[marzo]

My computer has been infected with spyware and has come to the point where it won't let me log into Windows. When I click on any username it says it is logging in then logs me back out again. I have an Emachines computer with OEM pre-installed Windows XP Home edition therefore came with no XP CD, only a Restore CD which when used would result in my C drive being formatted.
I borrowed a Windows XP Pro CD(my edition is Home ~did'nt think there would be a difference.)from my friend and tried that yet when I accessed the Recovery Console it asks for an Administrator password to proceed. I have never added a admin password so is blank(it lets me click on administrator with no password request when entering safe mode).
However after leaving the password blank and pressing enter a message appears saying password invalid. Has anybody had a similar problem before? Is there anyway to bypass this or is there another way of recovering windows? Please help as I do not wish to resort to formatting the whole of C drive.

[Advertisements]

there is typically no password for admin account on windows xp home

You can blank the password with this utility

http://home.eunet.no...rdahl/ntpasswd/

What exactly is your plan on this one when you get into recovery console?

[gerryf]

there is typically no password for admin account on windows xp home

You can blank the password with this utility

http://home.eunet.no...rdahl/ntpasswd/

What exactly is your plan on this one when you get into recovery console?

[marzo]

According to this site LavasoftI need to copy userinit.exe to wsaupdater.exe then type exit to access Windows then work from there. However I can't get past the recovery console because it requests a password that doesn't exist.
I also have a second networked computer in another room which is what i'm typing from. Is it possible to somehow run files from this computer to the other one?

[gerryf]

to what end?

To do a backup and then wipe your drive and start from scratch?

You could try this handy little tool

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

Boot your computer from a cd (with networking if the card is supported) and then copy things over

[marzo]

Oh i see, so with the recovery console on a Windows XP Home CD it will not ask for an admin password?

[marzo]

to what end?

I was hoping to fix this problem with most of my files intact, seeing as though I haven't actually lost anything apart from a few files that have been tampered with or removed. Is this actually possible through the recovery console or does this way end up with a loss?
Thankyou very much for the links

[destroyed_faith]

it wont let you log into windows.....stange.....thats really bad....id say you have got a little something more than spyware on the machine.

im going to assume you have tried to boot into safe mode without networking or anything on the machine? if not i would recommend doing that and killing explorer.exe before it loads. that usually fixes most spyware from loading fully.

If it really is that bad infected with spyware and not a virus. if you can get into recovery mode you can try restoring your registry from a backup that you know your computer at least booted from if you have one...you would have to reinstall your programs but you would get rid of the registry values for the spyware... that might work. other than that.

[marzo]

It is bad.. as soon as I manage to get back on i'm installing anti-virus software, what I should a long time ago. Through safe mode I just come to the same problem. The welcome screen comes up, so I click on Administrator or any user for that matter, and it says logging in.. then I see a brief glimpse of the wallpaper(no icons or shortcuts) then goes straight to saying "saving settings" and "logging off" and i'm back at the welcome page again. Ive tried pressing ctrl + alt + delete the instant it comes up but nothing.

[coepilot]

Marco my niece seems to have the exact same issue, she has misplaced her restore disk so this is leaving me feeling beat. I would be grateful to know if and how you solved the issue. Thanks