No user names visible at the login screen

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

Greetings,

Stand alone PC with Internet access running WinXP Pro - SP2.

Every few weeks one of our clients boots her PC and cannot get to her
desktop. There is only one user on this PC, (besides the Administrator
account), and she has no password. Normally the PC boots to her
desktop, but it now boots to the Windows Login screen. The screen
where it normally lists the users on the right side with the words, "To
begin, click your user name." But there are no user names to click on.
I did a search and it looks like several others have had this problem
with no solution.

I have tried the following with no luck. (Not necessarily in this
order.)

1.) Pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL twice brings up a second login screen. I
type in Administrator with a blank password. - No luck. (And I know
the password is blank.)

2.) Does the same thing in safe mode.

3.) Does not recognize the Administrator account in Repair mode after
booting WinXP CD.

4.) Password Hacker programs states that no user accounts exist to
change.

The Microsoft Repair Registry hack 307545 does not work since you need
to login as Administrator.

5.) Using poledit from a second PC on the network.

The only work around I have found was to install the hard drive on a
second PC as a slave and copy the backup registry files from a "known
good" Restore point directory over the existing system32\config
directory. But this is a temporary fix, since I know it will be back
sometime soon afterwards.

So the day came that I decided to backup all her files and reinstall a
fresh copy of XP. XP installed perfectly. I ran the Windows Update,
rebooted the PC and the problem came back. There was nothing else
loaded on this PC. All it had was XP with SP2 and the first set of
Microsoft updates.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Chuck Hager

.

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