select it as well.

Once complete, you should be able to do what you wish with these files when
you log back on as that user.

XP-Pro

If you have XP Pro, temporarily change the limited account to
administrative. First, go to Windows Explorer, go to Tools, select Folder
Options, go to the View tab and be sure "Use Simple File Sharing" is not
selected. If it is, deselect it and click apply and ok.

If you wish everything in a specific folder to be accessible to a user,
right click the folder, select properties, go to the Security tab, click
Advanced, go to the Owner tab,
select the user you wish to have access, at the bottom of the box, you
should see a check box for "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects,"
place a check in the box and click apply and ok.

The user should now be able to perform necessary functions on files in the
folder even as a limited account. If not, make it an admin account again,
right click the folder, select Properties, go to the Security tab and be
sure the user is listed in the user list. If not, click add and type the
user name in the appropriate box, be sure the user has all the necessary
permissions checked in the permission list below the user list, click apply
and ok.

That should do it and allow whatever access you desire for that folder even
in a limited account.
 
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