software question-user accounts comes up as notepad?

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Nov 29, 2005 | 06:26 PM

bodabdan

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Fleet Mechanic

Joined: Feb 2004

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From: River Valley AR

software question-user accounts comes up as notepad?

I think my computer has been altered by a virus maybe. When I try to access my user accounts, a blank notepad file comes up. I have tried to access user accounts in different ways, but the result is the same.
I would restore my OS (XP) but we lost the recovery disk in a house fire. Any suggestions?
Thanks

Nov 29, 2005 | 06:33 PM

preppypyro

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Joined: Aug 2004

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From: North Central Rural Sask.

Have you tried running a virus scanner of some sort?

Nov 29, 2005 | 07:11 PM

TN-W124 Diesel

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you can restore the xp under: all programs>accessories>system tools> restore

Nov 29, 2005 | 09:15 PM

bodabdan

Thread Starter

Fleet Mechanic

Joined: Feb 2004

Posts: 1,816

Likes: 3

From: River Valley AR

I have run some anti-virus programs and they did help. Trend seemed to be the most effective. I believe the virus is gone now, but some changes still remain. I have also ran Norton, Ad-Aware, and Spybot.
I did find the initial restore point that TN-W124 mentioned. Man that is going to take alot of work to backup all my data. I sure would like to fix just this one problem if possible. Thanks for the replies.

Nov 30, 2005 | 04:30 AM

Crash687

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Joined: Mar 2004

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From: MI

try contacting the manufacturer of the computer (Dell, Gateway) . if your computer is of the homebuilt nature, if you have the original product key for XP(should be a sticker on the computer), see if you can borrow a friends copy of XP

Nov 30, 2005 | 07:51 AM

TN-W124 Diesel

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the restore is reversible, so if you don't like it it can go back to where you were, you should not lose any data, pictures, etc.

Nov 30, 2005 | 08:32 AM

Steve_250

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Joined: Nov 2003

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From: Near DC

Use the restore that TN mentioned and go back to a date before the problem started, like a week or so. If that doesn't work, sign in as administrator, co to the control panel and put the users back on.

What about all your data files, such as your mail, bookmarks, etc, are they on the drive?
Do you use outlook? Do a search for outlook.pst and enable the search to look for hidden files. For IE, go to docs & settings, your name, apps, MS, IE, and look in there.