Computer Hope
Microsoft => Microsoft Windows => Windows Vista and 7 => Topic started by: AmyR7 on May 26, 2009, 12:44:17 PM
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I am trying to understand the differences here on things going on here. Still trying to figure out why I had got locked out of my own computer right before Christmas. I'm afraid that I accidently did something wrong to cause it due to my health not doing well and have had things getting worse and causing my memory and confusion problems too. So, I think by trying to fix other things going wrong, like having problems with accounts on websites I use not working right, that I accidently did something to lock myself out of computer.
See if I right click on the My Computer icon and then left click on Properties
It will say This computer is registered to AmyR
Then has all the other information on the computer.
Then if I click on the Advanced tab, and then under User Profiles section and then the Settings button it brings up a list that has 3 things listed under the
Name column-
Account Unknown
Dell\Administrator
Dell\AmyR
Then it has a size for all of them- the 1st 2 have 35.4MB and the last one has 981MB
Then 2 other columns Type and Status and all say Local and then a Modified column and the 1st one says 5/22/09 the last 2 say 5/24/09
The other thing is that AmyR is names I use on some sites I go to for my username. So, I am not sure if any of that could be some of that somehow because see I use that Saved password thing in the browsers.
I also tried to compare settings to my mom's computer, and hers is a little different and has under the Status column on one of hers says Temp.
We also keep having problems with hacking too, so making sure is any of them suppose to be set differently and that is why someone is hacking in?
Thanks,
Amy
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hacking? do you have a firewall and a antivirus protection on?
Comodo firewall is good firewall to use but disable windows firewall first to prevent conflict when two programs attempt to do same job.
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The user names and who the machine is registered do not have to be the same. They work seperate from each other. Also the profile names and the user names can be differant. In most cases they are the same but the machine can work fine even if they don't match.
Why do you think someone is hacking your machine?
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The reason I think I was hacked is because of being locked out of my computer.
Yes, I have the Windows Firewall.
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The reason I think I was hacked is because of being locked out of my computer.
Yes, I have the Windows Firewall.
Forget windows firewall, many people say it doesn't do its job as well as other ones like that one I mentioned.
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Please tell us more about being locked out. What happened and how did you get back into your machine?
Just because you got locked out doesn't mean you were hacked. There are other reasons for a machine to lock out an account.
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Please tell us more about being locked out. What happened and how did you get back into your machine?
Just because you got locked out doesn't mean you were hacked. There are other reasons for a machine to lock out an account.
which may include you forgetting your password or somebody inadvertently getting your computer into a bad situation.
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Here is the message that was coming up on the computer.
This computer is in use and has been locked. Only Amy\AmyR (Amy) or an administrator can unlock this computer.
Then it had a place to put in a Username and Password.
My mom called a repairman and he took the computer. We have no idea what he did to get back in. But he said something about finding some spyware. Only other weird thing is that when he left the message came back up, and it changed a little bit, it had the word help added to the list of names, and it somehow had help in the Username box, and nothing for a Password and if I hit Ok, it did let me in, where as before it would not.
I don't remember setting any password for the computer. The only things I have passwords for is my email(which the username for that is not any of those listed in the message above) and all the different websites I go to. One of the usernames, AmyR is actually one that I use for any site I can if the name isn't taken already, if already taken I add numbers to it.
Someone on here actually did help me get that message to go away, if you right click on the Desktop and then click on Properties and then on the Screen Saver tab/button there is something that says On resume, password protect and that was checked. Seems like after I took the check out it did make it go away. I have no idea how this could have got checked either.
Thanks,
Amy
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The things you are talking about are normal for most machines. Except the spyware. The locking out stuff is a standard Microsoft message of a machine that is in use and locked. The screen saver can cause the lock out as well as other settings in your machine like a group policy. In most cases a home user will have the screen saver set and not know that you need to enter your password to get back into the machine.
Just to be sure you can post a message in the virus and spyware form. They can walk you though a few checks for your machine. Also give you the names of some free anti-virus and spyware programs you may want to load onto your machine for protection.
http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/board,7.0.html
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The thing is I didn't ever set any password for the computer.
The only passwords I have is password for my email, and like I mentioned all the different websites I use.
I already have all the different antispyware programs out there. My brother-in-law who knows alot on computers and takes care of all the computer problems at him and my sister house came over the other day and put mostly all the stuff on that this site says to put on and he mentioned he goes on some site Geeks to go I think is the name. He put them on my mom's computer too since hers keeps having a bunch of problems too. We have stuff like- Updated AVG on our computers, Ccleaner, Malwarebytes, Spywareblaster, Spybot Seach & Destroy, Ad-aware SE Personel, ATF Cleaner, HijackThis we have but he says not to have it actually fix anything though because of problems he and others he knows have had with it causing a big problems after, but says it's ok to keep it and you can easily get a log for sites out there that read them.
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Another thing my mom just thought to add to this- if this is a normal message, then why have we never seen anything like this before on any of computers in all these years? The computer I have currently is 7 years old, my mom's is like 6 years I think now and none of us have ever seen any messages like this.
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you haven't seen it before because the welcome screen needs to be disabled for it to appear. how that happened I wouldn't know. Possibly an accidental change.
Additionally, I also have no password on my account. I can lock the machine- and unlocking simply consists of hitting OK without a password.
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you haven't seen it before because the welcome screen needs to be disabled for it to appear. how that happened I wouldn't know. Possibly an accidental change.
