Admin can't 'see' or access a User account

Long story, but a friend of mine has been and tinkered with the settings on my PC (without my knowledge) to 'hide' and deny access to one of the accounts on my PC - even from the Administrator. If I go into My Computer/Documents and Settings I can see the account folder in question but get the 'Access Denied' dialogue box when I try to open it. However in the My Computer 'home screen' the account is not shown alongside the others on the PC.
Does anyone have any idea what this friend has done? Because I'm stumped, and for various reasons I can't ask him.

Any help much appreciated.

XP PRO: In Windows Explorer, go to Tools, Folder Options, View and uncheck Use Simple File Sharing. Now, when you right click on a drive, folder or file (on an NTFS partition) and select Properties, you'll see a Security tab. Here you can assign or deny permissions based on user name or user group membership.

XP Home: By default, you can only make files and folders under My Documents "private". This is done by right clicking a folder or file and selecting Properties, Sharing. To change the permissions on other folders, you need to boot the computer to Safe Mode and log in on the built in Administrator account. In this mode, you'll see the Security tab in Properties, and you can assign permissions based on user name or group membership.

HOW TO: Set, View, Change, or Remove File and Folder Permissions in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;308418

HOW TO: Set, View, Change, or Remove Special Permissions for Files and Folders
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;308419

HOW TO: Disable Simplified Sharing and Password-Protect a Shared Folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;307874


--
Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows Media Center\Windows Powered Smart Display\Security
Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
http://www.dougknox.com
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Per user Group Policy Restrictions for XP Home and XP Pro
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_securityconsole.htm
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Please reply only to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
Unsolicited e-mail is not answered.

"andyed" wrote in message ...

Long story, but a friend of mine has been and tinkered with the settings
on my PC (without my knowledge) to 'hide' and deny access to one of the
accounts on my PC - even from the Administrator. If I go into My
Computer/Documents and Settings I can see the account folder in
question but get the 'Access Denied' dialogue box when I try to open
it. However in the My Computer 'home screen' the account is not shown
alongside the others on the PC.
Does anyone have any idea what this friend has done? Because I'm
stumped, and for various reasons I can't ask him.

Any help much appreciated.


--
andyed

It sounds like the user account was deleted but the user profile remains.
Use Doug's advice to see how to take ownership and give yourself permissions
to the folders as an administrator. You can use the command net users to see
a list of users on the computer. --- Steve


"andyed" wrote in message
...

Long story, but a friend of mine has been and tinkered with the settings
on my PC (without my knowledge) to 'hide' and deny access to one of the
accounts on my PC - even from the Administrator. If I go into My
Computer/Documents and Settings I can see the account folder in
question but get the 'Access Denied' dialogue box when I try to open
it. However in the My Computer 'home screen' the account is not shown
alongside the others on the PC.
Does anyone have any idea what this friend has done? Because I'm
stumped, and for various reasons I can't ask him.

Any help much appreciated.


--
andyed