Replies

Thanks for that reminder Dave, I had seen mention of it before, but forgotten. Just tried out the blank password in safe mode and got in OK as “administrator”. Can’t fathom why the OEM couldn’t tell me that?

I’ve used the TweakUI show user account option to keep my Admin accounts out of sight, and also to force me to not use fast user switching when playing in them (the only way in is the 3-finger salute (x2) at the welcome screen to get the logon screen).

The “Administrator” account doesn’t appear in the TweakUI list, so I can’t control it’s presence from there. It keeps making it’s random appearances on the welcome screen, but won’t accept the blank/Enter password from there (or the logon screen). I guess I’ll just back out Karen’s change and forget about “administrator”, except for emergencies.

At least the Techs are being respectful to you Elaine, er, Sir

Sounds like a dud keyboard, as Al says. Have you tried the “flip, shake & tap” cure? If you have your caffeine fix at the keyboard, and it’s accompanied by the odd bikkie, or similar, it’s possible that a few crumbs may have snuck in around your Ctrl key. Flipping the keyboard over, and taking it thru some aerobics, could help. A hit with the vacuum may help too.

btw [indent]

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My pix is Perth, W.A., viewed from a satellite late at night. You can justy make out Bunbury at the lower LH corner.

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[/indent] solved a dark mystery – if you squint just right, you can see me in Woodlands

Seemed funny at the time; the contrast between the content of that page, and finding an apparent reference to our recently elevated lounger at the end of it. If you had spotted the reference, I’m sure you would have pointed out that it had to be for someone else sharing the same moniker.

for any confusion or offence caused, none was intended, especially the latter.

You weren’t having a dig at anyone with that link, were you?

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Additional query words:

How could a suggestion to Read The Fine Manual for more details possibly be discourteous?

(Edited by TimOz on 18-Jan-03 09:38. Additional detail (in italics))

I lied. Well, not exactly, MS made me do it. After Kelly’s fixes, I did logon/offs and reboots to try and get the Administrator to materialise on the Welcome screen, without success. All of that was using my regular admin account.

Just now I logged in to my real user account, and when I logged out, there was Administrator, top of the list . Now all I need is the password, which my OEM disclaims any knowledge of That Administrator account is now a semi permanent feature of the Welcome screen – sometimes there, sometimes not. Can’t discern a consistent pattern to when it’s likely to put in an appearance.

Misunderstood your question, Pat. I know just enough about Access to get myself in trouble, so won’t try lead you any further down the garden path, there are others here (Access forum) far better qualified to do that

I tried Kelly’s registry fixes. They appear to work (Administrator is enable in registry) but the Administrator doesn’t appear on the Welcome screen. Doing Ctrl-Alt-Del (x2) and trying to logon as Administrator, gives the message that it’s unable to logon due to an account restriction. Of course no hints as to what that restriction might be

The key that’s updated has yet more system accounts, but still no hints to answer the original question. So close.yet so far

That’s what I’d assumed too, but I’ve just donw a couple of reboots and the “Account Unknown” modified date is still yesterday, while a couple of (non-admin) accounts I haven’t used have today’s date .

“Overboard” is an understatement. Why didn’t they just stick to a single system and use flags or switches to ship it in a “Home” status, leaving those who can cope with the complexity (?) to toggle their systems to a “Pro” status? Probably a whole lot less drama all around, in the long run.

I listened to several experts who convinced me that the only reason to get Pro was to set up domain networking (not critical in our household). Still makes me

Dig in to “Advanced Customisation” in the Contents of Outlook Help.

The overviews are good for letting you know what can be done, the rest has much of the information needed, but not necessarily in the most readily understandable or accessible form. The typical MS help strategy of “we’ve got the answer, just ask the right question” applies in many places.

I admire that – sometimes it takes serious effort to save a mouseclick or keypress. If you’re truly lazy you could use something like AutoIt to automate the whole shutdown.

I think “normal” seems a reasonable conclusion, and I expect it’s not a cause for concern and can left as is. From what I’ve been able to gather you can logon as Administrator, but only in Safe mode (or recovery console?) and if your vendor happened to let you know the password (mine didn’t and disclaims any knowledge of it ).

But, it bugs me that I don’t know which of those four extra accounts is “unknown”, or whether it is something else again . I can’t think of a way to dig any deeper, at least on a Home system, so I guess it’ll have to be left

On my XP Home system, with the Welcome screen and fast user switching both ON, I get the following selections after “Start/Turn Off Computer”. If the Welcome screen is OFF (kills FUS too), then the behaviour is same as for Al.

Victoria, you can probably stop ’cause Al may have asked you to do the slightly impossible.

Al, you’re running on Pro, right? That “Local Users and Groups” item seems to be just one of the things that MS decided was too complex for XP Home users. Maybe there’s something else that might help?

In CMD, NET USER lists the following, in addition to the users I’ve created: Administrator, Guest, HelpAssistant, and SUPPORT_388945a0. I thought a NET USER with the username would provide more clues, but I can’t see a way trace any of the additional info back to that original “Account Unknown”. I tried to search the registry for that SUPPORT_388945a0 user, but came up blank.