Limited User cannot log in (2002)

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First impressions are that Windows XP is a step backwards from Windows 2000. Too many setting are buried behind layers, supposably protect to dumb user from themselves.

I am running Windows XP Pro on an AMD 1700 with 640 MB of RAM. It was a clean install three days ago. The accounts include the default administrator, one user with administrative rights, and four limited users, all protected with passwords.

The limited accounts could login at first. However, the security settings became a pain in the backside. For example, for a limited user it would not save the Norton

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Unsure if these are relevant, but:-

MSKB article:
Logon Screen Appears to Stop Responding After Several Unsuccessful Password Attempts (Q283198)
http://support.microsoft.com/search/previe…b;en-us;Q283198%5B/url%5D

Basically, this is “by design”

Another MSKB article:

Failure Events Are Logged When the Welcome Screen Is Enabled (Q305822)
http://support.microsoft.com/search/previe…b;en-us;Q305822%5B/url%5D

which refers to “Account Logon failure audits” which can cause “bad logon attempts”!

Maybe, you are encountering a combination of these?

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When you create user accounts, make them members of Power Users rather then Users, then you can make certain programs unavailable to the certain users (Clicking Security tab in Properties of corresponding EXE files). Don’t forget to check “Password never expires” checkbox. Routines on XP machine is generally the same as Win2k – use Administrative tools | Computer Management in Control Panel.

You can also modify group policy with POLEDIT. For details, see
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/…cf_omn_mvbr.asp%5B/url%5D

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Thanks for the suggestions but none of them help.

I cannot understand that promoting a user to administrator will allow them to login. But the system will not let them if they are demoted to limited user. Weird, and quite frustrating.

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Since it includes the Registration/Activation Wizard, it is a step back from Windows 1.0.

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Do you use still use windows 1 and have you ever used windowsxp? If not, how can you compare them? Your complaints are tiring.. especially when you’ve never used windows xp but constantly whine about one small part of it. (Networking causes far bigger problems than activation does.)

The users of this forum would be better off if you stayed out. Your comments aren’t helping users one bit.

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Have you ever seen Windows 1.0
I do NOT think you have because it was never released to the public, so you do NOT know what version 1 was like. I did work with version 2.+ with weekly updates, good thing you were not around then, you would still be complaining about how the updates were REQUIRED.

So, bottom line, get off your soap box. Windows XP is here.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Guys please..

While the discussion is nice it is not solving my problem. Namely, unless a user has administrator rights they cannot logon. I have seen others ask this question and no one seems to have an answer to the problem.

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since the KBs about known logon problems of this type didn’t help, did you change any of the system security policies? This could account for non-admins lossing the ability to log on.

Also, have you searched the KB at http://support.microsoft.com[/url%5D? For some reason I think there were more KB addressing the problem, although all basically gave the same cause and fix.

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MaryJ

It is clear that something that I have done has interfered with the file permissions. The big question is what file permissions are not what they should be? As an experiment, I have now set all files to everyone and a user set to limited still cannot logon. Me thinks that it is time for a painfull reinstall.

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I had the same problem running standalone with multiple users. Go to Control Panel (or Settings), then Admin Tools, then Local Security Policy, then User Rights Assignment. There is a setting called “Logon locally.” It probably has nobody listed in Properties. Open it up and add all the Limited users who cannot log in, or add the Everyone group. Bingo. Or at least that’s what worked for me. You can adjust the user type before or after you do this.

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Tom,

Thanks for the reply. I had a look in the “logon locally” settings. All the user groups were there (Power User, Users, etc). What I did do was to add the individual users (/). Bingo, users could then logon as limited but there were error messages about being unable to access files.

I have conceeded defeat. The limited user account is just too tightly locked down. Microsoft themselves have too many ‘first time’ processes that run when user first logs on to an account, that stuff up when the user has limited access. For example, in the User Accounts the only two settings provided are Admin or Limited. Add a user to the Power Users group and XP states that it does not know the account type.

I’ll wait until SP1 comes out and do one more clean reinstall. If that fails it is back to Windows 2000. At least I understand that beast.

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