Auto Login -XP Home Problem

[gettyup]

I have been using XP Home for over a year and happy with it. The system would load up and go straight to the welcome screen and then the desktop without any intervention. Today, it was asking for the user name to be clicked in the right pane of the blue screen. There was no user name in the right pane nor any icons.
I read in the FAQ about the auto login and followed the steps. The system starts up and goes to a screen that looks like something from Windows 2000, asks for a password, of course I have never entered a password so if I just hit cancel in then goes to the desktop.
When I hit control+alt+delete I get a screen with many options/buttons for shut down, performance ect.. Then when I go to the start menu and select shut down I get a new looking window that also give me a drop down menu to make a selection. What has happened and how do I get the XP home to interface that same as when I installed it. Sorry for the long and somewhat confusing post. Thanks in advance. Mike

 

[linney]

You could try typing "control userpasswords2" in the run box. In the resulting window uncheck "users must enter a user name and password to use this computer".

Or you could use System Restore to go back a couple of days before things changed for you.

 

[gettyup]

Sorry for not following up but I was on vacation for a couple of weeks. I did another dumb thing before I got the administrator account screwed up. I disabled the system restore. I tried the registry change mentioned but when the desktop appears it is a new one without anything I had stored on the desktop in folders.
Do you recommend trying to repair XP home edition or just go ahead and do a clean install? Thank you in advance!!

 

[linney]

How does it behave in Safe Mode?

If your sure you have checked out everything in Control Panel/ User Accounts and can't fix it from there maybe you have corrupted your user profile.

Error Message: Windows Cannot Load Your Profile Because It May Be Corrupted (Q318011)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q318/0/11.asp

Some other things to try.

Run the System File Checker program from the Run Box by typing.....Sfc /Scannow in it and have your XP CD handy

If they don't work you could try repairing windows itself by running it over itself. You will lose all your windows updates but your files will be untouched.

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP (Q315341)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q315/3/41.asp

Reformat and Clean install would be the last available option for you to try as you will lose all your data.

 

[smah]

gettyup, it sounds like you've logged in as another user - Administrator maybe. When you follow linney's 'control userpasswords2' instructions and click ok Administrator is the user that is listed. Could you have set this as your auto-logon instead of your actual username? Go back to 'control userpasswords2' as mentioned above, then check 'users must enter a password', hit apply, then uncheck it again and make sure you set it to log on with the correct username.