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Dale303Flag for United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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Logon user interface DLL mslog.dll failed to load

Help. I was in the middle of reinstalling Symantec Antivirus Corporate editon 10 on our SBS2000 server and on upon reboot got the following error dialog before I get to tpe in login username and password:

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User Interface failure

The logon User Interface DLL mslog.dll failed to load

Contact your sytem administrator to replace the DLL or restorethe original DLL.
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I can't find any referfence to this error (or even this file) at all using Google, Experts Exchange, Windows IT Pro or technet. I can't find it on any of my install disks.

I've tried restorg to a 'previous know good configuration' but no luck there. Even safe mode won't loadperly but safe mode with command prompt will.

I've also tried doing an emergency repair but that didn't work either.

Any clues will be gratefully received.


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Roland Lee
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Have you tried using recovery console, recovery mode, etc?
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ASKER

Yep. I tried just about everything.

Actually, I managed to fix it in the end. I was probably just being too impatient with safe mode but whilst I was scouring the net looking for answers, about 40 minutes later safe mode popped into life.

Instead of Googling for mslog.dll (which got me nowhere), I tried for "User Interface Failure" which popped up a load of similar sounding problems but with really weird names for the dll like awgina.dll.

Anyway, that refers to another Symantec product installation failure so I put 2 and 2 together and followed the fixing instructions as for that problem and viola, there was an mslog.dll entry in my registry sitting right next to a gina keyword. Deleted that and rebooted. Thing complained a lot but at least I got a logon screen again.

steps I used (culled and edited from : http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;817142)

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Restart the computer in Safe mode. To do so: 1. Restart the computer in Safe mode. To do so: a.  Restart the computer. (Be patient. I  had to wait 40minutes for my safemode to popup)
b.  When you see the "Please select the operating system to start" message, press F8.
c.  On the Windows Advanced Option Menu, use the arrow keys to select Safe Mode, and then press ENTER.
d.  If you use a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select Microsoft Windows XP from the list, and then press ENTER.  
 
2. Delete the mslog.dll registry entry. To do so:WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk. a.  Click Start, and then click Run.
b.  In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
c.  Locate, and then click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WinLogon
d.  In the right pane, right-click mslog.dll, and then click Delete.  
e.  Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the deletion.
f.  On the File menu, click Exit to quit Registry Editor.
 
3. Restart the computer.

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Since then I've gone through a complete manual uninstall of Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition. Let me tell you, I've had more grief with this piece of software than I have for all the others put together in the 15 years I've been doing support. I had a lot of problems with the McAfee one too mind so please don't suggest that's much better. I never thought I'd say this but I'm actually looking forward to the time when MS develops it's own AV software. Letting other people hook bits and bobs so deep into the Windows system that it prevents you logging on is a step too far in my opinion.

Just wondering after all of this. Is there a regedit for the safemode command prompt?
Can use both regedit and regedt32
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modulo

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