cannot create new standard account

[fhlamartin]

I am the only user on my PC (Windows 7 Home Premium, 32-bit upgrade from Vista), with Administrator privileges. The standard Control-Panel procedure for creating a new account fails.

Specifically, Following the procedure: Start > Control Panel > User Accounts > Manage Another Account > Create a New Account >Type new Account Name and select Standard Account aborts. The next screen, "Choose the Account you would like to change", is blank. It does not even show my account.

How might I correct this flaw?

 

[Ztruker]

Try disabling UAC then creating the new account. Enable UAC when done.

See here for instructions: Turn User Account Control on or off

 

[richc46]

I am the only user on my PC (Windows 7 Home Premium, 32-bit upgrade from Vista), with Administrator privileges. The standard Control-Panel procedure for creating a new account fails.

Specifically, Following the procedure: Start > Control Panel > User Accounts > Manage Another Account > Create a New Account >Type new Account Name and select Standard Account aborts. The next screen, "Choose the Account you would like to change", is blank. It does not even show my account.

How might I correct this flaw?

Try creating a new account and then make changes to your present account. I believe that you cannot change the account that you are currently using.

 

[fhlamartin]

Thanks to both.

I am unable to create ANY new account (Please note, I am not trying to change my current account, which is an Administrator account. Rather, I just want to create a standard account.)

Turning off UAC, as suggested, did not correct the fault.

Anyone have any idea less than reinstalling Windows 7?

 

[richc46]

Lets try a different approach. Go to start menu, search. Type in user account, then go that route. If it does not work, come back and we will see about the next step.

 

[fhlamartin]

Sorry to say, your suggested approach did not correct flaw.

 

[richc46]

When you installed 7, did you create your present account or was it there, ready for you?

 

[richc46]

I thought about your problem and this is what I think will work.

Easy one first: Do a repair install. Just take your DVD and do an upgrade install. Try it afterwards. If it does not work try this:

Go into safe mode. Usually if you press f8 repeatedly as you boot up, as soon as you start but prior to windows logo. You will get a screen that allows you to go into safe mode. Go into this mode, then try to create the users account.

Try to make an administrative account and also a regular account. Maybe one will work and break this jinx.

 

[fhlamartin]

I believe it was there for me.

 

[Ztruker]

Try booting to Safe Mode (press F8 every second or so when you see the manufacturers logo), then login as Administrator. Try creating the account from there.

You will have to enable Administrator login first I believe. See here for info: Built-in Administrator Account

 

[fhlamartin]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Repair/upgrade did not correct the flow.

I need my PC for its intended work for a while. In a few days I'll continue troubleshooting this flaw.

 

[sdigital]

Hi, I'm new to this forum but I'm having the same problem.

The original poster perhaps isn't explaining it properly, maybe I can give a little more insight to see if someone can figure this out.

I upgraded my XP to Vista in order to go to Windows 7. I had 3 user accounts. Once the upgrade was completed to Windows 7, the login screen originally came up with the CTRL ALT DELETE to login feature enabled even though I had fast user switching in XP. All 3 user accounts were login'able and all the files were there however I noticed there was a problem when managing the other users accounts.

The accounts screen showed up blank and the text link on the side that said manage main account brought me back to the original account I was logged in as. I thought maybe the account profiles were corrupted and attempted to recreate a new account and although all the screens worked after I created it, it still did not show up in the manage accounts or the login screen. When I checked the users folder in My computer, I noticed 2 out of 3 accounts had locks on the folders in addition to all users, the 3rd account did not have a lock on it and there was a hidden default user account folder.

The reason why I noticed I may have a problem with my user account is because I had no printers, they all got wiped out and I couldn't add a printer because the printer spooler service was not working. When looking up why it wasn't working, I read somewhere that I had to allow the user to control the spooler service in services.msc - I think the fact that the user accounts are messed up are why the printer spooler service is not working. They're there but their not. Maybe they weren't transferred over right? Is there a way to repair the user accounts sort of? I'm curious to find out if: fhlamartin has printers or can add one? There are alot of minor issues associated with this problem. Your input on this is appreciated. I use this computer for work and I kinda need a printer lol!

 

[sdigital]

I was toying around with other options to figure out whats going on. I managed to successfully create a new account via the Parental Control Screen and attempted to login to that account. It actually showed up on my User Logon screen. When attempting to click it I got the following error: User profile service failed the logon. User Profile Cannot be loaded.

