XP Reverting To Original State (Almost)

[deadman_uk]

Hi,

I was contacted today by a woman with a computer problem. She owns an XP PC and Windows is forgetting numerous things everytime a reboot is done. Windows almost appears to return to the state it was in when it was first installed. The following known things happen every reboot:

- Most desktop icons get deleted
- Wallpaper reverts to the default 'Bliss'
- Language bar in the taskbar is shown
- Internet Explorer bookmarks are reset

I do not have the PC in front of me now but I do believe it's something to do with user accounts as a full virus and spyware scan returned no results. I do not know much about user accounts but will explain her setup:

- 2 accounts, both administratror, one is her sons which is password protected, the other is hers. The son said he has to log on to his mothers profile for Internet access or access to the bookmarks (can not remember which)

When going to system properties >> advanced >> user profile settings, I see the mothers account 'Karen' is mentioned twice (one is limited, the other is backup). There is also an administrator account, and her sons account is there too (which is set to local). I wanted to set all these to roaming, but this option was greyed out. I have since changed the sons account to limited, but do not know if this has fixed the problem, as I had to go home while Service Pack 3 was installing.

Is the problem due to user accounts? What would you recommend?

 

[bigdogchris]

She probably has a 'Steady State' type of program. They basically reset the PC back to the 'frozen' state when it's rebooted.

 

[deadman_uk]

She probably has a 'Steady State' type of program. They basically reset the PC back to the 'frozen' state when it's rebooted.

How do I know if this is the reason? What kind of program would do this?

 

[bigdogchris]

How do I know if this is the reason? What kind of program would do this?

She would have to log on the administrator account on the computer and check for the program. Two that I know of are

http://www.faronics.com/

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/default.mspx

She can also remove the password from her sons account (because he's to naive to make her limited so she can't) and she can see what he is hiding.

 

[deadman_uk]

She would have to log on the administrator account on the computer and check for the program. Two that I know of are

http://www.faronics.com/

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/default.mspx

She can also remove the password from her sons account (because he's to naive to make her limited so she can't) and she can see what he is hiding.

ok thanks very much!

 

[gimp]

it's also possible her profile is corrupt, and it's loading the "default user" profile as a temp. She just may be forgetting to mention the error message that says "Windows could not load your profile, any changes will not be saved, yadda yadda yadda"


it also depends on wether or not both profiles do the same thing.


fyi: roaming profiles are only for domain-network setups

 

[bigdogchris]

Yeah if she has 2 user accounts under her name there could be a corruption. I've encountered that sometimes windows will add numbers after the account name, like 'Karen.(computer's name)' and there will always be the original account , like just 'Karen'.

The fix is to delete both accounts and create a new one for her.

You should be able to browse to her documents from c:\documents and settings\ and save them onto a flash drive. Since her accounts are corrupt, remove the password from the boys account and go in through his.

 

[deadman_uk]

I think I will try bigdogchris idea, seems logical but thanks everyone for your suggestions

 

[rflcptr]

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/default.mspx

Thank you for this. I'm definitely recommending this to my manager for use at my university.