Adding User Account with Windows Xp

Windows XP Pro, SP3.

Clicked Start>Control Panel, then User Accounts on the Control Panel. I set up a second account and it was fine. I selected the limited option. The background was different than my administrator account, and none of the desktop shortcuts were available. That was all expected, so no problem there.

The problem was when I thought I had switched to the original account, everything was the same as the new account. The desktop was identical to the new account with no shortcuts, etc. The documents section was empty, which would be expected with the new account because nothing had been added, but I thought I had switched back to the original account and it paniced me a bit because I have around 100 photos, numerous documents, etc. and thought I had lost them all.

I restarted the computer and chose to go to the original account and found it was still in the new account mode. I went in and closed the new account and restarted again and everything was back to normal. All my shortcuts, photos, ertc. were back, which was a relief.

What did I do wrong? When setting up the new account should I have selected Administrator instead of Limited? The original account is labled administrator so I thought having two administrator accounts might mess things up.

Before switching back to the original account, should I have restarted the PC first? I'm sure it's some minor detail I missed.

Thanks.

 

Hey boomer308, did you try turning on Guest Account to see if that helped ??

 

Also, have you enabled Fast User Switching?

 

Yes, fast user switching was enabled. At least I'm 99% sure I enabled it.

 

I'm not sure, but don't think Guest Account was on.

 

Most likely XP got amnesia and screwed up the profiles, thinking that the new one was now the default, and did something screwey.

What other software are you running on this machine, also have you done anything with the policies on the computer, which can also cause this to happen? You are not connecting to any type of domain with the machine per chance.