My mother did something to her comuter where she reset the user to ,whoever it belonged to before. So now we cant even go pass the welcome screen where it asks for a user name and password. Is there anyway we can start the laptop in DOS mode and fix that somehow? Thank you very much for whoever can help us with this! Is my first time here and I am hoping it would be usefull. Thanks again!

follow this

Turn the computer on or Restart the computer
Start tapping the F8 key. The Windows Advanced Boot Options Menu appears. If you begin tapping the F8 key too soon, some computers display a "keyboard error" message. To resolve this, restart the computer and try again.
Ensure that the Safe mode option is selected (the top option)
Press Enter. The computer then begins to start in Safe mode.
When you are finished with troubleshooting, close all programs and restart the computer as you normally would.



go to control panel and click on user account then u can change the password or remove the user account and password.

One thing tykyoo did not mention that may be important is if this is a XP Home system then you will be prompted to login as Administrator and asked for a password. Just press Enter as there is no password. Then use Use Accounts in control panel.

Post back if you have more questions.

I have just the same problem: Welcome screen with no user names (on Windows XP).
Tried starting in Safe Mode, and still got a Welcome screen with no user names.
Any other suggestions for getting past the Welcome screen?

XP Home or XP Pro? If Pro, try pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del twice while on the logon screen. That should bring up the old style (Windows 2000) screen. Change the userid to Administrator, leave the password blank and login.

This post has been edited by Ztruker: Apr 4 2008, 08:12 PM

XP Home, I'm afraid.

Hopefully you have SP2 installed. When you get to the boot selection screen after pressing F8, is Last known good configuration listed? If so, choose it. See if that gets you up and running again.

"Last known good configuration" is listed, but still gave me a welcome screen with no users. Other ideas?

Perform a Windows Repair from your XP CD.

Ah, so it comes to that.
OK. Thank you.

I know this is a month late, but I am new here and was just browsing.
You were being steered in the right direction, but what was left out was that in User Accounts; go to Control Panel/User Accounts, then click on User Accounts again, another window opens and under "Pick A Task" you have 3 options, the last being "Change The Way Users Log On or Off", from there you can choose either "The Welcome Screen" (No Screen Names) or "Fast User Switching" (shows the Screen Names.)

Hopes this helps