Unable to log you on because of an account restriction

  • Thread starter Thread starter LindaCW
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LindaCW

I received a message after I had run a registry cleaner and the system had
rebooted that I needed a password to enter and had I forgotten it. I had
done a restore point prior to running the cleaner. There were no passwords on
the computer for administrator or profile prior to this. Originally when the
system restarted it would come on to the desktop. Now it is asking for
passwords to enter for either administrator or profile. I ran "Offline NT
Password & Registry Editor, Bootdisk / CD" to remove passwords and unlock the
accounts. When I rebooted after this I get the message above. I have
restarted in safe mode also with no difference. How can I get into my
computer again? I have been trying for almost a week now with no luck. The
OS is Windows XP Pro.
 
Why run the 3rd party junk to begin with...Either way,try tapping the F8 key
on pc start,select safe mode,enter as administrator,if asked for
password,press
enter key,once in xp,open user account(s) & edit.
 
I have gone in safe mode and when I try to logon as administrator I get the
same message. I had tried logging on via both profile and administrator (in
safe mode) prior to using the "password remover" and was unable to logon
because it said there were passwords on both when in fact there have never
been passwords on either. I figured when I ran the registry fix it had done
something. Prior to running the registry fix I had created a restore point
but can't get in to system restore to run it.
 
LindaCW said:
I received a message after I had run a registry cleaner and the system had
rebooted that I needed a password to enter and had I forgotten it. I had
done a restore point prior to running the cleaner. There were no passwords on
the computer for administrator or profile prior to this. Originally when the
system restarted it would come on to the desktop. Now it is asking for
passwords to enter for either administrator or profile. I ran "Offline NT
Password & Registry Editor, Bootdisk / CD" to remove passwords and unlock the
accounts. When I rebooted after this I get the message above. I have
restarted in safe mode also with no difference. How can I get into my
computer again? I have been trying for almost a week now with no luck. The
OS is Windows XP Pro.
Click to expand...

One good reason why I don't recommend registry editing utils/tools anymore. Since
you state there weren't any admin/user passwords set before this happened, when you
arrive at the username/login prompt, have you tried to log in using the Admin name
without a pw?

Press ctrl+alt+del twice and then click Ok without typing in a pw.


Other password articles here may help out.
http://support.microsoft.com/search...ssword&catalog=LCID=1033&1033comm=1&spid=1173


If attempting all exhausted suggestions are without positive results, there is a
good utility app out there which you can add, change or remove pw's even if you your
pw will mention. **Be warned**... if you use it on a machine that uses encryption it
will be hard-pressed not to have to reinstalling the OS anew.
 
I have tried to logon without a password in both admin (in safe mode) and
profile. When I try I get the above message on both accounts. I have also
tried using the CTRL ALT DELTE method and still no luck. The registry fix is
one I've been using for about a year so didn't think there would be a
problem.
Originally when the logon screen appeared after reboot, it said it needed a
password for either admin (safe mode) or profile, which is why I ran the NT
disk after trying several different passwords. With it I removed passwords
and the system had also locked me out "dis/lock" for all accounts (admin,
help, support, profile) because I had tried so many times with different
words to logon. After running the program and removing passwords and lockout,
it then came up with the message above. (account restriction)
 
You can try the procedure described here to see if you can get the
machine started again and restored to a point prior to running the
registry cleaner:

How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from
starting
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

Give the above a try and see what if it can fix things.

Is the part of a network? If it is you may be able to use other methods
to restore the logon rights.

For all it's worth, registry cleaners don't really do anything to make
your computer run any better or any faster. They can cause irreparable
damage and the benefit that they purport to do is far outweighed by the
potential destruction that they can cause. Ditch these things, they are
not only next to useless they can be outright dangerous to your Windows
installation's health!

John
 
The computer is not part of a network. It is a home computer by itself. I
will read the article and see if it will work at all.
Thanks
 
If you booted into another op system Bartpe,dos,linux
I use bartpe because its the easiest
Swap the sam file from windows/system32/config with the sam file from
windows/repair.This would reset password and user accounts to when windows
was installed which would be nothing.Now log back in windows and just make a
password reset disk from control panel/user account.Now boot back in bartpe
and swap files back.Boot back in windows and use the password reset disk to
reset the admin account.
 
Thanks Jake, I have found a website about Bartpe and am finding out what
information I need to make a cd/dvd. I had tried to do a repair install with
my xp disc and no previous version of windows shows up in order to do the
repair. Hopefully this will work because it's driving me nuts dealing with
this.
 
LindaCW said:
Thanks Jake, I have found a website about Bartpe and am finding out what
information I need to make a cd/dvd. I had tried to do a repair install with
my xp disc and no previous version of windows shows up in order to do the
repair. Hopefully this will work because it's driving me nuts dealing with
this.
Click to expand...


A windows repair will not fix a missing password as it does not change
the registry.But what does worry me is why the xp cd does not recognise your
current xp installation.Have you done any disk partitioning lately?The reason
I ask is I had the same problem where I had to do a repairand xp did not
recognise my current install after I did some partitioning using partition
magic.I booted in bartpe and ran chkdsk and cleared it all up.Just something
to think about!
 
No, haven't done any partitioning or anything similar to the computer. The
only thing that had been done prior to the reboot was a registry scan, so
wasn't sure if that was the culprit or not. Have run the same registry
program for over a year. After the reboot it came up with the profile asking
for a password instead of the desktop. Then I ran the Offline NT Password
disc to remove the passwords and the dis/lock that the system had done
because of me trying so many different passwords just incase one worked.
After running this instead of wanting a password it says what the subject
line is. It's very confusing.
 
If replacing the sam does not solve the problem there are also ways to
restore the entire registry.If your computer still has good restore
points.But you will have to have the bartpe or similiar to accomplish.
 
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