So after using system restore to restore to an earlier point that I hadn't seen before (Sept when only Oct was showing earlier), it rebooted asking me to log in--except there were no accounts to login with! The only account I had was the Administrator account, and it was setup to auto-login. :(
Any ideas how to restore this? I researched this a ton a few months ago, but now I can't remember what the various solutions were. Any experience and expertise welcome.
I forgot to add that it's also missing in Safe Mode. It's really gone! :o
Try booting into safe mode with command prompt and issuing these commands
net user YOURUSERNAMEHERE /add /random /passwordchg:yes
and then
net localgroup "administrators" username /add
Oh yeah, if this doesn't work I completely forgot about another way. When the blank login screen shows up, just press CTRL + ALT + DEL repeatedly until it gives you the option to type in a username. Then just type in your username and password and see if the accounts are just hidden.
it rebooted asking me to log in-
So, do you see the login screen then? If so, type administrator for the user name and type in your password in the password text box.
If you dont see the log in screen, hit CTRL-ALT-DEL as mentioned by LucianAdamson, as XP will bring up the login screen.
We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.