Windows 7 - User Accounts

I have a mess! Admin was deleted. I fixed that. Problem now is, each time I logon, I get a red x (no entries for user name and password), and a choice to "Switch User" I click on that, and I get to the "Guest" Account" which I then need to "switch user" and get a prompt to enter in the UserID (which will finally get me logged in) Worse yet, in managing user accounts, I can change the name, save, logoff and on reboot, the same cycle starts and the changed name is not valid and I need to put in the former user name. Any clues at all???

Have you tried to create a new admin user and see if that works correctly, I would also try with a standard user (if you have a need). If you can create new working accounts you should be able to transfer any user files to the new accounts and delete the old.

You may want to think about backing up all your data and re-installing as this sort of problem can leave issues even when they appear to be working correctly

Hello Mark, and welcome to Seven Forums.

While logged in, you might create a new administrator account to see if you are able to log on to normally.

If not, then you might see if a repair install may be able to fix this for you.

Either way, I would recommend that you backup anything that you do not want to lose in case you may need to do a clean reinstall.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Off Topic Brink but thank you for the link to repairing 7. As I'm rolling out 7 at the office and getting away from XP...that is GREAT info to know.

Thanks again!

Brink - Thank you for the link! Being voracious in trying to get this resolved, I finally realized that there was little if anything on the PC that needed to be saved. I did a clean reinstall and basically went back to ground zero. Of course this fixed the user access issue - my only regret was to not be more patient and wait till i received the reply from you!

I was up into the wee hrs of the morning struggling with this before I gave up to concede to the clean install.

The other great news in the replies concerned creating the admin account. Though I didn't go into it, I had deleted the admin account. it took some time but using CMD prompt and activating super admin, I was able to get create an admin account in safe mode that then allowed me to reinstall Windows 7 (you can't install it in safe mode!)

Anyway, all is resolved for now - thanks to all for the replies... I am a newbie at this and, learning by error while painful, is easier with support communities like this!

Mark, I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted though.