Windows XP Login Problems. Please help!

[dreamr]

Ok, I think I made a booboo and I really hope someone here can help me. lol

Normally, when I turn on my computer, it goes straight to my desktop. However, today, for some reason, when I turned on my comp, it went to the "Welcome" screen where I had to click my name in order to go to the desktop. Since I hadn't made any changes, as far as I'm aware, to make it start doing that, I got worried and started looking online for ways to turn the Welcome screen off. Like it had been before today.

A website said to go to "Run," type in "control userpasswords2," select the account that I want to login to automatically, and then uncheck the "need passwords" box at the top. So that's what I did. But when I restarted my computer to see if it helped...it brought me to the "Windows is loading" screen...and stayed there.

I restarted. Same thing. I restarted again. Same thing. I restarted and then walked down the hall to ask my roommate if I could use her computer to find out what I messed up, but when I got back to my room...my desktop had come up.

So then, I wanted to undo what I had done...but now it won't let me. It says the current user is not recognized and that I should restart the computer and then open "User Accounts." But since the previous times when it seemed to stop at the "Windows is loading" screen, I'm afraid that it will do that again if I restart.

Help?

Thanks in advance.

[TurcoLoco]

The steps were correct for what I could recall.
To begin with, the cause of the initial problem of getting the login prompt was quite possibly due to the .NET installation.
Why it got stuck on the loading screen, I am not sure on that. Your user profile might somehow became corrupted or at least some of the related system files.

At what point, does it not let you and give you that error when you are trying to undo your previous steps?
I think without doing anything, you should try to reboot but first check on this:
Right click on Start button then click on Explore, and under Documents and Settings, see if there is another profile similar to yours but with additional number after it (something like bunch of zero and one at the end).

[dreamr]

No, I don't see anything there.

And I'm not sure what caused the .NET installation.

Btw, I forgot to say that when I did that "control userpasswords2" thing and clicked on the account I wanted it to go to automatically, it asked for a password. I put in what I thought was the password and then restarted after clicking the "apply" button or whatever.

If I put in the wrong password there, would that possibly cause it to not recognize me?

---

EDIT:
I just went to that "control userpasswords2" thing and my account is not showing up anymore. It just has "Administrator," "ASP.NET," and "Guest." :/

[TurcoLoco]

Lol, I think you must have clicked on the REMOVE button and then clicked on YES for the confirmation thinking you were doing the right thing, otherwise your user would still be on the list.

Do this: Start > Run > lusrmgr.msc > OK then click on Users now see if your user profile is listed there or not. If your user name is still there then something weird going on because removing the user from the user management applet (control userpasswords2) is the same as removing it from the Local Users Management console (lusrmgr.msc).

You profile has to exists after all your were able to log back in as yourself but I was thinking your profile got corrupted due to whatever happened and it created your profile again with some additional numbers at the end to indicate that it was a partially recovered version of the previously in user profile but you said your user profile was there and no other profiles with similar name existed which shows that was not the case...so I am not sure what the heck happened.

My advise, you stay clear of user control center... lol

[dreamr]

Hey... :P

I know it didn't say anything about deleting anything. The popup asked for the password for that account. I'm wondering if maybe I put in the wrong one and then when it rebooted, the password I entered didn't match the one listed for that account, so it confused it or something. *Sigh*...

Btw, I can't do that "lusrmgr.msc" thing. It says:

"This computer is running Windows XP Home Edition. This snapin may not be used with that version of Windows. To manage user accounts for this computer, use the User Accounts tool in the control panel."

...should I reboot and just hope for the best? lol

[TurcoLoco]

Oh ok, you got Home Edition so nevermind the lusrmgr.msc cause it is only available on XP.

control userpasswords2 works on both versions which is the same as going to Control Panel > User Accounts applet.
Another possibility it that the profile you were using didn't have any password and it was the only one on the system then somehow you added a new user account or it was the .NET account is more common and it happens without end users knowledge. It gets created when you do the Windows Updates, it is one of the recommended or optional components but still worth having.

What you did might have caused it but I am not sure since I do not know exactly what you did still, incorrect password entry would either change the password for that account or it would prompt you to enter the password when you try to login under that user. It might have been a user profile update glitch, hard to say.
I think you will be ok to reboot, after all, at some point you will anyhow.

[dreamr]

Alright. Well, I'm going to bed...so I'll go ahead and shut it down...

*Hopes that it still works when she wakes up tomorrow*

...or I might just reboot to see what happens. Either way, I'll let you know. It might be in a few minutes or it might be tomorrow. lol

[TurcoLoco]

Good Luck and let us know!
Sleep tight and dont let the locos bite!

[dreamr]

Ok. I have returned. It seemed to boot up fine. However, my pretty little picture has changed and instead of having Administrator, ASP.Net, Guest, and then the account under my name...there's just the account under my name (listed as the Administrator), ASP.Net, and guest. So I suppose it's alright now.

It still brought up the Welcome screen, though. And that's icky. So if there's a way I could get rid of it without messing things up, that'd be really great.

Any idea why it suddenly decided to start appearing in the first place?

[TurcoLoco]

You should be able to make the necessary account (password, profile picture and the welcome/logon screen is displayed or not) related changes through the User Accounts applet in the Control Panel.

Again, without knowing what you have done (installed) it is hard to say what caused the initial change (as I mentioned before .NET installation is a common cause -gotta love how MS surprises its users-) and also the tinkering your curious little hands have done...possibilities are....anyhow, glad things are back to normal with the reboot.

Hope this helped clarify things a bit.