admin icon missing on welcome screen(xp)

If you never set of an administrator password, just don't enter one.

THANKS. I TRIED TO GET AWAY WITHOUT ENTERING A PASSWORD BUT THAT DIDN'T WORK. IF I HAD A PASSWORD I FORGOT WHAT IT IS. DUMB? MAYBE OR MAYBE OLDTIMERS DESEASE. ANY IDEAS? THANKS

Alright Margeandmark.

First can you please stop typing in all caps? Its extremely annoying, we can read normal text just fine.

Now with that out of the way, when you hit ctrl-alt-del when it asks you for username and password type in Administrator for the username, and leave the password blank if you don't think you made one, you said you tried without entering a password, but didn't say what username you tried (if you even put one there).

If it was Administrator with a blank password, then either think real hard and try entering all your other possible passwords because you are out of luck. Shouldn't have gone in deleting user accounts if you didn't test to make sure you could get in as Administrator first.

Anyway, check out this thread for some insight on your options if you are stuck without a way to get in as Administrator.
https://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6327

Just to clarify: When you get a welcome screen, are you automatically logged into XP? Or do you have a screen that asks for a login, but shows no usernames to log into (other than manually typing in an account?)

I am at the Welcome Screen where it asks me to click on the user icon to log on. Unfortunately there is no user icon shown. I can initiate ctrl-Alt-Del and get a screen that asks for my user name and password. Unfortunately I do not recall ever establishing a password. I never went into the computer and deleted the user names. It just happened. Why??? I have tried using the XP CD and the Recovery section but after going through the many minutes that takes I come back to the same place. Help?
Thanks

Originally posted by Margeandmark
I can initiate ctrl-Alt-Del and get a screen that asks for my user name and password. Unfortunately I do not recall ever establishing a password.

Click to expand...

Well do like I and others said above then for the username put Administrator and click ok or hit enter, don't even try to type in a password if you never set one.

Thanks for trying but I tried typing in Administrator as the User Name and simply pressed Enter without any Password and I still cannot get in. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

As far as I know You probably have to format that drive and do a fresh install.FYI XP has a password recovery floppy disk you can make in case you ever have memory loss again.
There might be password recovery software availible but it would surely cost a few bucks.

One thing to try is to run through your obvious passwords. The ones that you use routinely at websites and all (I assume you don't do random passwords).

If you DID set a password, and just don't remember doing so (Something I do often on my caffiene induced hazes after 72 hours), you might hit it. Be sure to try all of your capitalizations and all.

Oh, and be SURE that you are using a capital A in Administrator. Windows can be stupid about that in certain circumstances (I think the default XP install disables "administrator". Many corps add "administrator" to the admin group just to be lazy..)

Windows XP No Usernames displayed. Administrator Password does not work

Techies,
I have hunted around on the net for the solution to this and have not found any.
I feel slightly sorry for the original poster here as it wasn't the fact that he had forgotten his administrator password at all.
The symptoms are as he descriped. XP welcome screen with no usersnames displayed. In my case they were there one day, gone the next. All four users.
Cntr-alt delete allows me to type administrator and the password but it doesn't work. I have NOT forgotten the password. Blank password does not work either.
Safe mode (using F8) does not work. You can't get in because of the same problem. No usernames.
So I tried repairing the XP install from CD. Didnt' work same problem.
Then I tried a new install to the same location and on the first boot I get the same problem, no usernames displayed.
I suspect a corrupt registry, so tonight I am going to tinker with boot floppy and some files and will let you know if I get anywhere if I can get to the c drive. I am hoping it's FAT32 and not NTFS (Its actually not my PC, but a friends)

AJ

Guys this is NOT a "forgotten password during a caffeine induced haze" problem.
I think the problem was a corrupt registry which stores the user information.

Just for your information, I ended up making a parallel windows xp install onto the same disk which was indeed NTFS. Then once booted I managed to copy the data from the old "Document and settings\user\userfolder\my documents\your documents" or whatever the directory is called. Of course all the software had to be installed once again to get the registry sorted.
I never found out what the real solution to the problem was. I did not have a backup of the registry and when I was attempting a repair to the original operating system I got in through the back door (using Shift F10) and ran regedit on the old registry but could not see where the problem was.

Basically a rebuild and copying data from the old installation got me back up and running. I will now take a copy of the registry in case this happens again.

But can I just say that the symptoms of the original problem were this (hard though it is to believe if you have not seen this first hand)

The system boots to the normal blue welcome screen which normally lists all your users down the right hand side of the screen, BUT, there are no users listed, no icons, none of those stupid little pictures of the skateboarder and deck chairs. Nothing, only a shutdown icon I believe (bottom left). Cntrl alt delete twice will give you a login box (the user shown being the last successful user login) but this or Administrator (or administrator) with remembered password DOES NOT WORK.
Safe mode does not allow you in for the same reason.

I just hope that this description saves others beating their head against a brick wall.