Additionally, I also have no password on my account. I can lock the machine- and unlocking simply consists of hitting OK without a password.
same with me, i have no password on my vista pc, if i have lock pc back to the welcome screen, pressing enter would simply unlock it.
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Yes, when this happend we tried hitting OK, and it still kept coming up with the locked thing.
With what happend, that is why we feel that I was hacked.
What Welcome Screen are you talking about? We don't have any welcome screens that come up on our computers. Everytime we turn it on, everything just comes up- The desktop with all the icons and Start button and everything at the bottom of the screen.
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http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294317
your screen looked sort of like this.....
www.viu.ca/technology/employees/images/SS.jpg
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Please tell us more about being locked out. What happened and how did you get back into your machine?
Just because you got locked out doesn't mean you were hacked. There are other reasons for a machine to lock out an account.
You can lock the computer by accidentally pressing the Windows key and "L". Or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete and clicking lock computer. I have made a script for our users at our campus tht locks the computer when they click it. Most instructor here don't lock their computers and the student mess with them...
Anyway are you clicking anything and getting locked out?
If you can get back into your computer. Try pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete and click "Change Password". Then enter the old password and click ok. This will set your password to blank.
Edit: Accidentally quoted all my text. Changed it to just AmyR7's text being quoted.
Edit: Not sure how to fix that... ???
Edit: fixed it ... it was annoying me. :)
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http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294317
Went to this site never heard of this Fast User Switching until now. I don't even have a password set at all. Whenever I go in Control Panel and to User Accounts it has a place to create a password but no places to change a password and I think that is because I never set one. So, don't know how to change a password when you never created one.
your screen looked sort of like this.....
www.viu.ca/technology/employees/images/SS.jpg
Yes, it looked mostly like that, a bit different design in some ways. Said Windows Xp and was blue instead of grayish like this seems to be. But the locked message is the exact same.
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If you are logged in you can press Ctrl+Alt+Del and click "Change password" or Click Start goto Control Panel then User Accounts.
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Yes, but I don't even have a password set in the first place for the computer.
When I hit ctrl, alt, delete I don't get anything that says Change Password.
hitting ctrl, alt, delete just brings up the Windows Task Manager.
Also, if I go into control panel and then to user accounts there is nothing there that says change password. The only thing there is create a password.
The only passwords I have is for my email and to get into different websites that I have signed up for since when you sign up at websites, you create a username, display name is sometimes something things have you choose to and then you do a password too.
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one thing, create a password that you can remember then try logging in with it.
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Yes, but why do I need to all of a sudden create a password to use my computer when I have never had one in all these years?
I have had the computer for like 7-8 years now and the one I had before this one I had for years and never had a password for that either.
If this isn't something necessary to do, then I don't want to accidently cause a new computer issue that I never had before.
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Yes, but why do I need to all of a sudden create a password to use my computer when I have never had one in all these years?
I have had the computer for like 7-8 years now and the one I had before this one I had for years and never had a password for that either.
If this isn't something necessary to do, then I don't want to accidently cause a new computer issue that I never had before.
That was just a thought wondering but maybe someone can verify whether or not it should be done , also, I wondered now, have you tried logging into safe mode to see if same issue come up?
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It seems like it had something to do with this on resume password protect getting marked somehow. Since I didn't mark it, is why we think I was hacked.
Don't even know how to go into safe mode, and since it doesn't come up since taking the checkmark out, do I need to login in safe mode?
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It seems like it had something to do with this on resume password protect getting marked somehow. Since I didn't mark it, is why we think I was hacked.
Don't even know how to go into safe mode, and since it doesn't come up since taking the checkmark out, do I need to login in safe mode?
logging into safe mode ... see here for instructions on how to enable it :http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chsafe.htm/.
Basically this is what safe mode is .....
Users who may not be able to boot into normal mode or are not able to troubleshoot their computer properly may need to boot into Safe Mode bypassing normal windows settings and startup programs and allowing the user to fix their computer.
So, wondering if you attempt safe mode, would you be still getting the same issue of that password logging in thing not working properly for you.
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Yes, but since it's not coming up anymore.
all we are trying to say is the reason we think my computer was hacked is because of what happened.
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Yes, but since it's not coming up anymore.
all we are trying to say is the reason we think my computer was hacked is because of what happened.
ok that is good, I don't think your computer's being hacker personally if you have a strong firewall and a decent antivirus protecting you from strangers on the internet. But glad it's okay for you now, or so it seems ;D
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Wouldn't having spyware make you think you were hacked? The repairman my mom called when the lock message came up, when he brought computer back said found spyware on it. The other weird thing we didn't understand was when he said someone named Amy locked the computer. Since I'm the only one who uses the computer.
Currently my brother-in-law who knows alot on computers and deals with the computer problems him and my sister have with their computer, is helping me with instructions on here and stuff, but haven't got a chance to do the Combofix thing, but he did put a bunch of different things on mine and mom's computer(hers is also having a bunch of problems too). Installed things like Ccleaner, that Malwarebytes thing, ATF cleaner, Spybot Search & Destroy, Ad-aware SE Personal, and a few other things- Spywareblaster, cwshredder. We have AVG on our computers too. Of course we are also trying to understand now how to use all these things. It's really confusing and have to make sure we don't make a mistake and accidently delete something important.
I don't even know how to do that Safe Mode thing you mentioned. We can get in it, but don't know what to do after getting in it. Like what to do to fix the computer the steps to do. That's why I need someone who knows what to do to do that type of stuff or walk me through it.