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Strange issue with WinXP logon


coch

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Hi, I am having this weird issue with 1.0.1.

I have blank administrator password and logon set to automatic. This works fine. However, as soon as I create at least one additional user account (administrator accounts only), when I use fast user switching to logon a second account Windows XP (SP2) asks me for a password for each account when I try to switch back to another one. This is bad because my passwords are blank, and it won't acept a blank password. So basically, as soon as I switch to another user account the result is that I am locked out from ALL accounts, since it asks for a password and I have never set any password.

I even tried with purposely setting my own password and tried again, but it will not accept my password either (password was set only seconds before). Seems like logging to a second user account triggers some kind of "bug" that sets unknown passwords on all existing user accounts. Everytime I am forced to reboot, and upon reboot the autologon works fine on the main administrator account. This means that now I am limited to a single account, but I really need to have at least 3.

Anyone else has this issue and hopefully have a solution?

What is strange is that I never experienced this issue before with previous versions, and EVEN with my previous ISO made with nLite 1.0.1, and I have not changed any setting at all. Additional strange things I noticed that I never experienced before is that my CD rom letters are inverted now (i.e. before my DCD was H and CD-R was G, and now it is the opposite) and it changed without me changing anything, but that maybe unrelated.

On a side note, I remember that in the nLite 0.9x days (yes I havent posted for a longtime) disabling hibernation completely disabled it, but with nLite 1.0+ I disable hibernation but it can still be re-enabled only by ticking Enable Hibernation in the power options copntrol panel (before, the tickbox was greyed out, it is not anymore) is this on purpose?

edit: forgot to say I have already reformatted 4 times today, so yes it does this on a fresh install. Im gonna try with "safe" component removal now, although I still cannot explain why my own preset always been fine and now it doesnt work.

Edited by coch
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ok bad news, this is still hapenning with "Safe" component removal, although it took more time to happen i.e. before this occurred the first time I switched accounts, while with "Safe" componnt removal I was able to access my other user accounts several times (and I thought this was somehow fixed) before I saw this problem coming back.

Nobody has any clue about this?

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ok I take back my words, this still occurs with nLite 1.0, although again it took more time for the issue to occur.

--> nLite 1.0.1 with own preset: the problem occurs on first try

--> nLite 1.0.1 Safe component removal: I could do a few logins and reboots before the problems occurred

--> nLite 1.0 with my own preset: Took even longer for the problem to occur I would login and reboot many times but now the issue is back today.

I am posting my preset here.

Any solution anybody?

coch.ini

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additional clue perhaps, I managed to fix temporarily (I am sure the problem will come back after a few reboots) by going in the user accounts control panel, disabling fast user switching, and re-enabling it.

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  • 3 weeks later...

ok let me add more information to help reproduce this.

1) In nLite I set autologon for administrator account with blank password.

2) Install nLited WinXP ISO based on my preset in my post above.

3) Upon first boot in WinXP well I customize tyhe appearance of windows, enable uicklaunch bar, etc... then proceed with installing a few apps

4) When everything is installed (and I rebooted) I create four additional administrator user accounts because and I use fast user switching because I often need to switch between two or more administrator accounts. these are the only 5 user accounts I have (i.e. the initial one + 4 additional), and all are administrator accounts (guest account is disabled)

5) I reboot after having created the additional accounts (WinXP autologons on my main admin account)

6) I then press Win-L to see the logon screen and I clock a second account to logon a second admin account. this always works fine.

7) I press Win-L again to logon a third user account. Now I am asked for a password, which should not be there because password is set to blank. Trying to return to one of the first two accounts already loged in results in the same issue, namely I am being asked for a password.

8) Variant: if after logging the second account I try to return to the first one instead of trying to log a 3rd account the same thing happens I am asked for as password.

This is really strange that I can log two accounts but after that everything fails and I am doomed to hit the shutdown button on the logon screen.

Troubleshooting I did:

a) Trying random passwords does not work (I was desperate enough to try).

b) I saw the other thread about user accounts: an iso with or without active directory services has the same issue.

c) Sometimes just after reboot before even trying to log a second account, if i go in the control panel user accounts, select change the way users logon and disable fast user switching then re-enable it, I can logon all my accounts without problem but the issue of being asked for passwords will come back after a few reboots. a registry tracer did not find any registry change in this disable/re-enable fast user switching operation.

d) Still occurs with 1.2 beta. I was hoping the new user account creration page would fix this especially the logon count option, but it didnt. Even worse, my fix in c) above doesnt even work anymore.

e) I tried setting passwords on all accounts. when asked for a password as described above, I typed my newly created password but it didnt accept it. Looks like something triggers my windows installation to reset password to something else I have no idea about, or windows enters a state where it wouldnt accept any password.

I hope this will provide more information and help replicate the issue. Again, I started experiencing this only starting with 1.0.1, never occurred before, although I have since reverted to 1.0 and the problem occurred as well. My presets have been the same for a long time, the only other change I had in my PC is some of my software are now of more recent versions. I also changed motherboard 2 months ago.

Edited by coch
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This problem is real for some and only reason why it's not yet fixed is because it always logs on ok for me when I try it.

But you provided enough information to try once more.

Gonna check it after RC.

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Hi Nuhi

Ok i found the issue, 100% reproducible now, but you need an ATI card to experience this issue. the cause is that I was disabling the ATI Hotkey Poller service using a reg tweak. Disabling this service will cause the issue I reported for some odd reason since it only supposed to manage ATI hotkey features (which I do not even have since I do not install the ATI control panel, I install the driver pack only). Re-enabling this service (manual won't do, it needs to be set to automatic) will solve the issue.

I think it is probably not related to nLite, although it is strange that I have been disabling this service for ages, even before I started using nLite in the nLite ~0.8 days and only had this problem with the 1.0+ versions, but then again, it could very well be a change in the ATI driver, which I update regularly with each new ISO (I reformat every 1-2 months).

So for now, users with this issue that have an ATI card, try setting the ATI Hotkey Poller to Automatic if it is not and see if it works for you.

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I actually had the opposite thing happen for a friend's laptop I was working on a few days ago. I enabled a password but the user logon never prompted for a password. I tried 3 nLite ISOs before I somewhat fixed the issue. It asked for a password at first login, but afterwards it didn't. Then I fixed that by going here and doing this:

Click Start, Run and type rundll32 netplwiz.dll,ClearAutoLogon
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hehe no problem. yeah i hope so too, but im reasonably sure I tested it enough:

disable ATI Hotkey Poller service, reboot --> problem is there

reboot again --> problem still there

Set ATI Hotkey Poller service to automatic, reboot -->problem fixed,

reboot again --> problem still fixed

repeat the steps above several times.

I did all that so im pretty sure now.

:)

Edited by coch
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