User Account Missing in XP home

trick000

Ok guys I made a boo boo... hope someone can help me.

I was managing user accounts through "control userpasswords2" in xp home and i tried to change an account type from restricted (which is under Users Group) to Standard(which is under Power Users Group). I didn't know that Power Users Group did not exist in xp home.

so when I clicked ok, it told me it couldn't update the user to the group because that group didn't exist. Now that particular user is GONE from the users account list under control userpasswords2, the regular user control panel account applet and the welcome screen.

However that account can still be accessed through the log in dialogue box(welcome screen disabled) ... for some weird reason that particular user got changed from Limited to a Guest account. Any ideas on how to fix?

lazyart

Thinking of a quick way out.. did you try system restore?

RussS

You are doing that through control panel?
I haven't used XP home myself, but wouldn't it have the management console like XP Pro and W2K and that would be the place to do some serious problem solving.

trick000

Thanks for the help guys. lazyart, unfortunately system restore was/is off.
RussS, there is a fix in XP pro through the mmc snap in local and group policy but that particular snap in is not available in xp home.

lazyart

hmmm.. you can do some registry hunting... search for the username and compare that key with active users... maybe you can set a value that opens it up.

HOWEVER, it may be wise to turn system restore back on and/or back up the registry first. I'm adventurous enough to try it-- but you can really make a mess of things if you change something wrong........

trick000

yeah i've been fiddling with the registry but I'm having a hard time trying to find what I'm looking for. Not even sure exactly what I'm looking for! hehe...

Webmaster

If you can't fix it, perhaps you can export the user's settings and personal data, delete the account, recreate it and import the user state again.

trick000

yeah that's one way to do it. I still have to find a way to delete it though which would have to be through registry. It's not appearing on any of the user account management lists.

RussS

SNAP

Webmaster

Just wondering... did you try to create a user with the same name?

trick000

yeah I did. XP told me it already existed. What's wierd is that it's classified as a guest account with an actuall User name and you could put a password on it...

trick000

i tried the command net user /delete... solved everything... I should've thought of that in the first place.. duh!

Webmaster

That's one to remember

samsonlonghair

I'm having the exact same problem. Would anyone be willing to tell an idiot like me what "command net user /delete" means?

Webmaster

The net command is part of the Microsoft Networking client software, and can be used for many things... listing, adding, deleting users is one of them.

Press Start, click Run, type cmd, press Enter (or click OK), and type in netat the command prompt, or better: net user /?

Good luck!