Error on startup

[Methost]

When my wife logs in to her account on our WindowsXp Pro machine, she gets an error on start up. Is just says "Error, so quitting". I click ok and everthing is fine. But it's driving her nuts that it does that. Now I dont get that error when I log in on my account.

How can I find out what the heck this is and get rid of it. Im sure its some piece of spyware or something that I got rid of and it's still trying to run maybe?

 

[jac006]

you could first try running a spyware scan. but i suggest deleting her account.. or is she admin? if she is... well.... there isnt a whole lot to do other than back up the hard drive and start over, if the virus scan fails and the spyware too. other than that, just back up her files and delete her account and start over. thats what i would do. or does some member think otherwise? if not, thats what i suggest.

 

[Methost]

Is there no way to log which programs are starting up when she log in? And track back from there?

 

[Kage]

I just think its a corupted account of some sort.

If you can access her documents from C:\Documents and settings\*account name*, grab these off and then put them somewhere safe. (This will make sure all her settings and documents are saved)

Now go to Start, Control Panel, User Accounts. Click her account and on the list select to delete it.
Now just create a new account with administrator rights so she has full access.

Finally drag her files back from where you saved them, back into her documents and settings and you are set. I would now restart

 

[Methost]

I got it figured out. All I did was ctl/alt/delete while the error message was still up on the screen. To see if it could tell me what was running. It showed me the exe file. I traced that file back to MS Anti-Spyware. Which is strange because the program runs fine under my account. (both accounts have admin status). All I had to do was un-install the prog and then re-install. What ever it was choking on was taken care of during un-install.


Thanks for the advice.

 

[Kage]

Good, I'm glad you got it fixed