WinXP Pro confuses username and fullname?

[orangeslushy]

Ok here's my problem:
I'm running Windows XP Pro and there are 2 active user
accounts (the rest are disabled). I have one account for
myself that I use as a general usage account, and the
second account is the Administrator account.

Now, these two accounts are setup as follows:
Account1 username is slushy, full name: Nathan
Account2 username is Nathan, full name: Nathan

Now, here's the problem. When I got to login, it always
logs me in as slushy. If I enter slushy and the pwd, it
logs me as user slushy, which is correct of course.
However, if I enter Nathan in the username box and that
password, it STILL logs me in USER slushy--it thinks I
mean full name Nathan, and not USERNAME Nathan.

I created a test account to verify this--username of blah
and full name: blah name. I can enter EITHER blah
OR "blah name" in the username box and supply the
password, and it logs me in as user blah.

So, you see, the problem is, how can I get logged back in
as the Administrator--the built in admin account is
disabled, and when I enter Nathan for the username, it
thinks I mean the account with the full name of Nathan
(which both of the two accounts have full name
Nathan)....does this make any sense? The best I can
tell, this is what it is doing...

Help!

 

[Nathan]

Ok I forgot to mention this one important thing...the
passwords for the two accounts are the same...the
scenario I described doesn't make much sense otherwise,
but I wanted to be sure everyone understood!

Thanks!

 

[Larry Samuels MS-MVP XP \(Shell/User\)]

Change the full name of the slushy account.

--
Larry Samuels MS-MVP (Windows-Shell/User)
Associate Expert
Unofficial FAQ for Windows Server 2003 at
http://home.earthlink.net/~larrysamuels/WS2003FAQ.htm
Expert Zone -

 

[Roger Abell]

Since you cannot log into an admin account directly
you will need to use a safe mode boot (assuming the
account slushy is the built-in administrator account
renamed).

The built-in admin account cannot be disabled from a
safe mode login. However, you must log in using the
current username instead of Administrator if the account
has been renamed.

However, whether this will solve your situation is another
question. It is possible, if it cannot find the nathan account
now when you enter nathan, and that disabled account is the
built-in admin account . . .
Since I am unable to duplicate the confusion between the
two account which share a common full name, it is hard
to guess what you have going on. I can use the full name
of an account in the alt-cntrl-del-del login dialog, as you
seem to be doing, but no matter what order of creation of
the two test accounts intended to show the full name mix-up
and no matter the alphabetical order of the login names I
have so far not been able to reproduce the confusion,
IOW, to use your account names, if I log in as Nathan I am
always ending up logged in as the account with both names
being Nathan, never slushy.

 

[Guest]

I can't change the full name of the slushy account--
slushy is just a power user...I need the Admin access in
order to modify the account properties.

 

[Guest]

Ok maybe I can explain it better...it seems you can help
me if I can just explain it more...

I think the safe mode boot might work...but I have
renamed the built in admin account. The built in admin
account is now named NatAdmin, but I have the account
disabled--are you saying if I boot up in safe mode, that
I would be able to login using this account, which is
disabled under normal mode? I'm not at the machine right
now or I would just try it.

As for reproducing the problem...here are my accounts:
(I deleted the Remote Assistance and a few other of those
garbage accounts...Visual Studio something, etc)

Account1: built in guest account, account still has all
default settings but it is disabled
Account2: built in Admin account, still with default
settings other than I have renamed the username to
NatAdmin and the account is disabled
Account3: a power user account, username slushy with full
name attribute set to "Nathan", account is active
Account4: my admin account with username Nathan and full
name attribute set to "Nathan", account is active

So you see, for some reason when I type in "Nathan" as
the username, it logs me in as user slushy and NOT user
Nathan (like I said earlier, the Nathan account and the
slushy account have the same password). The only thing I
could come up with as to why it does this, is the thing I
described with the full name attributes--it makes no
sense to me WHY it does this though.

I understand what you're saying though...say I had like
10 accounts, all with the full name attribute set
to "Nathan"...then if I enter Nathan as the username, how
would it know which account I meant?? The bottom line is
I cannot understand why it would look to the full name
attribute first, when it should look to the username
attribute first, ie, when I type in Nathan as the
username, why doesn't it just go check for the account
with username of Nathan (because if it did this, I would
get logged in as admin fine)..I don't understand!

 

[Bill]

Maybe you could try to change the password for the power user account so
that the 2 passwords are different and try to log in to your username nathan
account so that you (and XP also) would be able to distinguish the 2
accounts from each other.

--

 

[Roger Abell]

inlined . . .

Ok maybe I can explain it better...it seems you can help
me if I can just explain it more...

I think the safe mode boot might work...but I have
renamed the built in admin account. The built in admin
account is now named NatAdmin, but I have the account
disabled--are you saying if I boot up in safe mode, that
I would be able to login using this account, which is
disabled under normal mode? I'm not at the machine right
now or I would just try it.

Yes, that is what I am saying. Boot to safe mode and
log in with NatAdmin (assuming that is the username,
not just the full name), the renamed built-in admin.

As for reproducing the problem...here are my accounts:
(I deleted the Remote Assistance and a few other of those
garbage accounts...Visual Studio something, etc)

Account1: built in guest account, account still has all
default settings but it is disabled
Account2: built in Admin account, still with default
settings other than I have renamed the username to
NatAdmin and the account is disabled
Account3: a power user account, username slushy with full
name attribute set to "Nathan", account is active
Account4: my admin account with username Nathan and full
name attribute set to "Nathan", account is active

So you see, for some reason when I type in "Nathan" as
the username, it logs me in as user slushy and NOT user
Nathan (like I said earlier, the Nathan account and the

Yes, I understood this.
While I can log in at the old-style login screen by using
a full name, when I try to recreate your situation with
one username and two full names being the same, I always
end up logged in with the account where the username is
the same as the fullname (with Nathan rather than slushy).
This is so whether one or the other is first created, and
whether one or the other is first in the list of usernames by
alphabet. I do not doubt what is happening to you, I just
cannot get a repro so I can play with it.

slushy account have the same password). The only thing I
could come up with as to why it does this, is the thing I
described with the full name attributes--it makes no
sense to me WHY it does this though.

Or, given inability to get another machine to do this,
"WHY it does this on your machine".
I cannot get XP to confuse the accounts (so far).