Re: Adminstrator privileges are restricted


Thanks again. I will do all of these things as you described them. And yes, I
will let you know as soon as possible what the result was. By the way, I have
an HP Pavilion ze5604ea from 2004.

Will be writing soon after I've done all of the things you wrote. Thank you.
Anna

"Shenan Stanley" wrote:

Anna wrote:
Thank you for replying. I will try to explain my problem as best as
I can, kindly bear with me. I always log in to Windows XP home with
administrator rights since I install programs now and then on my HP
laptop.

I was using Internet Explorer 8 to log unto Facebook yesterday when
the page suddenly got redirected to something totally different. I
suspected some malware so I ran my Windows Defender. After the run,
it said my computer is running normally. I opened explorer again to
log unto Facebook and everything was fine, then I turned off my
laptop. Shortly after swithching it off, I turned it on again
because I forgot to check something on the internet. It was then
that I noticed that my Belkin wireless internet card was not
lighting up. I tried to connect to my wireless internet but I
couldn't find the "wireless connection" under "network
connections". All I got was a message saying there was an error and
therefore the network connections could not be displayed.

I couldn't "access" my Belkin card so I opened the Control Panel to
uninstall then reinstall it again and that was when I got the
message about not having administrator privileges. Furthermore,
when I restarted my computer, it now said that I didn't have any
anti-virus program installed although I did have it and used it
recently.

Since then I have not succeeded in logging in as administrator,
even during safe mode. I've been using another desk top PC which
thankfully still is connected to the internet. Through this, I've
downloaded another anti-virus program with updates and then
installed that on my laptop. I did a full scan of my laptop and the
result was that everything was working fine. No detections.

If this is not a virus/malware, how come I can't find my network
connections? Why don't I have administrator rights anymore? Can't
my Windows Security Center detect that I have an anti-virus
installed?

I hope you can help me with this.

Let's do some simple cleanup and updating - methodically... *Warning* This
will take up some time.

Download, install, run, update and perform a full scan (separately) with the
following two applications (freeware versions are the ones to use for this):

SuperAntiSpyware
http://www.superantispyware.com/

MalwareBytes
http://www.malwarebytes.com/

After performing a full scan with one and then the other and removing
whatever they both find completely, you may uninstall these products,
if you wish.

Download and run the MSRT manually:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx

Reboot.

Fix your file/registry permissions...

Ignore the title and follow the sub-section under "Advanced Troubleshooting"
titled, "Method 1: Reset the registry and the file permissions"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949377

Reboot and ...

Search your registry for %fystem and replace the "f" with an "s". May be
three or four matches, may be none. You may even have to take ownership
(even after doing the above) of the keys in order to make the change.

Download/Install the latest Windows Installer (for your OS):
( Windows XP 32-bit : WindowsXP-KB942288-v3-x86.exe )
http://www.microsoft.com/downloadS/details.aspx?familyid=5A58B56F-60B6-4412-95B9-54D056D6F9F4&displaylang=en

Reboot.

and...

Download the latest version of the Windows Update agent from here (x86):
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=91237
.... and save it to the root of your C:\ drive. After saving it to the root
of the C:\ drive, do the following:

Close all Internet Explorer windows and other applications.

Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemDrive%\windowsupdateagent30-x86.exe /WUFORCE
--> Click OK.

(If asked, select "Run.) --> Click on NEXT --> Select "I agree" and click on
NEXT --> When it finishes installing, click on "Finish"...

Reboot.

Then follow the instructions here:

How do I reset Windows Update components?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971058

Reboot.

and..

Log on as an user with administrative rights (assuming you are in this case
- given your problem) and open Internet Explorer and visit
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ and select to do a CUSTOM scan...
(Every time you are about to click on something while at these web pages -
first press and hold down the CTRL key while you click on it. You can
release the CTRL key after clicking each time.)

Once the scan is done, select just _ONE_ of the high priority updates
(deselect any others) and install it.

Reboot again.

If it did work - try the web page again - selecting no more than 3-5 at a
time.

The Optional Software updates are generally safe - although I recommend
against the "Windows Search" one and any of the "Office Live" ones for
now. I would completely avoid the Optional Hardware updates. Also - I do
not see any urgent need to install Internet Explorer 8 at this time.

Come back - let us know if that worked.
.... Really - come back and let everyone know if that worked.

You may want to run a second scan with SuperAntiSpyware and MalwareBytes
after everything is updated.

This should get you clean and updated.

Now - after all that - let us know what your machine is (name brand and
model...)

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html



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