melisahe8778 wrote:


Shawn,

The thing is, I *cannot* access the menu. At all. I cannot access the
menu because I have ONE account. No guest. No nothing.

Restart the computer and as it is starting up repeatedly tap the F8 key.
This will get you to the correct menu to choose Safe Mode. Use your arrow
key to select Safe Mode and hit the Enter key. This will take you to the
Welcome Screen. If you see an icon for Administrator, click on it. The
default password is a blank. If you can get into the system, go to Control
PanelUser Accounts and make new user accounts, etc.

If there is no Administrator icon on the Welcome Screen, since the only
administrative account on the system has been corrupted and the built-in
administrator account is disabled by default in Vista, you will need to use
third-party software to enable the built-in Administrator account, log in,
create an administrative user account for emergencies/elevations, a new
Standard user account for yourself, and copy your data from your old
corrupted account to the new one.

I'll give you instructions to do all of this but they do require a certain
level of computer skills. Only you know whether a better course of action
for you will be to take the machine to a local computer technician. If you
go this latter route, I don't recommend using a BigComputerStore/GeekSquad
type of place.

*****
1. In Vista, if you neglected to create an extra emergency user account that
has administrative privileges (and now you see why doing this is A Good
Thing), you will need to use NTpasswd to enable the built-in Administrator
account (disabled by default) and set a null (blank) password. Enabling
this account will put an icon for it on the logon screen so you can then
log on.

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Download the CD image (.iso) and burn as an image, not as data. You will
need third-party burning software. Then boot with the CD you created and
follow the directions. After you've finished with NTpasswd, remove the CD
and reboot the computer. Log into the Administrator account you enabled.

2. Once you have logged into the built-in Administrator account, go to
Control PanelUser Accounts and create:

a. An administrative user account - call it "CompAdmin" or "Tech" or the
like. This account will only be used for emergencies and elevation.
b. A Standard user account for your daily work.

3. Log out of the built-in Administrator account and into your new Standard
user account so the profile folders/files are created. Do nothing else here
right now.

4. Log out of your new Standard user account and log into CompAdmin. While
in CompAdmin, disable the built-in Administrator account for security
purposes:

Start OrbSearch boxtype: cmd
When cmd appears in Results above, right-click it and choose "Run as
administrator" [OK]. Now you will get the command prompt. At the command
prompt type:

net user administrator /active:no [enter]

Exit the command prompt.

5. Still in CompAdmin, copy the data from your old corrupted user account to
your new Standard user account. OK any UAC prompts you receive while
navigating the other user directories.

6. Log out of CompAdmin and into your new Standard User Account. After you
are sure all your stuff is there, you can delete the corrupted user account
from the User Accounts applet in Control Panel.
*****

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