I have a problem with my wife's computer, and I hope someone here can help me. (This is not a SETI problem, but please bear with me).

My wife was using an XP SP3 system as Administrator. No other users were created, and there was no password. On the XP startup screen, it showed only Administrator, so clicking that got things started properly.

For a reason known only to me, I decided to create another account, Newadmin, also with administrator privileges and no password.

Now, on startup, the only icon shown is for Newadmin, so I cannot get to my wife's account. If I try to switch users, I only see Newadmin as a possibility.

How can I get to the original Administrator account and use it?

Thanks for any help!!!

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On the login screen, hit <CTRL> <ALT> <DEL> twice. It should bring you to the standard Windows login screen (not the icon screen).

From there, you should be able to login as either user.

On the login screen, hit <CTRL> <ALT> <DEL> twice. It should bring you to the standard Windows login screen (not the icon screen).

From there, you should be able to login as either user.

Thanks for the suggestion; I'll give that a try as soon as I finish copying the Docs & Settings for Administrator to a separate folder (to save the stuff if I screw up again).

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With windows XP, the Administrator account is created by default and is shown during startup, as you were seeing it. The moment you create a new user, the Admin account will get hidden and you will only see the user account. You can switch off the graphic logon from Control Panel > Users Accounts



Deselect both the options.



You will be presented with something like this



Here you can type in the user name (Administrator) along with the password to login.
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PKnowles, that worked - thank you!

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Glad you got it working again. A piece of advice though.

Add a password to both accounts, as Administrator with a blank password is one of the first things tried by hackers, better safe than sorry.

Edit: Especially as all support for XP ends in 82 days.

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Jravin, you are welcome!

Also, please note Sirius B's comments about security and XP becoming unsupported in April. I wanted to mention both those, but I've been accused too much lately (not here!) about being the admin from hell. I figured I'd let someone else take the opportunity to shine! ;-)

Would strongly recommend going to Win 7 at your earliest convenience (with passwords!).

To make the administrator account visible on the Welcome screen, follow these steps:
Click Start, click Run, type Regedit, and then press ENTER
1.Locate and then click the following registry key:
2.HKLM_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList
3.On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
4.Type Administrator.
5.Right-click the Administrator registry entry, and then click Modify.
6.In the Value data box, type 1.
7.Exit Registry Editor.
8.Restart the computer.

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Glad you got it working again. A piece of advice though.

Add a password to both accounts, as Administrator with a blank password is one of the first things tried by hackers, better safe than sorry.

Edit: Especially as all support for XP ends in 82 days.

I know that; I was in fact using Laplink PCMover Pro (got it at Newegg for $9.95) to move my wife's machine from XP to Win 7 Ultimate. It really worked well, once I stopped screwing up. Moved apps, settings and files, just as advertised.

It's a good product. Especially at that price!

Jravin, you are welcome!

Also, please note Sirius B's comments about security and XP becoming unsupported in April. I wanted to mention both those, but I've been accused too much lately (not here!) about being the admin from hell. I figured I'd let someone else take the opportunity to shine! ;-)

Would strongly recommend going to Win 7 at your earliest convenience (with passwords!).

Note that I took your advice, even before you gave it! Must be my ESP.

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:-)