Admin user account lost on Win98SE PC

Hi.

I created a new user account on my daughter's Pentium3 PC running Win98SE. I now can't get back to the original admin user account. I can log on with the new user account name I created or cancel that option and log on with no name but it didn't default back to the original admin user account, as I'd expected, on restart and I can't log in under the original admin user account name, so she has no admin rights now.

There is nowhere it will let me type in the original name. When logging in as the new named account, it won't let me over-type that name to change it.

I tried logging in under no name then deleting the new account but that didn't help, it just always logs in with no name now. In the end, I made another new account as a named but non-admin account at least let folder options be set.

Even if I can find a field to type the original name in, I don't have a password for it but I wanted to see if it would open without one. It used to be my PC but I didn't install Windows so, although the admin account is in my name, I have no password for it. However, the password is the least of the problems as I can't find a way to log in in the original name anyway.

An example of the problems it causes is... each time she dials up to the internet or checks mail, she is having to type in passwords, as it can no longer be set to remember any. With numerous mail accounts popped through Outlook, this is a real pain.

How do I get it back to the original Administrator User Account that it was at before I created a second account?


Any advice would be appreciated.
Thank you.

There is no real user vs admin accounts on Win98SE. The FAT32 file system simply doesn't allow file ownership & other things that would be required for multi-user systems (like Win2K/XP/Linunx)...

In '98 the different "users" are basically just different profiles (own wallpaper, theme, etc.).

Everything on the system can still be accessed by any user.

Hi
thanks for your reply. That's a relief, it means no other problems will appear.

Can you tell me why, since the new user was created and original name lost, it won't allow passwords to be saved/remembered whereas it did before? The option to remember passwords is now greyed out so can't be selected and they have to be typed in each time the ISP is dialled up now, etc. Perhaps I'm just overlooking something but I can't imagine what.


All The original folder options were lost when logged in as a new user but they have been reset successfully, the one thing I can't seem to restore is the option to save passwords in the dialup and Outlook popped email.

Thanks

C

I'm really not sure other than Win98 & '98SE have their problems. It depends on the updates installed, IE version, modem setup...

I'd go and maybe check the Windows Update, and just make sure your IE & Dialup Networking & stuff is all up-to-date.

I've seen the dialup problem before, normally it turns out to be corrupted password files. The password files are stored in the Windows root directory as .pwd files. With your username as the filename. Eg if your username was Axe then it would be Axe.pwd. You should be able to fix this by deleting the .pwd file and when you try to enter your account again it should ask you if you want to set a password. There was a MS knowledgebase article on it but I can't seem to find it now. Didn't they stop all online help for Win98?

My mistake, I hope noone acted on that advice and found a filename as .pwd which matched their username. Unfortunately I am trying to remember from awhile back as I do not use Windows 98 SE anymore, and I suddenly realised I had placed the wrong extension in my posting. The file actually has an extension of .pwl
Here is a website that describes the method I described. It also describes several other methods:

http://www.asis.com/support/nosavpassword.html

Thanks and apologies for any inconvenience.

Alkatr0z