AJ

Dear Nadgers,

Someone above already posted the fix. Go to the registry and add in entires for all users who were previously there. For example, if you had a user called James with a full name of "James Smith" add a DWORD value in the registry called James with a value of 1.

:
To Make the Administrator Account Always Visible on the Login Screen


[Start] [Run] [Regedit]
Registry Key: HKEY_LOCALMACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList
Modify/Create the Value Data Type(s) and Value Name(s) as detailed below.
Data Type: DWORD// Value Name: Administrator
Setting for Value Data: [0 = Disabled / 1 = Enabled]
Exit Registry and Reboot

I'll say it again some of these posts should be closed

I have exactly the same problem, most likely caused by a virus. I removed the HD and set it up as a slave in another system. Then removed all viruses, trojans and malware.

Xerxel, in an above post, mentions a registry edit. Problem is, I am not able to edit the registry. With the HD in another system, I can only access the registry on the boot drive. When I place the HD in the original system, I can not get past the welcome screen.

Do I really have to do a new install of XP like "ajfish" in a previous post? Is there a way to edit the registry when the drive is not booted?

Safe Mode?

Thanks for the reply.

I have tried all iterations of safe Mode, but the same Welcome Screen minus User Names and Icons comes up. So, it will not load profiles and I can not get beyond this.

I tried this Boot CD to reset my NT Password and tried to reset my User Passwords. http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html

Resetting the NT Password worked OK and I was able to get into the Recovery console without entering a password. However, there were no User Passwords on the system, not even administrator. If they are not present, I can't reset them. The Config file must be corrupted and Users have to be reestablished.

Next step is this procedure with the BartPE Boot disk: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/peboot.htm

I will keep you posted. By the way, this is the first problem I have posted. Have been reading this board for a while. Thanks for all your help.
Regards,
Tony

Thanks for the reply.

I have tried all iterations of safe Mode, but the same Welcome Screen minus User Names and Icons comes up. So, it will not load profiles and I can not get beyond this.

I tried this Boot CD to reset my NT Password and tried to reset my User Passwords. http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html

Resetting the NT Password worked OK and I was able to get into the Recovery console without entering a password. However, there were no User Passwords on the system, not even administrator. If they are not present, I can't reset them. The Config file must be corrupted and Users have to be reestablished.

Next step is this procedure with the BartPE Boot disk: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/peboot.htm

I will keep you posted. By the way, this is the first problem I have posted. Have been reading this board for a while. Thanks for all your help.
Regards,
Tony

Quote from Ajfish;
"Basically a rebuild and copying data from the old installation got me back up and running. I will now take a copy of the registry in case this happens again."

As painful as it may be this is the bottomline. Corrupted files, Malware,Bad HDD, etc.We have all been or will get to a point where Windows is is JUST BROKE.

Find and maitain a good Backup procedure!
I know you have heard this before!
Reality can Bite.

Liquidlen,

That is what I wound up doing. Reinstall Win XP and tried to restore my saved files the best I could. I still feel there must be a registry setting to control the Welcome Screen and allow a bypass.

Discovered this web site after I already reinstalled XP. Look at line 45. I wonder if that utility works. Was too late for me to try it.
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Thanks for your help
Tony

A lot of the controls for the Welcome screen are in Contrl Panel>User icon. You will find different options for logging on Classic, Cntrl+Alt+del etc.Different settings gives you different options.There is also the help files to explain the settings.

Same problem here - please help me!

Hello TechSpotters

I have exactly the same problem as described by the original poster - there are no user icons on my "interactive logon screen" - only the "Turn off Pete's Laptop" button down at the bottom left. The only difference for me is that pressing ctrl-alt-del does not bring up a logon dialogue box - at my logon screen I usually just click on one of my user profiles. I didn't do anything out of the ordinary on my computer before shutting down last night, and I have antivirus / malware software running always and nothing showed up.

Now I can't get into my computer at all, even using different safe modes. I don't fully understand what ajfish or TangoTrolley were saying on how to repair it. I've searched for updated "fixes" but can't find anything that resembles this problem described as it is here. Sorry to be really thick - can someone help please?

My OS is XP SP2; I have 2 user accounts that usually show up - one is "Pete" (my usual one, a limited account) and the other is "System Protection" (admin account that I only use to install programmes and make system changes) - I was using Pete last night. Guest and admin accounts do not usually show up as options to click on - never enabled them. My laptop came with a recovery section loaded onto a hidden (and hopefully protected) partition on the HD - unfortunately I don't know how to access this if I can't get into the comp. When I first loaded Windows I remember being prompted to make a Vaio recovery disk (actually there were 8 and it took a while) - but I'm a bit loath just to reinstall if it's just going to end up with the same problem as folk said it may, although please correct me if I've misinterpreted the above posts.

Thanks in advance for people's input if there is any - if I need to post a new thread please let me know.

Pete