Multiple Administrator Accounts

I have a PC with XP pro named Asrock. In the document and settings folder there are the following accounts shown. Administrator, Administrator.ASROCK,
Administrator.ASROCK000, and Me.ASROCK.
I have always logged in as Me which is an administrator users account. Recently I had trouble with programs saying that I did not have correct rights to run certain programs. At that time I did not have the Administrator.Asrock000 account showing. I logged in to the administrator account using the password that I used when installing XP, (by typing in Administrator in the welcome screen plus the password). The program then setup various programs and now I find I have the Administrator.ASROCK000 account.
Can anyone tell me why I now have all these Administrator accounts (they do not show up in the welcome screen). Also how can I get rid of them (apart from the original one)
I solved my rights problem by converting my own user account to a limited account, rebooting back into the Administrator account and then changing my limited user account back into an administrator account.

 

Yes I can tell you!

These are crashed/damaged profiles. They can be caused by a system crash caused at just the right time (or wrong time for you) by a device driver.

Additionally they can be caused by the following: improper power off or shutdown, Virus or other Malware.

When for example the Administrator account crashes windows creates the Administrator.ASROCK profile in Documents and settings. It then copys all good data such as OE IE My Documents and any other settings that it can confirm as good to the new profile. You will still log in as Administrator as that is the User Name but the User name Administrator is using the Administrator.ASROCK profile.

Clear as mud?

You can tell what profile Administrator is using by simply going to the cmd prompt in most cases. Or create a unique file or folder on the Desktop like a Folder called MYDESKTOP. Then browse Documents and Settings folder to each Desktop folder untill you find this folder and that will be the Profile that you are using.

The Administrator account is special and you should not try to remove it.

But if you have something in Documents and settings like Administrator, Administrator.ASROCK and Administrator.ASROCK000 then you will be logged in to Administrator.ASROCK000 In that case Administrator.ASROCK is bad and can be deleted from Documents and settings.

But other accounts like ME can be fixed by creating a new account first then copying My Documents Outlook Express Favorites Address book or any other data from the Profile you are going to delete to the new profile.

Easy for me but how easy for you I don't know!

In any case I think you should do deep AntiSpyware scans with Spybot Adaware and MalwareBytes AntiMalware and Virus scans from your Virus scanner and Kerpersky online.

Cleanup deeply with ATF-Cleaner and CCleaner.

If you find remaining issues then you should post in the Malware forum.

I would not try to fix the profiles until you are clean.

Mike

 

Unless mflynn's explanation correctly describes your situation, those additional accounts are generally created when and if you re-install Windows. Your findings suggest that you have re-installed twice.

 

Yes good point Dave.

A new install over an existing installation would do this also, as opposed to a Repair Install.

Do you have 2 or more windows folders? Like Winnt or Windows.000.

If so the reinstalls are the cause, or perhaps you reinstalled because of the crashed profiles as in my first post.

Mike

 

Hi Mike,

I've never seen multiple profile folders created as such due to crashes, etc, so this intrigues me (you know how I like to learn new things ). How though, do you suppose, the Administrator account would become corrupted? Wouldn't it take being logged onto the Administrator account?

 

Well I have seen it quite often and of course the user would have to be logged into the Administrator account for it to be effected. You and I can tell them not to do it but they still do.

And it is not just the computer crash in itself.

As I said at "just the right time" . Like when writing to the User registry in the Profile.

Basically the same thing that happens when the System registy get trashed and then a blue screen on boot that says:

Can not find file System!

Except if Windows can boot, if the System registry is OK but can not load the User profile so it tried to repair it.

Mike

 

Thanks for the additional info Mike, and confirmation on logged user.

 

Thanks myflyn and noahdfear for your prompt response. I am experienced enough to follow what you say.
Regarding viruses and malware, I run NOD32 and also Malwarebytes which scans each day. I also use cccleaner from time to time.
I did have some trouble installing XP but as it was over a year ago I cannot remember if I had to reinstall over the top. To my knowledge I have not had any crashes although it is possible that it had a powerdown due to a powercut. I think I have always has Administrator.Asrock but Administrator.001 only arrived yesterday after logging on for the second time in the day to the Administrator account. Looking at the dates of the folders of the 3 accounts it looks like Administrator is the original and has had no modifications for 6 months. Administrator.Asrock has updates from yesterday morning when I logged in as Administrator. The Administrator.Asrock000 is all dated last night so presumably is the current one. From what you say I could delete the Administrator.Asrock folder. What should I do about the original Administrator folder, which seems to be inactive. You say it should not be deleted so what is it exactly?
I only have the one windows folder.

For what it is worth the pc is now working very much faster than before, so it looks like some glitch has been rectified.

 

Do nothing with the Administrator account. It is a built in Account and is special as opposed to any other created account.

If all is well leave it alone.

As I said it could well have been a driver or even a windows update (did you do one yesterday?).

I would do the deep clean and spy/adware scans with up to date defs, to be sure!

The way I would fix it: save emails address books favorites bookmarks etc, make note of special programs in add/remove and program files to be reinstalled. And do a clean install!

Mike

 

Why would I want to do a clean install when it is now working perfectly. As I said I do deep scans on a regular basis. I am just intrigued as to why I have ended up with 3 Administrator accounts and you have given me quite a few possible reasons. I will probably take a partition back up with Acronis and then delete Administrator.ASROCK. If that causes a problem I can recover it.
If the Administrator account is built in, is that the account that is logged into by typing it into the welcome screen (or did I read somewhere that that only happened in safe mode). Clearly this did not happen in my case and a new Administrator.ASROCK account was formed.
Dennis