Help Getting an error installing programs

[bob3160]

Thanks Technical:
Unfortunately, the problems still exists.

[S.Z.Craftec]

Bob see here:

The built-in Administrator account is hidden from Welcome Screen when a user account with Administrator privileges exists and enabled. In Windows XP Home Edition, you can login as built-in Administrator in Safe Mode only. For XP Professional, press CTRL+ALT+DEL twice and input your Administrator password in the classic logon window that appears.

There are some ways to enable showing administrator account in Windows Home Edition welcome scren as well... first one is to use TweakUI v2.10, and click on "Logon" option in the left pane, then put a checkmark against the option "Show Administrator on Welcome Screen".

Second one is editing registry:

1.  Start the Registry Editor [Regedit.exe]
2.  Navigate to the following registry key:

      [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
      \SOFTWARE
      \Microsoft
      \Windows NT
      \CurrentVersion
      \Winlogon
      \SpecialAccounts
      \UserList]

3.  Use the File, Export option to backup the registry, in case.
4.  Right-click an empty space in the right pane and select New > DWORD Value.
5.  Type-in Administrator as the value. Double-click this new value, and enter 1 as it's data
6.  Close the registry editor

You may use this procedure to hide/show users in the Welcome Screen for any user account. Type the account name accordingly in step 5.

I also found this:

NOTE for Windows XP Home Edition users:  While you can configure Windows XP Home Edition to show Administrator account in the Welcome Screen, you cannot login as Administrator in Normal mode. Boot into Safe Mode to login as Administrator. Please see the following Microsoft Knowledgebase article:

Error Message: Unable to Log You on Because of an Account Restriction
[Windows XP Home Edition]

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=290109

[bob3160]

Hi Sasha
Unfortunately, Even in TweakUI there is no Administrator. There is only me. Mostlikely thats because I am the administrator and therefore automatically sign on that way.
From what I can tell, the registry entries only add another user called Administrator which is how I already log on.

[Eddy]

In tweakui you set auto login to yes and choose as name administrator and the correct password. But this is hardly of any use to you since you have XP home (if I´m correct) and that has only administrator in safe mode.

Why not do a in-place-repair to see if that solves the problems? MS kb315341

[bob3160]

Eddy
On my machine, the User in safe mode, is the same as the user in regular mode. There is no difference. there never has been.

[S.Z.Craftec]

Bob, have you ever backed up your system, let's say with Ghost ? That would be best and less painful thing to do - just to restore your system to some previous stable point.

If you haven't done it yet, now you see why is it so important to make regular backups. It could save you so much trouble in the future.

Are you sure you can not log in as ADMINISTRATOR even if you boot in safe mode ?

[S.Z.Craftec]

Bob, I just managed to see my ADMINISTRATOR account, but I had to boot in SAFE MODE. That's the proper way how to see ADMINISTRATOR account in Windows Home Edition. See attachment...

Also, when you go to CONTROL PANEL, USER ACCOUNTS, CHANGE THE WAY USERS LOG ON OR OFF, I'm not 100% sure, but I think you should check USE THE WELCOME SCREEN... otherwise, I'm not sure will you be able to see ASDMINISTRATOR account listed when you boot in safe mode... someone correct me if I'm wrong...

Cheers !

[bob3160]

Sasha:
In Safe Mode
When I go to User Accounts, it only shows the following:

bob3160                                            Guest
Computer                                          Guest account is
Administrator                                    Off

[S.Z.Craftec]

That's really strange. You should see your account only, only if you are loged in in normal mode, not in a safe mode.

When you log-in in a safe mode, first you should see log-in screen I posted in my previous post and then when you go to Control Panel, User Accounts, you should see ADMINISTRATOR account among the others (in your case, just your account)

[S.Z.Craftec]

I just checked myself... I booted my system in SAFE MODE.

On your log-in welcome screen, you should see ADMINISTRATOR and your personal account (with your name) with administrator rights.

See my attachment... if you are loged in as ADMINISTRATOR, you should see all those accounts that you can see in first picture (top one), and if you log in under your personal account with your name, you should see those accounts from second (bottom one) picture only. As you can see, no ADMINISTRATOR accoun is listed.

Both situations are when I was loged in under SAFE MODE.

So, definitely, you should see ADMINISTRATOR account under USER PROFILES, when you boot in safe mode, and log in (from welcome screen) under global ADMINISTRATOR (not under your personal account with your name - there is a big difference)

[bob3160]

UPDATE
About 2 hrs ago, while in safe mode, I tried Running Avast! External Control and it worked like a charm. I was also able to install a program without any problems.
That meant that the culprit was something running at startup. The only program that was new was Prevx. After rebooting, I again ran RejZoR's program and got the same error message.
I uninstalled Prevx, rebooted and no more problems.
What I can't figure out is why no one else has complained about this.

[S.Z.Craftec]

I don't know... I never used it, and I never will... if we start to install million of different security programs, one day our PCs will be full of those security tools, without enough room for regular programs   ...

Good antivirus (of course avast!), good hardware router/firewall and software firewall, few anti-spyware and anti-adware tools, and that's it... everything runs great. Same configuration on my wife's PC, except she runs my Home Edition now on her computer, and I became very happy Windows XP Pro user...

Cheers !

[DavidR]

I too didn't bother with Prevx, especially after some of the posts in the Prevx threads.

I also agree that you can go too far in the security stakes and agree with Sasha, a good AV (avast!), a good firewall, Ad and Spyware blockers. I also do regular image backups  (weekly) of my C & D partitions. So if things get really screwed out, restore the latest image and latest data files, email, address book, favourites, etc. (backup daily).

Above all else a high degree of common sense, is probably your greatest asset.

[neal62]

Well Bob, I switched over to Qwik- Fix Pro fairly quickly after using Prevx. But, while I had Prevx I don't remember having any of the problems you had.

[S.Z.Craftec]

And Bob... try to make system backups if possible. For this particular problem, it's OK... you fixed it... but just in case, it's always better to be cautious. Better safe than sorry, right ?  

Greets !