Windows XP has put me in crisis, and yes, I am retarded.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321305

Show Administrator on the Welcome Screen

Control Panel/Users/Change the Way Users Logon/Welcome Screen or...

Start/Run/Regedit Key
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\ CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
Value Name: LogonType Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value) Value Data: (0 = Classic Mode, 1 = Welcome Screen) Create a new DWORD value, or modify the existing value, called 'LogonType' and edit the value according to the
settings below. Reboot.

Add Users to the Welcome Screen

Start/Run/Regedit

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList
Create a value for the users you want to list (using the Username), and set the value to 1.

TweakUI Option to Remove Welcome Screen:

About/Policy/Run Group Policy Editor/Administrative Templates/System/Logon/Don't Display Welcome Screen.

hopefully your user account will let you get to that part of the control panel?

Thanks, Tom.

God, this kind of shit always makes me feel like such a dickbrain.

oh you feel a lot dumber when it happens on an Apple product though

God, thanks.

Oh, man.

Now the only thing wrong is that he suddenly has no playlists on iTunes.

??

is there some way to stop XP from changing the date on a file folder every time you change something inside that folder? it really screws up my system for keeping track of what i've been listening to recently, i paste something into a folder and suddenly that's the most recently updated one.

i tire of windows

HE TASKS ME

Rox mentally gearing up to Mac it.

It's a big consideration! My sister's Mac drives me nuts, though. It's like I type too fast for it and it starts going nuts.

^^^only way to explain it

You are probably bumping the touchpad while typing. You can fix that with a pref.

REEEALly

Ignore mouse input while typing or something like that.

:(

RIP everything

What route did you take to reinstall Windows tbh? Did you reformat manually or just boot from the windows install cd?

i pressed f10 and did system restore and it reinstalled windows and nothing is there

but i can kinda find a few remnants, like some program files from old stuff i had installed before

maybe all my stuff is somewhere

is it possible things are on the C drive somewhere but just set up on your start menu/desktop/etc?

ive searched for some things and come up nil

:(

Have you looked in your Documents and Settings folder for a folder the same name as your old user account? If the install didn't wipe the folders they'll be in there.

If you do a system restore from the Windows CD it deletes everything in the windows folder and all the user profiles. Some PC manufacturer's system restore disks format the disk and install the system as it was when it left the factory.

As such you can't bring it back. You *could* use an application like Recuva:
http://www.piriform.com/recuva
This works because when windows deletes a file, it deletes the file table reference, but doesn't clean the disk. it just says that it's OK for it to write over that bit again. Unfortunately, by reinstalling windows it will have overwritten some of the disk but not necessarily all of it, but the longer you leave it the less you can recover. Your chances of recovering files are also better if you recover them onto another disk (like a USB drive)

i pressed f10 and did system restore

why imo

I wouldn't trust a data restore application that spells itself "Recuva". Although I guess it'd be quite awesome in a way to get back all your files in c:\windohz\sistum\ and everything in "mah picchas"

....made by the same company as ccleaner.

as I see it, you could spend money buying an undelete tool with a corporate name that doesn't work any better than a free one because of how they work. After all you can't recover what's already been written over.

if you selected system restore it probably didn't format the drive, which means your files are still on the hard drive but windows can't see them

as pointed out by TB, the less you use the PC the better, every time you turn it on you're writing over the old files a little bit

best bet is to find a local computer geek, have him pull yr hard drive and attach it to a 2nd computer and try to recover the files

if that can't happen, try installing a couple of the free file recovery tools, some work better than others but I haven't used any for a couple years so I can't remember which one is best

just delete everything and install windows 7 amirite

files are suffering

let go and be at one with the universe

friend has a crap-ridden xp computer with separate profiles (which i have never used). will it require cleaning in each profile? or can i do it just once in a profile with admin privileges?

theoretically 'once in a profile with admin privileges' will work but it all depends on the tool you're using to clean it with and how you've configured said tool

I recommend a dustpan

And if the crap is viruses / malware I'd just reinstall and start again.

and then tell yr 'friend' to stay off those pr0n sites

haha i think it's probably my friend's son tbh

yeah you don't need to log in to each profile to clean if it's just spunk stuck on your keyboard.

(depending on the tool you're using to clean it)