Re: User Account is GONE!

Hi, I am not a professional, just something simular occurred on my husbands
computer so I thought I would share what happened and how I fixed it.

His administrator account disappeared off the welcome screen. It was still
logged on, so I knew right away it still existed. I double
clicked--Ctrl+Alt+Del, and put in his user name and password in the logon box
which appeared.

As soon as I logged onto his account, I received an error message stating
this account did not have suitable permissions to run any program. I logged
off and then logged into my administrator account and opened userpasswords2.

Start-Run-control userpasswords2-ok or enter. The User Passwords dialog box
opens. In this box I clicked on his account and then clicked Properties.

In his account properties I clicked on the Group Membership Tab, and was
surprised to discover his account had somehow been changed from Administrator
to a "Debugger" account. I then reset his membership to Administrator,
clicked Ok, then clicked Ok again to exit the User Accounts dialog box.

I logged off my account, and his account was back on the Welcome screen, and
worked as it normally did.

I then did a full scan with our Security Suite and there was no sign of any
malware on the system. Everything has worked fine since this occurred.

To this day I do not know what happened, how his account was changed like
that. I posted here with a question regarding what had occurred as I was
extreamly curious what could have caused such an occurrance. However, nobody
replied, so I just figured either all were busy with unsolved problems and as
mine was "fixed" no need to discuss it. I still would like to know what
happened, as it appears it is happpening to others too. Well, I will follow
this string and see if I get some sort of clarification of this issue. Good
luck and I hope you get your issue resolved quickly.
--
Seree


"Blades" wrote:

Here's something to try (Pro only): At the welcome screen, press
Ctrl-Alt-Del twice to reach the "standard" logon box. From there, you
should be able to type in your account name.

Here's something to check: Open regedit, and navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList. From there, check
to see if the missing account is listed in the right pane. If it is,
delete it and your account should be back on the welcome screen.

Ted Zieglar wrote:
I still think you should scan your computer for malware.

Before scanning for malware, create a new account with Computer
Administrator permissions. Choose a password for the account.

Now log out of whatever account you're in now and log in to the new
administrator account. As long as you can log into an account with
administrator permissions you can access everything on your computer.
---
Ted Zieglar
"Backup is a computer user's best friend."

alwayzzlearning wrote:
Yes - it looks like everything is there. I never renamed my account so
I am the administrator. I was the only one that ever used my computer
until a week ago, so I didn't think I needed to change it. So YES -
everything is there under that folder. Can I just put all of that
infomation under another name and have a new name or will I still
eventually need the administrator user account back? - I never knew
that when you loaded software and all - it didn't go to all the users
on the account. I am learning alot! What would you suggest I do. I
will backup immediately also! Thank you for your responses....




"Ted Zieglar" wrote:

If I were you I would backup all my data files (don't forget your OE
address book, messages and Favorites). If you don't find a solution
here you may need to wipe out your account and re-create it.

Do you see a folder with your user name in C:\Documents and Settings?

---
Ted Zieglar
"Backup is a computer user's best friend."

alwayzzlearning wrote:
Hi - I just went in and tried to add a new account with the same
name and it tells me I already have an account with that name. I
can't see it. It doesn't appear anywhere, but it does seem like all
the files are okay. Of course, I can't get to my email stuff or
anything. But my files are in the hard drive, even yesterdays. Any
thought on why It just wouldn't show it in any of the screens?
including startup

thanks alot



"Ted Zieglar" wrote:

I am not aware of any setting within XP that deletes a user account
without the user's knowledge or consent. If you're sure that your
account is really gone, someone with access to your computer -
including malware - is the culprit.

---
Ted Zieglar
"Backup is a computer user's best friend."

alwayzzlearning wrote:
Hi - shut down last night as if everything was okay. Today I have
no user account for me. My other account is there, but not mine. I
tried doing a recovery to 2 days ago, and mine is still not
there. It just vanished. Any thoughts? Also, even before the
recovery when I had to log in under the other account, there was
no past info in outlook express....no old files, none of the past
weeks emails...nothing. Just todays email for that account.

.

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