WinXP PRO user account missing

Question

I have Win XP Professoinal on an OEM installed Dell Dimension 4600C. Recently I installed some antivirus software that comes with my ATT DSL account. An error encountered during the install prompted me to make a registry change that involved something like changing the parent permissions - I recall two check boxes beneath the user accounts.Regardless, I backed up the registry prior to making the change. After I edited the registry, I noticed two things. 1) The only user account that was listed which was Guest was gone. 2) The drives were missing on my computer with a box that had a:-z:. Now when I restart the computer my user account and icon is missing and there is a blue screen with a windows xp icon to the right of center.I cannot start in safe mode. I get the same screen as above. I was able to start receovery console after I used NT Offline Password and Registry Editor to 'unenforce' the administrator password login since it wouldn't take a blank password or my usual password. My question is - can I recover. I do have a registry backup and I have all of my data backed up. I'm just trying to avoid reinstalling programs. I am aware of repair installs. Just wondering if there is a better option.Thank you!

jmwills · Answer

If you have the registry backed up, you could unistall the AV program, reboot, and then import the registry.

Squire123 · Answer

I can't even get logged onto windows to uninstall the antivirus program.  Besides I am pretty sure it was the registry change that killed my system, not the antivirus program.

Windows General

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