Deleted Userinit.exe

Windows XP Professional. Not Service Pack 2.
I was deleting malware and i happened to delete Userinit.exe, which as many of you know causes the log in screen to log you in then out right away. I dont have the XP disc so i cant get into recovery mode. Is there any other ways around this???

 

There should be a backup copy in your i386 folder - try a search.

If you can't find it I have uploaded a copy renamed userinit.txt,- download it and rename it back. It should work but came off Win2k which is what I'm using right now. Perhaps another geek will offer an XP version. if needed.

Studio T

 

i forgot to add that i deleted the registry value not just a file. so i cannot get into windows at all.

this is also on my other computer

 

Depending upon the computer types and your resources you have several options to proceed.

1) You can simply do a fresh recovery/ install.

2) If you have a Microsoft XP disk or a Dell recovry disk (and it is a Dell)
you can do a repair install. This will reinstall Windows but leave your data intact. It will however not include service packs for windows and mean reinstalling some drivers and programs again afterwards.

3) You can copy an earlier version of the registry and the file back using the Windows recovery console to boot the computer. Not all versions of Windows CDs contain this, notably some OEM / recovery disks.

4) You can slave the drive to another computer and copy the files as in 3.

Let us know which route you have the resources to go for and I will post most details of the steps.

Studio T

 

i have the file i need on a floppy disk. How do i copy the file from the disk to the registry while in the recovery console?

 

Hi Dins

The file I posted yesterday is from Win2K so may not work. If you have an xp one good. If not I can post one, it is 24k.

The sytax in recovery console is

copy source destination

for you this is

copy a:\userinit.exe c:\windows\system32\

You may stills have one in the i386 folder in this case use

copy c:\i386\userinit.exe c:\windows\system32\

Once you have done this you may be able to recover the registry file by restarting from last known good configuration. This will use the most recent copy of the registry before the one you wrecked. This would be preferable to actually copying over the appropriate registry hive. Post if this doesn't work and I will look into the exact hive to copy over.

Studio T

 

nevermind i fixed it using this site http://www-biology.ucsd.edu/computerservices/registryfix.html

thanks for all your help

 

Well done for that I was hoping to avoid that proceedure as its easy to slip up.

Your link gives the full monty for my fix #3 - scary if anyone has to do it.

Studio T

 

I have this same problem with the deleted userinit.exe on my laptop. I have XP pro, don't have a floppy drive, yet have the XP cd.
I can get into the Recovery Console, yet that's where i'm stuck!

I burn a copy of userinit.exe from my desktop to a cd. I do not know the commands and I am not advance to do further.

1. I tried to install a Fresh Copy of XP, not reformatting, did not solve prob.
2. I logged into the recovery cons, log in my admin pass then typed:
a. cd c:\
b. pressed enter
c. copy c:\i386\userinit.exe c:\windows\system32\
d. pressed enter
Result= Access Denied

So, I'm stuck again. help.

 

Hi and welcome.

When you have a problem, start your own thread and then it's more likely to get noticed and dealt with and also easier to keep the advice for both parties separate.

 

To copy userint from the CD to the hard drive

you need to specify the cd in the source path.

If the cd drive is 'D' userint is stored in thei386 folder in compressed form with a '.ex_' extension. The recovery console copy command will automatically expand the file.

copy D:\i386\userinit.ex_ c:\windows\system32\userinit.exe

Studio T

 

For some reason when I'm in the Recovery Console, my CD drive will not open because XP cd is in it. It keeps spinning/reading, yet I do not know of another way getting into the Recovery Console without my XP cd.

Would a flash drive work as an alt to the cd,? usually it comes up as E: drive

 

The file you require is on the XP CD.

Studio T

 

thanks for the advice here

i found a backup in i386 named userinit.ex_
going to copy to userinit.exe in system32 and give it shot

im running linux live because im having a login loop problem after cleaning adware in xp, mounted windows partition and found i have no userinit.exe

hoping i dont need to get into the registry, unable to run recovery on xp cd because admin password isn't working (not sure if i forgot it or if it's disabled/corrupted)

 

but of course, the mounted partition isn't writable

 

no luck whatsoever, i downloaded chntpw but it didnt work to clear/change the admin password

mounted windows partition in kubuntu live, copied everything, reinstalling windows. annoying but needed a wipe anyway