# Unable to switch users on Vista.



## Buozys (Jan 30, 2008)

Hi, I've been trying to get this problem fixed for a while but I just can't seem to straighten it out.

Currently I am logged on to my Administrator account. I have a program that can only be run on an account which doesn't have administrator privileges. So I made another account and it was working. Then out of the blue I can not switch users anymore. I can lock and log off the admin account but whenever I try to log on to my user account I look at the loading screen for a minute and then my screen fades to black and I can only see my pointer on the screen.

At this stage I can ctrl + alt + delete and log off but I can not access anything or even ever see any icons or desktop on my user account.

Is it something in my registry or what?

Thanks in advance.


Windows Vista Home Premium
2 GB's of DDR2 Ram
150 GB free hard drive space.
8800GTS Video Card
e6850 CPU


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## jcgriff2 (Sep 30, 2007)

Hi. . .

So that I may better understand your predicament, please. . .

1. Is the administrator account described in your post the same account that you were required to set up under Vista's initial installation (when the pc was new)?
2. Were any other accounts created besides the standard user account for the program's execution?
2a. Did you ever change the name of a user account?
3. Why could this one program not run under admin? 
4. You mentioned the registry... did you activate the hidden admin account? If so, did you use the "net user" command?
5. Did you ever disable the User Access Control (UAC)?
6. Have you "tweaked" the registry or the system in any manner?
7. Did you ever used ICACLS or change any file permissions?

regards. . .

jcgriff2


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## Buozys (Jan 30, 2008)

1. Is the administrator account described in your post the same account that you were required to set up under Vista's initial installation (when the pc was new)?

My Windows Vista was installed before I got my computer. They sent it to me With my admin account and 1 other. I created the third account for this program.

2. Were any other accounts created besides the standard user account for the program's execution?

No.

3. Why could this one program not run under admin?

The program I am reffering to is Lord Of the Rings Online and for some reason the development team thought it would be better off to be run this way. There is no way I can run it on my administrator account.

4. You mentioned the registry... did you activate the hidden admin account? If so, did you use the "net user" command?

I remember looking at tweaks to make my computer go faster and I believe I did do something with net users, unfortunately I can not remember exactly what it was.

5. Did you ever disable the User Access Control (UAC)?

I thought about it but left it on.

6. Have you "tweaked" the registry or the system in any manner?

Yes I put in a couple of registry tweaks to enhance my computers performance.

7. Did you ever used ICACLS or change any file permissions?

Not sure what that is so I am guessing no. As for the file permissions that would be no aswell.


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## jcgriff2 (Sep 30, 2007)

Buozys said:


> My Windows Vista was installed before I got my computer. They sent it to me With my admin account and 1 other. I created the third account for this program..


So you now have 1 admin, 1 std user, and 1 guest account?



Buozys said:


> The program I am reffering to is Lord Of the Rings Online and for some reason the development team thought it would be better off to be run this way. There is no way I can run it on my administrator account.


What happens when you run it under admin? Do you get any <access denied>> errors? Have you checked the Event Viewer?



jcgriff2 said:


> 4. You mentioned the registry... did you activate the hidden admin account? If so, did you use the "net user" command?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Have you ever seen the logon screen say something similiar to:

"Username and password do not match"

and at this time there is only 1 icon & to access the other 2 accounts you have to click on "switch user"?


Do you know of REGEDIT and how to edit the registry, if necessary?

Do you have your Vista CD or a recovery partitioned hard drive?

Thanks. . .

jcgriff2


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## Buozys (Jan 30, 2008)

So you now have 1 admin, 1 std user, and 1 guest account?

- I have 3 Users, One main admin, a secondary admin and the user. I can not access either of the other accounts. I've tried making a second user account and that did not work either.

What happens when you run it under admin? Do you get any <access denied>> errors? Have you checked the Event Viewer?

It closes itself down and says I have to run it under a user account. That's just how it was programmed.



Have you ever seen the logon screen say something similiar to:

"Username and password do not match"

and at this time there is only 1 icon & to access the other 2 accounts you have to click on "switch user"?


