Hello:

FYI:

On my primary home PC (XP-Pro) I just ran windows update. After the reboot I can't login to the box. Administraor account just won't work.

It's probably just my box (and my luck after the Mydoom bit) but you might want to put off running Windows Update for a bit just in case. .

Now where did I put that password recovery disk???

Hmm, I updated all of my work boxes (two XP Pro, three 2000 Pro, one 2000 Server) today and didn't see a problem at all.

Can you get in with Safe Mode? If you can, see if you can roll back the last update.

I just updated both my work PC and my home PC and had no problems either.

Andrew's idea should work. Keep us posted.

-Demigod

That makes me nervous...I just got the notice yesterday or the day before, but I haven't updated yet....

Update....

I'm still not sure exactly what happened. Everything had been fine until XP auto-rebooted from an update. When it came back up the admin account (the only account on the PC) would not work. I know I did not forget or change the password.

I just used the password recovery disk to reset the password and all is once again happiness and light.

I'm not seeing reports of massive numbers of people getting locked out of XP so I guess it was just me.

However I'm very glad I had a password recovery disk handy. You do have one right?

If not:

Start->Control Panel->Users Accounts
Double click the admin account, On the top left under "Related Tasks" click on "prevent forgotten password" and follow the prompts. You'll need a blank formatted floppy.

Ah, good.

Saves you from having to take it out back and shoot it.

:D

-Demigod

Actually, some people on the Windows Update Beta message boards have been reporting a similar problem.

What can actually happen, is that if your user-account profile goes corrupt (rare instance, but can happen), instead of rehashing it back to an older one, like it does on a normal reboot, it will actually just not revert at all. Best thing, is if this happens, is to not only have that floppy handy, but is to boot back into safe mode, then press CTRL+ALT+DEL 2 times, (if Welcome screen is enabled), and try logging on that way. That usually works, but not always.

It's a minor bug, that only affects a few people, but MS is investigating the problem. :) :geek:

One more reason to go with the Penguin. Or with good old fashioned DOS. Or with (now here's an idea) a Macintosh.