Switching Users

Over the last couple of days, something has changed in the way user accounts works. I did not change anything that I am aware of and my spyware/virus/firewall are all up to date.

My wife first noticed it yesterday when she tried to change from her account to mine (there's a game on mine that she likes to play that is not accessable from her account).

She went to:

Start as normal​

log off​

switch user​

The account screen is displayed as normal, she selects my account, the screen goes blue again as normal but then returns to her desktop for a split second and then returns to the the account screen.

It now does the same for me. There is just no way to switch users without re-booting.

 

First thing to try is some general system cleanup followed by a check of system files with replacement of any that are found to be bad, wrong version, or missing.

In My Computer, right click on each of your partitions in turn and left click on properties. Then click the cleanup button. The initial run will take quite a while unless you have been doing this regularly. First it will locate things to clean - check all the items after they are found - then click again to have them cleaned. The thing may look as if it has stalled but it hasn't.

After that, open a browser session and dump all your cookies, temp internet files, and history then close the browser.

Next - assuming you have a regular XP install CD rather than some sort of recovery CD - click on start, on run, key in

Code:

sfc /scannow

and OK. If it asks for your CD, put it in.

When the system file checker has finished, open a cmd prompt (start->run->cmd) and key in

Code:

chkdsk /f

and ENTER. It will tell you the deed cannot be done just now so opt to have it run at next boot.

Reboot the PC and see how things are.

 

Hmmm . . . so far so good BUT . . have just checked all the disks etc that came with the PC and I do not appear to have the disk for the operating system! The PC is a Dell Dimension 2400 running XP home. I am fairly sure I wouldn't have thrown it out but I guess it is possible. I still have all the documentation etc including the CoA.

Do I risk running sfc/scannow without it?

If not, where to from here?