[Pob]

Hey.

I recently acquired the nasty little collected.5.L trojan - and am in the process of sorting this out - with HijackThis and AVG.

I can't run programs such as HijackThis or Task Manager in 'normal' XP - as the Windows close straight away after I've opened them! I presume this is related to the infection.

So - I've gone in via Safe Mode to sort this out - and can execute all necessary programs fine! However, I have 4 user accounts on the PC - but when I start in safe mode, one of the users accounts (on the opening XP screen) is replaced by 'Administrator'.

Therefore, I can't access just one of my accounts via Safe Mode!!

For illustration purposes, my login menu is:

(normal XP mode)
Ali
Dave
Matt
Wendy

(in Safe Mode)
Administrator
Dave
Matt
Wendy

Any ideas why?

Many thanks in advance!
Pob x

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well...every instance of xp has a true administrator account....it usually stays hidden so that you can't bugger anything up....i don't know why it would REPLACE one of your accounts in the list though

[dsenette]

well...every instance of xp has a true administrator account....it usually stays hidden so that you can't bugger anything up....i don't know why it would REPLACE one of your accounts in the list though

[Pob]

I thought it may have been something to do with being the first account in the list, so I created a new account called 'AAA'.

When restarting in Safe Mode, the AAA appeared top of the list, then followed by Administrator (still replacing the same account).

Pob x

[dsenette]

was ali the first account created on the machine?

[Pob]

Sorry - I can't say - I didn't do the initial set-up.

[dsenette]

was the person that did..named ali?

[Pob]

Yes - basically one account per member of the family..... standard stuff. I've got no problems with the accounts themselves - they've all been used by different individuals in different ways. "Administrator" was initially a shock though until I understood its relevance within XP/Safe Mode.

[deleted]

When I set up the accounts on xp windows automatically put them in alphabetical order.

[dsenette]

basically...the admin account is supposed to be there....i just don't know why it would replace another account in the list....though if you log in to the admin account it should give you access to the rest of the users

[Pob]

That's what I thought. So I went through all my 'cleansing' activity in Safe Mode - including the Administrator account.

When logging back in through regular XP, all the accounts seem fine APART FROM 'Ali'.