Question

stuck at welcome screen

Asked by: ameba

I did some excessive 'cleanup' (hijackthis, deleting restore points, temp files) and now I can't go past welcome screen.  When I click username or Ctrl+Alt+Del, it shows "Loading user setting" then "Saving user setting" and I'm back on the welcome screen.

If after F11, I select Safe mode, I get extra Administrator option, which also resets...
Other options (Disable Automatic Restart after failure, Last known good configuration) didn't help.

I have many programs installed and I don't want to reinstall everything.  
Using XP Home SP2 OEM CD as boot offers Recovery Console (I don't know what to do with it) or Setup.
What to do?

Thanks!
 

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Asked On
2007-12-09 at 18:27:13ID23012178
Tags

screen

,

stuck

,

welcome

,

xp

Topic

Windows XP Operating System

Participating Experts
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Comments
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Answers

 

by: bmsjeffPosted on 2007-12-09 at 18:37:52ID: 20439192

 

by: jsthursdayPosted on 2007-12-09 at 18:41:27ID: 20439200

sounds like hijackthis caused something. is this a retail software, or one that could damage your system made by someone?

 

by: amebaPosted on 2007-12-09 at 18:58:09ID: 20439255

Hi, thanks,

From that page:
5.  Make sure that your current installation of Windows XP is selected in the box, and then press R to repair Windows XP.
 

I selected the drive, not the installation, and I don't have R option, but L.  There is a long message, it doesn't seem what I want:
\windows folder exists that may contain a windows installation.
All files, subfolders, applications will be deleted...

 

by: orangutangPosted on 2007-12-09 at 18:58:15ID: 20439256

 

by: amebaPosted on 2007-12-09 at 19:06:29ID: 20439276

jsthursday,
My excessive cleanup caused it.  There weren't any real problems, I wanted better performance...
I checked only one line in hjt (... userinit.exe hh???.exe ...)


Sorry, can't burn CD at the moment...

Thanks, all!

 

by: bmsjeffPosted on 2007-12-09 at 19:29:19ID: 20439367

 

by: orangutangPosted on 2007-12-09 at 19:43:55ID: 20439421

It's most likely because you changed the registry value:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Userinit

 

by: amebaPosted on 2007-12-09 at 20:15:38ID: 20439517

orangutang
Maybe... not sure if I can edit that ?.dat file

 

by: orangutangPosted on 2007-12-09 at 20:28:54ID: 20439554

What does "Maybe... not sure if I can edit that ?.dat file" mean? You probably will have to edit the registry offline. Look here:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/peboot.htm
but you'll need to create a bootable CD.

 

by: rpggamergirlPosted on 2007-12-10 at 04:18:45ID: 20440853

It's sounded like a malware/nasty was hooked up with userinit. Hijackthis alone doesn't caused this, when Hijackthis fixed entries it revert the registry entry back to its default.

Try and boot into the recovery console as seen on the link below(scroll a little down the page):
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm#How%20to%20access%20the%20Recovery%20Console:

Then at the command prompt type the following line exactly as shown:

copy C:\windows\ServicePackFiles\i386\userinit.exe C:\windows\system32

Then remove the cdrom and type exit to reboot.

 

by: rpggamergirlPosted on 2007-12-10 at 04:31:30ID: 20440900

F2 - REG:system.ini: UserInit=C:\Windows\System32\bad.exe,

the above entry in Hijackthis for example is showing the value of Userinit being the bad.exe, if the bad.exe is removed and userinit.exe is gone from the system32 folder and the user reboots, the user will be stuck in the welcome screen.

What you need is to try and put back the userinit.exe in the system32 folder and that should fix it.

 

by: amebaPosted on 2007-12-10 at 08:22:16ID: 20442709

Thanks,

I copied the registry to a usb drive.  I'll edit it later ('offline', as suggested), when I get permissions/CDs. It seems Userinit key is empty, I don't see userinit.exe or other exe there.

I tried different userinit.exe, but it didn't change anything (it didn't run, probably).

 

by: amebaPosted on 2007-12-12 at 11:50:52ID: 20459603

I have edited the registry, added this missing key:
     Userinit        SZ_REG       userinit.exe,

I have also used Recovery Console for copying, so link was useful.  I hope I won't have to use that thing soon, I'm still recovering from using it :)

Thanks, all!

 

by: rpggamergirlPosted on 2007-12-12 at 17:28:25ID: 20461693

Glad to know you've sorted it out.

Thanks, and Good luck.. :)

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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