Admin details changed..

mikeanywhere

Not sure if in right section. If not, move it please mods.

Heres my dilema and I hope someone can help.

I have a Dell D820 which I have been using happily for the last few months. Come last week when I was going away and decided to create another user for someone to use the internet etc but not have access to the files. All fine so far...

I created another user and then for some reason it changed the new user as the admin. I thought this was an error on my side and created another user to see if they came up as an admin user or not (which they didnt).

Now the awkward part - all the data that I was using originally whether it be shortcuts, favs etc are gone. When I open windows explorer I can not see all the files. The only way I can get to see them is Local Disk, Documents & Settings, Admin, Admins Docs.

The other problem is the laptop is asking that I download all the latest software and upgrades etc when in theory I had already done this prior to trying to create the other user. I am unable to see the pics I have downloaded as part of the photo business I have etc etc whereas before I can happily see everything whether it be RAW, TIFF's, JPEGS etc etc etc

I am using XP Pro.

Tom Dunne

Something like this happened me a while back while I was supposed to be fixing a friend's computer.

Open up the C: drive, go to Documents and Settings. What directories are listed? These correspond to each of the users on the PC.

mikeanywhere

It says Admin, All Users and the other persons name


EDIT: The other thing I forgot to say was that the 2nd user I created and deleted is the name showing as the "other user." There is no name/icon for at startup either.
The name I created as the 2nd user is now showing as the Admin - go figure!!!

Is it worth me just reformatting the hardrive on this beast (afer saving all the necessary important data)??

Tom Dunne

I might move this over to the Windows forum, they would probably know more about this over there.

However, what seems to have happened is that you didn't have any user on the system, therefore it defaulted to Admin. You set up all your shortcuts, etc. and they were used under this "non account". Would that be correct?

So when you created a user, it defaulted to an administrator, Windows now logs you in using that account, but you can't see Admin's stuff, because you are logged in as <user>.

So, what I would do is take a snapshot of the system using the System Restore utility (Start->programs->Accessories->System Tools), backup any important data in the new account, and delete the new account. Reboot and see what happens. As there are no other accounts, you should, in theory, be back to where you started.

I hope.

mikeanywhere

Hi Tom,

That would sound about right!! I will give your recommendation a try and report back.

Thanks again

matt-dublin

by default when you create a new user in xp it hides the admin account and makes the new user the admin account.
This is done for security reasons.

there are two ways to access it.
at the logon screen press ctrl-alt-del twice and type in the admin user and password

or to show the admin user on the logon screen follow these instructions:

Click Start, Run and type Regedit.exe

Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ Winlogon \ SpecialAccounts \ UserList


Use the File, Export option to backup the key.

Right-click in the right pane and select New DWORD Value.

Type-in Administrator as the value.

Double-click Administrator, and assign a value of 1

Close Regedit


This should fix your problem