User Accounts not Appearing on Welcome Screen

I have volunteered to keep the computers running at my local library. We
have four computers on an Ethernet network. They are all running Windows XP
Pro. One of them has a user account problem.

There are three user accounts: the administrator account is Exec,which
requires a password, and there are two limited user accounts (all and
child), which do not require a password. Recently, only the Exec account
appears at the Windows logon screen. Because of that, there is no way to
login to all or child, thus rendering this computer unusable to the general
public. Thinking that these two user accounts may have been deleted somehow,
I tried to create a new "all" user account, but Windows told me that this
account already exists.

I did some searching for this problem on the Microsoft web site and found a
fix that seemed to match my situation. The instructions for the fix were to
right click on My Computer, then click on Manage, then expand the node
"Users and Groups". After doing that, I should be able to see the all and
child user accounts and that they should be lined out in red which indicates
that they have been disabled. It goes on to say that I can right click on
each of them and then enable them. Well, when I follow these instructions,
all goes well up to the point where I get to Manage. After getting into
manage, there is no node for "Users and Groups".

Does anyone have any suggestions for restoring the two user accounts that I
have lost? Sorry for the long post.

"Ken Triebold" <iebold RemoveThis @gmail.com> wrote in message
news:ewb7nr2WIHA.4696@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>I have volunteered to keep the computers running at my local library. We have
>four computers on an Ethernet network. They are all running Windows XP Pro. One
>of them has a user account problem.
>
> There are three user accounts: the administrator account is Exec,which
> requires a password, and there are two limited user accounts (all and child),
> which do not require a password. Recently, only the Exec account appears at
> the Windows logon screen. Because of that, there is no way to login to all or
> child, thus rendering this computer unusable to the general public. Thinking
> that these two user accounts may have been deleted somehow, I tried to create
> a new "all" user account, but Windows told me that this account already
> exists.
>
> I did some searching for this problem on the Microsoft web site and found a
> fix that seemed to match my situation. The instructions for the fix were to
> right click on My Computer, then click on Manage, then expand the node "Users
> and Groups". After doing that, I should be able to see the all and child user
> accounts and that they should be lined out in red which indicates that they
> have been disabled. It goes on to say that I can right click on each of them
> and then enable them. Well, when I follow these instructions, all goes well up
> to the point where I get to Manage. After getting into manage, there is no
> node for "Users and Groups".
>
> Does anyone have any suggestions for restoring the two user accounts that I
> have lost? Sorry for the long post.
>


First off, the fact that Local Users and Groups is not listed in Computer
Management would seem to indicate that this computer is running XP Home Edition.
You might want to check on that by going to Start -> Run and entering
lusrmgr.msc in the Open box. The Local Users and Groups snapin is not available
for the Microsoft Management Console in XP Home Edition.

As for the missing user accounts, see if you can log on by doing the following.

At the Welcome screen, hit the Ctrl + Alt + Del keys twice to bring up the Logon
To Windows dialog. See if you can log into these missing accounts by entering
their names in the User Name box. If you're able to log on to the accounts, go
to Control Panel -> User Accounts. Click on the accounts icon and look on the
right hand side for their account status. I'm betting that they are listed as a
Guest account.

To recover those accounts, do the following;

Go to Start -> Run and enter cmd.exe in the Open box to launch a Command Prompt
window.
Enter the following command at the prompt.

net localgroup users /add all

After you hit the Enter key you should be told that the command completed
successfully.
Next, enter this command.

net localgroup users /add child

Hit Enter and you should see confirmation that the command completed
successfully.

Log off from the Exec account and see if you can log onto those accounts from
the Welcome screen.

Note: The situation you describe sounds as if someone logged on with the Exec
account and tried to make the all and child accounts members of the Power Users
group. That can't be done in Windows XP Home Edition.

Go to Start -> Run and enter control userpasswords2 in the Open box.
The alternate User Accounts applet will be launched.
On the Users page, click an entry in the list of user accounts so it's
highlighted.
Hit the Properties button.
In the account's properties sheet, click on the Group Membership tab.
If you select Standard User (Power Users Group) and hit the OK button, an error
message will appear if the computer is running XP Home Edition.
Unfortunately, taking these actions will result in the account being removed
from the Users group and placed in the Guest group.
It will not appear on the Welcome screen or in the User Accounts applet in
Control Panel.
The account will only be visible at a command prompt using the net user command.

Good luck

Nepatsfan