Re: Log in problem after user name change.

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nass emailed this:

"MS" wrote:

Hi,

I changed the user name on a laptop running XP Pro (fully up-to-date) in 'User Management' of 'Control Panel'. Now when the laptop boots up, a dialog box pops up saying 'Windows could not log you in' and behind that dialog is a grayed-out user login dialog with the old name in it. When you click 'Ok' on the 'Windows could not log you in' dialog, Windows proceeds to the area where the usernames + pics are shown, and you can click on the new username - even though it is the only account enabled (even the guest account is disabled) and all passwords are switched off.

All I want is Windows to boot straight into the user account or to go straight to the usernames + pics screen, without the annoying dialog box 'can't log you in' popping up. The problem is that the laptop is someone else's and I changed the name at their request, now they're unhappy about it.

Please advise me, 'User Management' does not seem to allow me to set this up.

Many thanks, regards, etc..

Thanks for your reply nass.

Does this machine in a domain?.
You cannot log on after you remove the computer from the domain
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;317049

It's not the domain problem - the laptop has never been on a domain, its only ever been used as a standalone laptop, never even connected to a LAN, unless you count a wireless connection at the person's home.

The "Administrator Logon" Dialog Box May Be Hidden Under the Welcome
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300433/en-us

This sounds more like it. But the article says:

"The Administrator Logon dialog box may be hidden under the Welcome screen when the AutoAdminLogon feature is enabled and the user account is either deleted or missing."

The account was not deleted or missing - it was just renamed - could it now be 'missing' as a result of the rename? It is the administrator account and does have auto-login enabled (I assume because that is what it was doing). The article says to use Alt+Tab to bring the login dialog to the front while the 'can't log in' dialog is still there, but this does not work and clicking on the login dialog also does not work since the 'can't log in' dialog won't give up its focus.

The article advises to change the registry which I don't particularly want to do. Might there be a procedure, like enabling passwords, then later disabling them, to help Windows 'know' which account to auto-log into?

Many thanks.
.



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