User account problem

I got a computer in that was infected with one of the rogue antivirus
routines. The only user on this computer was the Administrator account.
There was little I could do or run in that account even in Safe Mode but I
was able to create another user account (Joe). I then logged off and logged
into the new account and was able to get rid of the rogue program. I went
back into the Administrator account again and finished my cleaning up.

When I went back into User Accounts to delete the "Joe" account, the
"Delete This Account" option is not available. And of course booting into
normal mode takes me directly into the Joe account and the administrator
account doesn't even show in User Accounts.

This guy runs Pinnacle and his movies have contents scattered all over his
My Documents folder. And, of course, in the new account he doesn't have the
same documents folder. It would not be impossible to copy all the documents
from the Administrator's folder, but it'd be a helluva lot easier to get
rid of the "Joe" account so he can go back to running as Administrator.

pause - Menno goes back to try something else

So now I've figured out a workaround but I still don't like it. I created a
password for the Joe account so that stopped it at the Welcome Screen. Then
I did a couple of control-alt-deletes and that allowed me to log into the
Administrator account. Then I ran "control userpasswords2" and set it up to
log into the Administrator account automatically.

And it works.

And although it really doesn't hurt anything I'd still like to get rid of
the "Joe" account. It looks tacky... :-)

Can it be done?

There is always supposed to be one user with administrative privileges. I
can't figure out how he ever managed to get around it in the first place.
He told me that's the way it was when he bought it new. (It's a Dell if
that makes any difference.)

--
--- Long live Fat32! ---

Menno Hershberger wrote in
news:Xns9EA4EF0B08985butter@wefb973cbe498:

[snip]...
And although it really doesn't hurt anything I'd still like to get
rid of the "Joe" account. It looks tacky... :-)

Can it be done?


I'm not sure... but have you tried deleting it from the command prompt?
As Administrator, bring up a command window (Start - Run - "cmd") and
enter the command:

net user Joe /delete

It does have the advantage that if it doesn't work, it should give you
an error message that may point you in the right direction.


HTH,
John.

In article Xns9EA4EF0B08985butter@wefb973cbe498, Menno Hershberger wrote:

And although it really doesn't hurt anything I'd still like to get rid of
the "Joe" account.

I'm not willing to try this, so just babbling off the top: is it possible that
once accounts beyond Administrator have been created, that at least one has to
remain? In other words, if you create account Giuseppe, will you be able to
remove Joe?

Art

John Wunderlich wrote in
3:

Menno Hershberger wrote in
news:Xns9EA4EF0B08985butter@wefb973cbe498:

[snip]...
And although it really doesn't hurt anything I'd still like to get
rid of the "Joe" account. It looks tacky... :-)

Can it be done?


I'm not sure... but have you tried deleting it from the command prompt?
As Administrator, bring up a command window (Start - Run - "cmd") and
enter the command:

net user Joe /delete

It does have the advantage that if it doesn't work, it should give you
an error message that may point you in the right direction.

Here's the way I finally got it.
Right clicked My Computer, clicked on Manage
Picked System Tools \ Local Users and Groups \ Users \
Right clicked "Joe" and deleted it.
Voila. It worked.
I found the solution by Googling. *Lots* of Googling!

--
-- I'm retired. I was tired yesterday. I'm tired again today --

Retired wrote in
news:Xns9EA595FBFA6F8butter@wefb973cbe498:

Here's the way I finally got it.
Right clicked My Computer, clicked on Manage
Picked System Tools \ Local Users and Groups \ Users \
Right clicked "Joe" and deleted it.
Voila. It worked.
I found the solution by Googling. *Lots* of Googling!


That is the way I was originally going to suggest doing it but under
"System Tools" there is no "Users and Groups" entry on XP Home and you
had not specified whether you had XP Home or XP Pro.

Thanks for the feedback. Good to know that works.
John