I usually run in a Limited Users account to leave Administer Acct. closed against attack. In the past few weeks I"ve been unable to access User Accounts. If I click on Pick A Task I get the three choices: Change Accounts, Create a New Account etc...click on any of these and I get a large blank dialog box with the Windows logo, the title User Accounts in the blue border at the top, then in a tool bar just below that a left-right set of arrows, the User logo and the word "Home." No clicking taks me anywhere. Of course below Pick a Task is "or pick a Control Panel Icon" here I have "Cardspace" with no icon and User Icon with that icon. User takes me to the blank screen while this "Cardspace" takes me no where.

I went through the My Computer tree and discovered some sort of "English something or other Toolbar attached to Control Panel and deleted it with Revo-Uninstaller which is usually excellent. Now i can find no way to get rid of this Cardspace option and User takes me nowhere. Who's got control of my Control Panel/Computer and what do I do? I'm desperate as sometimes I like to do things that require me to change user accounts from Admin. to Limited, etc. I'm running XP-SP 3 Pro. Help!

Joe Hayes

I think you might have a virus, make sure you are using one of the big 3 (Norton, AVAST or KAPERSKY/KAPERSPY or however its spelled) and they are fully updated then run a boot scan or run a scan from Safe Mode, Make sure you back up as much as you can as soon as possible, if you do have a virus then you wouldn't want it to do any harm to your other files.
Alternatively upgrade to Vista/Windows 7 (Newer and more secure) if you are not upgrading because of compatibility issues look up Vista/Windows 7 compatibility mode but thats a whole other forum post =P

And hope against hope that you don't carry the virus to the new OS. Before you even think about upgrading/updating, ensure that your PC is clean. Go here to read all about cleaning your PC, there is some very interesting reading.
http://www.daniweb.com/forums/forum64.html

Thanks for the input...I'm a little slow out of the gate on this. I thought I had an eye inflammation but it's glaucoma and I just learned that my right eye is gone. It's a tough pill to swallow...
Carbonite has all of my stuff backed up...I've been using Avast and Ad Aware, but found a third "user" when in safe mode (there should only be two, my Administrator account and Limited User Account which I run in.
I disabled the third account which allows for a remote computer. But am having a problem finding "paths" to files and basic PC procedures...ignorance is not bliss.

Have run SpyBot and am just now getting back to work. Thanks again and I'll keep trying.

Thanks everyone but no success. Going to clean the disc in the morning and go for a new install.

Joe

Thanks to everyone but no success. I'm cleaning the disc and going for a reinstall in the morning.

Joe

Hi,
If it is a virus, this will not help but just in case it is not you could try a windows repair from your OS CD. Search the net if you do not know how.