Windows XP logs on then logs off

I had this problem and, after the better part of a day and a half, I finally hacked a fix without restoring or using the recovery console.

Jeff's note about the Userinit key led me to the answer, but simply editing the registry from another machine is not always possible. In fact, it's not possible at all if the corrupted registry is on a machine running XP Home Edition, since Remote Registry is not enabled in that version. Also, many savvy admins disable that service anyway...

Here's my fix:

+ Get the offline registry/password editor from http://<a href="http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/">http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/</a>
There's a bootable linux CD image there, which is what I used. You don't have to be linux-aware, since it starts the editor. You do have to be patient, since it's a simple command-line program.

+ Boot the editor CD, and follow the prompts to load the 'Software' registry and go into the full registry editor.

+ Navigate down to the Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/Winlogon key, and examine the value of the Userinit subkey. If it's not "C:\WINDOWS\System32\userinit.exe,", then change it. (Note: For some reason, simply changing the value was not enough to get the value change saved back to the Windows registry. I got around this by adding a temporary key and then saving.)

+ Quit and save, then go back through the editor process to make sure the change took.

+ Remove the CD and reboot Windows. You'll have to wait through a chkdsk, but that's a small price to pay for not having to rebuild your system!

+ Run regedit and delete the temporary key you created in HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/Winlogon

+ Back up your registry

+ My recommendation: purchase and install NAV 2004, which has complete antivirus, adware and spyware protection. It was adware nonsense that got me in trouble in the first place....

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