XP Boot Error

Hi,

You changed Owner to Admin.
You created June as a new user.

I don't know how June has both Administrator and User groups on XP Home. In Control Panel>User Accounts>change an Account>choosing June>Change type>how is she listed Administrator or Limited?

 

She is a "Limited Account" when I go through the procedure as you have laid-out here, above (and actually a limited account any other way I can imagine)

She was originally (started-out as) a limited user, then I switched her to an admin to make setting some things up quicker, and then switched her back again to limited, as she was intended to be all-along.

I really am apologetic for this mess I made.

I did happen across a screen last night that was:

USER ACCOUNTS

Select log-on and log-off options

X (<--checkbox) Use the Welcome Screen (which was selected/checked),

and

_ (<--checkbox) Use Fast User Switching (which was not checked/selected).

I have always used (utilized/made use of) "Fast User Switching", but I did not want to change anything before speaking with you, here now.

 

Hi again ... I apologize, but did I mention last night that "Admin" DOES NOW seem to be doing as it is supposed to do...acting as the Administrator??

 

No you hadn't mentioned that. How much do you have invested in the Admin account? I am concerned about it being crossed with the June account. You had one time in safe mode where you signed in to Admin and it logged you into June. That should never happen. [It appears that when you enter a password for Admin in safe mode you get logged into the Admin account and get administrator privileges. When you don't enter a password you get logged into June and have limited privileges.

My reading of the situation is that Admin and Owner are the same account. But I can't be sure all folders in Documents and Settings that have Owner on them are related to Admin. One of them could be related to your administrator account on the old XP install if you did similar renaming.

You might be ok as you are now. I think I should give more thought to this. I don't want to confuse things further.

When you sign in normally in regular mode as Admin and go to your desktop do you have any files there you could right click and select properties to see the whole path? If not just open Notepad and create a new document (any junk text will do) and save it to the desktop. Then right-click the file, select properties and see what folder comes after documents and Settings. ie: C:\Documents and Settings\adminxp\Desktop\junk.txt This should tell us which folder Adminis using in Documents and settings.

 

Ok, appreciated, thanks - will try this right now, and be right back..........

 

I take it you want (and may have even said?), under the General Tab of a prog on the Admin desktop (though I can also give the other two (under the shorcut tab) too:

General Tab

Location: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users.WindowsS2

Short cut Tab

Target: "C:\Program Files\COMODO\COMODO Internet Security\cfp.exe"

Start in: "C:\Program Files\COMODO\COMODO Internet Security\"

Is this what you're looking for please?

 

That shortcut won't work for what we need.

Go ahead and create a quick txt document in notepad and save it to the desktop and get the properties/path.

 

Sorry for the delay.

C:\Documents and Settings\June\Desktop

And yes, that (with "June" in it) is from the Admin UA

 

Sorry, had Verizon out here for the third time in so many weeks working on my internet. Oh well, I know the fourth time, tomorrow will be the charm

I have to run a quick errand now but do the same thing creating a document when signed in to June's account and see what the path is. (Let's hope it is one of the the Owner folders).

 

Will do...thanks!

 

Wow...occurs to me that I have REALLY gotten things intertwined here...really mixed-up:

On the "June" UA, the text doc. saved to the desktop =

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner.DIMENSION4500S\Desktop

 

It isn't your fault. It is a a ridiculous MS thing where they tell you that you are renaming your user but it really only changes the display name on the Welcome screen and the Start menu.

I don't think there is any hurry in changing things but I know it would drive me crazy having the names not match up. I think the only way around it is to create a new Administrator account (not using name Admin or Administrator) and then delete users June and Admin. Then delete their two folders. Of course you would lose any settings changes you have made on your current two accounts.

Think about for another day. I think leaving things as they are would be okay for most purposes. I'll look at all the names again and make sure I'm clear on who is who.
*********

Let's consider doing the hal.dll thing and editing your boot.ini so we can see if the old installation is viable.

 

All sounds perfect to me...and yes, it would gnaw at me knowing names/whatever were not matched-up.

Ready to move forward with the hal.dll thing and editing the boot.ini at your leisure...

Thanks as always............

 

Right-click My Computer>Properties>Advanced tab>under Startup and Recovery hit the Settings button>hit the Edit button

Notepad will open with your boot.ini. Go to File>Save As>Browse to desktop and save a copy as boot.txt. Close notepad. Upload the boot.txt here and I'll take a look at it and edit it down and post back a copy of what it should look like.

 

I'm on it...................

 

boot.txt ~~~

 

Haha. Of course, you couldn't have a normal boot.ini. There are two lines I've never seen before.

Ok, as a back up, copy your boot.txt from your desktop to the C: folder.

Then open my grcbootfix.txt in Notepad and Edit>Select All and copy the text. Close Notepad.

Then go back through right-clicking My Computer>Properties..through to the.Edit button. Notepad opens with your boot.ini. Delete all text in your boot.ini and Paste the text from mine. Then File>Save. Close Notepad.

*****
To be sure the boot.ini now has my text, click the edit button again and double check. If it is there you can just close notepad.

 

Okay, will do, and I am loathe to admit it, but I must be fading now tonight, as I feel this one may take me "awhile"...

I wish I could whip these instructions together in no time, but if I don't go slow, watch myself, and really concentrate, it will end-up a mess and/or problematic - and WE don't want THAT!

I will do my best, but not sure how quickly I can get this together (it's just not stuff I tend to do on a regular basis, at least, I don't think it is......)......

 

No problem. I have a very early morning tomorrow. We can do it tomorrow late afternoon or evening.

If you are tired tonight, skip it and do it when you can concentrate.

 

Yes - good thanks - I am struggling with the very first part of "copying it to C", so......

G'nite :wave

 

Hi,

I've tried three (3) times, and it is not saving your text (for some reason...I'm 99.9% sure I'm doing it correctly), but continues to hold-on to my old crud.

I realize you won't get this til tomorrow (Friday) sometime, but I wanted to post this now while it was fresh in my mind.

See you if/when you're available... thanks......

 

Re: XP Problem

I do not have a great knowledge of computers either fixing or infact anything to do with them but for some reason or another my Mother-in-Law seems to think i do, anyway she called me yesterday to ask me why her pc is doing what it is doing.

If i understand what she said to me it has something to with closing down after it boots up. She said to me, I turned on the pc and as the welcome screen came up (where her name is) or where her name used to be as it has now disappeared from the welcome screen which has baffled me completely and then she say's that the pc then decides to shut down. Now i have tried to look through the net in order to look for some answers to her problem but to no avail, I am hoping that someone on here can help.

She uses WinXP Home edition, 2 GB Ram and the rest i do not know.

Thank you for reading.