I don't need to make an account but maybe this can help to figure out what we're experiencing. Thanks.

 

[fhlamartin]

Thanks to all for your attention.

SDIGITAL asked me whether I had printers. Yes, but I have several other signs of a messed-up User Account. Two cases within the past 16 hours:

(1) I cannot add a new folder or import favorites from an other browser to Internet Explorer because I am denied access.

(2) I cannot run Backup because: "Windows Backup encountered a problem while determining additional locations of one of the users included in the backup details. BitLocker Drive Encryption cannot be used because critical BitLocker system files are missing or corrupted. Use Windows Startup Repair to restore these files to your computer."

I have not yet used Startup Repair, but fear that a complete vanilla installation may be in my future. As soon as time permits, I shall try the recommended Safe Mode startup.

Thanks again to all for your attention.

 

[fhlamartin]

I've followed through on suggestions, without removing flaws associated with my User Account.

Specifically:

(1) Attempting to set up new User account while in Safe Mode failed.
(2) Attempting to use "Local Users and Groups," under Computer Management was impossible because no "Local Users and Groups" appeared under System To,ols under Computer Management.
(3) I was able to set up new accounts under Parental Controls. These showed on Log-On screen and opened but could not be managed by my main administrator account. They are now present, but I haven't found any way to manage them (e.g., delete them).

My conclusion is that my main User Account is badly messed-up and probably has been so since I upgraded from my Vista OS. (Please note that I do not know whether the account was proper under Vista.)

Does anyone see anything to do besides a complete reinstallation of Windows 7? What are the odds that will result in a usable Administrator Account in my name?

 

[sdigital]

Please hang in there for another day, I'm testing some fixes on my own problem which is similar to yours. If I make any breakthrus I will post to you.

Stephen

 

[fhlamartin]

Yes, I'll "hang in there." Best of luck, for both of us!

 

[pmaae]

have similar problem since couple of days when sth strange began to happen - For some reason when I logged on to my account (limited privileges) I discovered my theme has been changed to high contrast (green) - I didn't know then what the hell was that and suspected a virus (I still do though), then I discovered an additional local disc icon in the Computer - couldn't get into, couldn't read any of its properties (acces denied), couldn't format it, deleted, even when using an administrator account - I've tried to check that out in the safe mode but it didn't show up then.
And now I wanted to create a user account and similar story as above, same Logon Services errors.
I do not want to reinstall the whole system yet, so started to playing around and found out that if I switch the UAC off, I'm still able to create another administrator account (but still can't even log on as a guest).
The newly created account remains active when I change permission level to standard user and I'm able to log on and off normally.
The funny thing is that the newly created user is unable to change even its own account name so I'm not sure if that kinda account would be of any use. I'll see.
Still digging.


Now all my accounts are being locked out without any reason. I'm not sure if any of my previous actions might have cause that but who knows?

 

[fhlamartin]

PMAAE,

My experience leads me to conclude thatyour symptoms stem from one one or more corrupted user accounts. My complete reinstall let me set up an Administrative and Standard aaccujnt for my self - just as recommended by Windows. Everything seems good now.

I think you will reinstall sooner than later. When you do, please be forewarned. I encountered a completely unexpected and serious problem with the reinstallation. I created a backup folder for my data on an external drive. Once I had reinstalled the operating system, I found that the backed up files were inaccessible to me because my new user permissions did not match what permissions were attached to the backup files. Fortunately, I had made copies of the back up files and could get access to these. Probably I should have removed restrictions on all of the files before I backed them up. I suggest you take extreme care with the backing up.

 

[pmaae]

Experienced the same situation already some time ago when I was using Windows One Care - that's because Security IDs of accounts should match - if you literally reinstall your system, your account gets a brand new SID - so you lose access to some of the previous resources (i.e. encrypted data). That's why I'd rather try firstly to repair the system using Windows Repair Disc using the system image I created following the clean installation (never tried b4 though) and pray that would fix the bug. If not, I wil get a new Disk and make a pure installation.

The newly created account with privileges reduced to standard user seems to be functionable to some point - I can use it as long as I do not try to make any changes to the user profile from any place of the entire system. No changes are saved even if triggered from the administrator's account. I can, however revert it back to the administrator's account. No info were found in the event viewer.

What I learned during my research is that it may be some sort of local/group policy effect (using temporary accounts switched off results in Logon Service being unable to load a temporary account should your account profile becomes unreachable)

I keep digging anyway