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I'm locked out of my Windows XP machine

EXPERT RESPONSE FROM: Kevin Beaver

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QUESTION POSED ON: 18 March 2006
Windows XP will not recognize my logon profile on my computer. I have to sign in as a guest/temporary user, and have lost access to many of my files. Every time I have to use the computer, I have to start over from scratch - even reinstalling programs. How can I be the administrator once again of my own machine?

EXPERT RESPONSE
It sounds like your profile has become corrupt. Can you login under another administrator account? If so, you may be able to create yourself a new account and then copy your profile information from your bad account to the new one (via My Computer/Properties/Advanced/Settings). If that's not an option, my next step (in order to save time/effort) would be to purchase Winternals' Administrator's Pack.

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