Re: restore window blank

nor wrote:

We have been troubleshooting a computer that was having trouble with
the administrator rights. With the help of a technician, we went to
"msconfig" and made some changes from the startup tab. When hitting
apply, an error message showed up in the System Configuration Window;
"An access denied error was returned while attempting to change a
service. You may need to long on using an administrator account to
make the specified changes". We clicked OK and rebooted the machine.
The changes occurred. We were then taken to Safe Mode where two users
were seen, an Administrator and the name of the computer owner. No
matter what we did, the system configuration error still occurred. We
then did a system restore a couple of times. Finally, when we did an
restore point, windows appeared to boot OK but when we went to the
restore window again, it came up blank. Also the McAfee antivirus
center window came up blank so we were unable to make changes there.
Finally, the questions are, "did we hose the OS"?, "could this be a
virus"?, and "will a Windows XP repair correct things"? We also found
that when the mail page was brought up, the message section was blank.
Thanks for any input.

1. You should find another technician because that one didn't know what
s/he was doing. You should *never* disable services from the System
Configuration Utility (msconfig). You were apparently trying to turn
off a service critical to the system and Windows was trying to save you
from yourself.

2. It is normal to see the Administrator account in Safe Mode. It is the
built-in Administrator account and can only be accessed from Safe Mode
in XP Home (which you apparently have).

3. There is no way for me to know if you "hosed the OS" because I don't
know a) what the original problems and the cause of those problems
were; b) what you disabled; c) what the state of Windows is now.

4. Certainly your computer could have a virus, but there is no way for
me to know that. The immediate symptoms you are reporting sound more
like you disabled something you shouldn't have. The way to see if you
have a virus is to scan with an antivirus program. Since you've
apparently broken McAfee, scan with David Lipman's Multi_AV:

http://www.ik-cs.com/multi-av.htm - how to use Dave Lipman's Multi-AV
http://www.ik-cs.com/programs/virtools/Multi_AV.exe - Multi-AV download
http://pcdid.com/Multi_AV.htm - additional Multi_AV instructions

It would be wise to go through these malware removal steps
systematically, doing all the preparatory work:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

5. It is possible that a Repair Install will fix things, but there's no
way I can answer that definitively - see my answer #3.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm - Repair Install
How-To

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
.

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