I have no passwords on my computers accounts therefore no I have not seen it. I am the only person who uses it so I did not see a need to have passwords. I get the whole list of log off, lock, or switch users.


Do you know of REGEDIT and how to edit the registry, if necessary?

Yes I know how to use it fairly well. Don't know how to use every feature.

Do you have your Vista CD or a recovery partitioned hard drive?

When they sent me my pc they did not include a disk.


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## jcgriff2 (Sep 30, 2007)

Hi again. . .

Thankyou very much for answering my questions. I assure you that this is not an interrogation, rather a fact finding mission so that I may better assist you in gaining back control of your system. Your predicament is not unique by any means. I have seen this situation before; however, not without password protected accounts. Remember that there is nothing wrong with your methods as passwords are optional for a reason - not everyone requires their use. 

I have a fairly good idea as to your system's current state of affairs. I am still trying to figure out if there is a way to recover without a full re-install of Vista. Therefore, I am advising you to back up any and all personal files that you may have and wish to save. Generally, such files are located in the user folders - "c:\users\%username%\*.*" - where %username% = the usernames on your system.

PLEASE read the following in its entirety:




jcgriff said:


> So you now have 1 admin, 1 std user, and 1 guest account?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


*Please go to a command prompt and type "net user Administrator" (no quotes) press enter.

Does your output screen look like the screen shot below? (area in red -admin lines - VERBATIM)*










Does your prompt look similar to the one in the screen shot? >> c:\users\Administrator.jcgriff-PC>>" ?? (the "Administrator.****-PC")?





jcgriff2 said:


> Do you know of REGEDIT and how to edit the registry, if necessary?
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Go into the registry.
Please go to the path indicatedin red on the bottom of the following screen and tell me if the Default username is same as below; also - is the value next to shell "explorer.exe"?













jcgriff2 said:


> Do you have your Vista CD or a recovery partitioned hard drive?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Hardware manufacturers (OEM) must, under Federal law, provide a a copy of the operating system software so that the user has method to recover windows in the event of a disaster. This can be via a HDD partition or a CD to do so whther provided to you or instructions for you to do so. Please check your owner's manual for instructions on how to make the CD. I STRONGLY ADVISE THIS as I believe it may be necessary for you in the very near future to re-install Vista onto your computer. These disc(s), are unique to the brand and possibly to the model of your PC. It may not be possible for you to use another Vista CD and your product code for a re-install.

Thanks again for your answers.

regards. . .

jcgriff2


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## Buozys (Jan 30, 2008)

Hey again. Thank you for bearing with me.

My command prompt looks exactly like the image you uploaded.

The Registry Editor shows that my default username is also Administrator and the shell is set to explorer.exe .


If I do have to reinstall windows I believe I will just revert to XP. Vista has caused me nothing but head aches with the memory leaks and compatibility problems.


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## jcgriff2 (Sep 30, 2007)

Hi . . .

Don't despair and please don't give up on Vista. Per your previous post, I know that you are generally the sole user on your computer, and that Vista may seem to be overbearing security wise with the UAC and all, but you know too much now to go back to XP! Not that there is anything wrong with XP mind you - as I have several 2/3-year old XP desktop PC's that I maintain for the kiddie's (and friends) gaming and hacking appetites. I now have 5 Vista laptops in the house that are primarily for the kiddie's schoolwork as they include various professional software packages. Slowly but surely the kiddie's don't want to go on the XP systems any longer eventhough they don't get much latitude with Vista as they do with XP, primarily due to Vista's UAC. They enjoy Vista's capabilities as well as its challenges. 

Keep in mind that XP is almost 7 years old - an eternity in the high tech world. I don't know if you were as involved in this industry in 2001 or not, but many had the same negative comments about XP then as Vista now. The point being that technology always advances with or without you. At some time in the near future, you will need to know the Vista environment for some life altering experience - work, school, etc... 

