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Hello. I have a home computer with windows XP and I have lost my administrator rights. Most likely a virus or a hijacker has taken over but i cannot do anything to clean up the computer. I cannot uninstall, run the virus program or even reinstall XP. Is there anything I can do to gain access back to my computer? Please help.
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Did you not try unlocking with the secret question? This option will be available just below ur password....
I never did set one so i would not know what it is if there is one.
There is a hidden Administrator account in Safe Mode. Have you tried that?
Safe Mode also offers other possibilities, like Restore to last known good configuration.
Mark
It won't let me go in it because i don't have administrator rights. That's what it tell me.
then if you reboot into the Safe Mode list of options, (instructions for booting into Safe Mode here, using F8), you will see the accounts screen with the hidden Administrator account displayed.
Assuming you didn't assign a password to this account when you first got the computer, then just click it and that should let you in. XP will load up with minimal graphic drivers so there is no desktop image and the resolution is 800 x 600, but from here you can run the anti-virus application to remove those viruses.
Mark
Ok your option did not work. Any other thoughts? It keeps telling me I cannot do it Because I don't have administrator rights. This is going to be chore!
Its quite ironic that a spyware would do this given most spywares and viruses will struggle to cause any significant damage in a limited user account.
I will not supply a tutorial or any step by step on how to do this. It's all at this link -> http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm
Have fun,
Bob
Thank you for the information. I will play around with this for a few days.
Something that I have found to be very effective is removing the hard drive from your computer and hooking it up as a "slave" drive on another computer that has an antivirus program installed (McAffe, Trend Micro, etc.). I have found that some viruses or adware can actually ?embed? themselves in a system so well that the antivirus program can not detect or remove them. When you use another computer to scan your hard drive (hooked up as a slave drive), it is amazing how many more viruses/adware programs that you could find and remove. Sometimes it works very well, sometimes it has no affect. It is worth trying before you re-clone your system.
I deleted your post.
It was a link to a blank Google Sites page with just a "Click here to download your attachment".
That is unsafe. No-one knows what the file is, or what it does.
Sorry, but too dangerous for these forums and that's why we usually delete those posts before any damage can be done.
Mark
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