I've lost control!

[moosecallahan]

I've been hacked or invaded somehow. I am no longer the user adminstrator and the control panel is not on the start menu. I can't access the control panel to reset the user account. I am the only account on the computer and the name is simply "user". If the internet service is connected the computer shuts down in 1 minute after startup. If I physically disconnect the cabel for the internet the computer works fine except for the user name and the control panel is still not there. My question is: how do Iaccess the control panel so I can reset the user account for me as adminstrator again?

[RedSon]

If you have been hacked and your 'user' account has been removed from the administrator list, and you do not have another administrator account you can log in with, then there is nothing you can do except learn from your mistakes.

The only option left for you is to re-install windows. You should probably do this by totally formatting your harddrive then you should run a virus scanner on that harddrive to make sure that there are no boot sector viruses. Then you should reinstall windows, install a virus scanner program, then update the virus scanner definitions and then update the windows OS.

[mikeak2001]

hey mate,

have you tried booting the computer into safe mode?

when you boot the computer up in normal mode! you will see the user list appear and you normally select the correct one and enter your password(if it is set up)

when you turn the computer on! press F8 repeatedly after the initial start up, you should then get a menu that displays, you'l have choices like, safe mode, safe mode with networking, last known good configuration, etc...

select safe mode and when the user screen displays, there will be an extra user called ADMINISTRATOR. try this account to reset everything. if the account needs a password, i have a nifty little disc that resets windows xp passwords, there is not always a need to reinstall! if you need a copy of the disc then i'll have to upload the .iso somewhere and you'll have to find somewhere it burn it to disc! the password revovery software is free on the net but i cant remember where i got it from!