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Hello,

I am experiencing a slight problem managing user accounts in Windows XP Home Edition. When running in an existing account, non-administrative, I run into an IE script error and am unable to view the User Accounts dialog found under Control Panel.

I am unable to run as Administrator unless I boot in Safe-Mode. I can access the User Accounts page without a problem while running as Administrator, though I wanted to change the Restricted Users to Power Users. To accomplish that, I ran a Command Prompt and went to the second User Account interface: "control userpasswords2"

Once there, I tried to update an accounts' access level from Restricted to Standard. I received an error notifying me that the "Group" could not be found, et cetera. After this occurred, I could no longer find the user account amongst the list of others. It was literally gone.

The account still exists, and I can log into it if I don't use the Welcome screen. As of now, the Welcome screen and other account interfaces can't find the user. Note, if I try to create the user again, it informs me that the account already exists. While logged into Administrator, I also tried using the Administrative Tools->Computer Management, but the Local Users and Groups tab was also missing.

I have tried everything to my knowledge, and can't find a remedy to this problem. Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.


- Stack Overflow

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Amgeek

Dani AI

Generated

Short summary and practical steps

As described, the account still exists (you can log in if you bypass the Welcome screen) but the XP UI and some management tools stopped showing it. As discovered, that behavior commonly follows an accidental change to the account’s group membership or a registry flag that hides the user. Re-adding the account to its original local group resolved it for , and confirms that fixed a later case.

Quick diagnosis (from an Administrator prompt)

net user
net user <username>
wmic useraccount get name,sid

Use those to confirm the account exists and to inspect membership/SID. Boot to the built-in Administrator (Safe Mode if needed) so you have full rights while you investigate.

What to check and how to fix

  • Inspect the registry key that controls Welcome-screen visibility:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList
    If the username is present with a value of 0, remove that value (or set to 1) to restore visibility. Back up the registry first.
  • Verify the profile is present under:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
    The presence of the user’s SID there means the profile folder should be intact at C:\Documents and Settings\<username>.
  • If group membership is wrong, fix it from an Administrator prompt or create a new admin, copy the profile data, then recreate or repair the original account. If you cannot safely restore group membership, use System Restore to roll back to a point before the change.

Notes and cautions

  • The MMC snap-in “Local Users and Groups” is not available in XP Home, so the absence of that tab is expected; use command-line tools or Safe Mode Administrator instead.
  • Always back up the registry and user data before editing or copying profiles. If SAM/registry corruption is suspected, a repair install or professional recovery may be required.

Recommended Answers

All 3 Replies

Member Avatar for Member #2466

Are you on a LAN or is this on your home computer?

Member Avatar for cippico

Hi,

I had exactly the same problem. What happens is that the hidden accounts had become guest accounts (members of the 'Guests' group as well, possibly? I don''t know - didn't have time to look).

I solved it by logging in as administrator and adding the users back to their old groups. In their case it was the 'Administrators' group.

I used the command line utility 'net localgroup' to re-add them, e.g.:

net localgroup administrators Claire /add

This added user 'Claire' back to the 'Administrators' local group. The accounts then re-appeared on the XP welcome screen and all was well.

Hope this helps someone, somewhere!

Andy

Hello,

I am experiencing a slight problem managing user accounts in Windows XP Home Edition. When running in an existing account, non-administrative, I run into an IE script error and am unable to view the User Accounts dialog found under Control Panel.

I am unable to run as Administrator unless I boot in Safe-Mode. I can access the User Accounts page without a problem while running as Administrator, though I wanted to change the Restricted Users to Power Users. To accomplish that, I ran a Command Prompt and went to the second User Account interface: "control userpasswords2"

Once there, I tried to update an accounts' access level from Restricted to Standard. I received an error notifying me that the "Group" could not be found, et cetera. After this occurred, I could no longer find the user account amongst the list of others. It was literally gone.

The account still exists, and I can log into it if I don't use the Welcome screen. As of now, the Welcome screen and other account interfaces can't find the user. Note, if I try to create the user again, it informs me that the account already exists. While logged into Administrator, I also tried using the Administrative Tools->Computer Management, but the Local Users and Groups tab was also missing.

I have tried everything to my knowledge, and can't find a remedy to this problem. Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.


- Stack Overflow

Member Avatar for Amgeek

Thanks, Andy, it may have take 3 years for your post to hit its mark but...

It was just what I needed today.

AmGeek

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