I need to look into your particular situation more, but what I can tell you is that one major source of the problem here is the activation of the "hidden" system Administrator. This is the primary cause of the file names having the "Administrator.xxxxx-PC" qualifier on them. As you know, the hidden-admin (admin-1) pulls rank over the admin-2 accounts that you set up through normal channels. Where I see the problem is that Vista maintains a set of user files for the admin-2 administrators with the path "c:\users\administrator\*.*". When the admin-1 is activated, because of the different security levels, Vista creates the "c:users\Administrator.xxxxx-PC" user files for the admin-1 because the admin-2 does not have the same file permissions as the admin-1 accounts and therefore can't access the admin-1 user accounts. The reason the admin-1 exists in Vista is for XP upgrades and Vista disaster recovery when the admin-2 accounts are hijacked by the system and somehow demoted. This results in the owner of the PC being completely locked out. The Vista admin-1 is equivalent security wise to the XP admin account. Believe me, you do not need the admin-1 account activated as the admin-2 can do it all, although prompted by the UAC, via taking ownership of a folder/path, changing file permissions to admin-2's liking, etc. ... 

At one point I also got very frustrated with Vista and had the same problem as you do - where do you think the screen shot came from? !! My ordeal began with trying to add sub-folders and Vista said access-denied. So I changed the registry to suit myself. 

Anyway... I am still looking and will post when I obtain pertinent information. In the interim, please back your files up and get the Windows CD made. Again, if you provide me with your manufacturer's name and model number I'll see if I can find out about the hidden Recovery drive, assuming it exists.

Regards. . . 

jcgriff2


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## Buozys (Jan 30, 2008)

Hey, it's me again. Been a while but I still have not fixed my problem.

I now have my windows Vista installation disk. I do not really wish to reinstall, so is it possible to repair this issue in any other way?


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## jcgriff2 (Sep 30, 2007)

Hi - good to hear from you again. . .

I am in the process of re-reading this thread to update myself on your situation.

In the interim, please provide me with some additional system information such as the manufacturer and model # of your pc.

thanks. . . jcgriff2


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## Buozys (Jan 30, 2008)

Thanks for all the help Griff but I managed to figure out how to fix it myself. 
Apparently I had meddled with my UAC in regedit or elsewhere. It wasn't letting my other accounts use UAC although it was enabled. All I had to do was revert some settings and switch off UAC. Thank you for all your patience and assistance.


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## jcgriff2 (Sep 30, 2007)

Buozys said:


> Thanks for all the help Griff but I managed to figure out how to fix it myself.
> Apparently I had meddled with my UAC in regedit or elsewhere. It wasn't letting my other accounts use UAC although it was enabled. All I had to do was revert some settings and switch off UAC. Thank you for all your patience and assistance.



Hi. . .

Glad to hear that you were able to find a solution. 

If you don't mind, can you please tell me some of the settings that you reverted? I have come across this before without the UAC and it was difficult to solve. The UAC changes throw more excitement into the mix!

Thanks. . .

jcgriff2


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## Buozys (Jan 30, 2008)

Sure thing.

When I was reading up on tweaking my system I read about turning of UAC. Well apparently I made it so that UAC doesnt start up by default and has to be started through a menu. That wasn't really the main problem, the main problem was that I had left the requirement to have UAC on. 

Basically what happened to me was that when starting up the accounts they were asking for UAC ,which wasn't turned on, because I had left the settings on which required it. So I simply changed the boot options for UAC just in case and I turned off my UAC in general.

Not sure if I described that in the best way but it is basically what I did.


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## jcgriff2 (Sep 30, 2007)

Hi...

I understand fully. I just looked it up. I have not come across this one before. Your description was perfect. I don't know if you noticed or not, but I like extreme details (!!), so I went and looked up other cases such as yours. Interesting to say the least.

I greatly appreciate the response as it helps me to better help the next person as I can now add this to my "interrogation" list !

I hope that I was of some help via the information provided. Now you can enjoy your time with Vista.

Godspeed.

JC


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## westpologal (May 26, 2009)

hey there guys,
i have a similar problem with not being able to switch users in vista. every time i go to switch users and log on as a different user, it goes to a blue screen with no icons on it. i have to do control, alt, del to be able to switch back to admin. there are 3 user accounts that i know of (admin, user 2, and guest). after reading over your discussion i realize my circumstance is a little different, but it seems like you guys are pretty efficient.
any help would be fantastic! thanks =)


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