Help, I don't understand this...
 

Right, just got this laptop....

It's running XP Pro SP2. So I spent all afternoon yesterday setting it up the way I want it to be, applying view changes, adding programmes etc, just like on my desktop.

Then I turn it off, and when I turn it back on again it's lost everything! Reset itself to standard, and shows me as ADMINISTRATOR instead of MATT when it comes to Documents and the name on the start menu. All the changes I made are reset to standard, the language bar is open on the task bar again, etc etc - I even get the pop up in the sys tray for TAKE A TOUR OF WINDOWS XP :wall:

So I reinstalled XP last night and started again. Did it this morn, turned it off, booted up again and lo and behold it's reset again!!! :wall:

WTF?

It's also booting up to a logon screen for the user ADMINISTRATOR and asking for the password which it never did before! There is only one user on it, I didn't bother setting up any other user accounts so thats not the problem either, but it keeps on losing/forgetting the changes I made, then resets the user account!

Why?

Okay, so a quick systems restore back to this morning after some changes were implemented and some hadn't been done yet and it's back to almost how I had it set up.

Goes to boot screen, goes to blue welcome screen then straight to desktop. As it should do.

My name at the top of the Start menu, and in User accounts my name is the Administrator account, guest account is turned off....

So why does it keep resetting itself?

it's just the default it's not resetting anytihng. when you install XP w/ SP2 it prompts you for a user's name. and sets this to autosignon instead. whats probably what you had before with the MATT account.

it doesnt really matter what it is as long as it boots

Problem is Jim, 1) I don't want a logon screen with a password prompt, 2) it changes all my settings, which I then have to go and redo. For example, I installed the following;

IE7
WMP11
Zoomplayer
Media Player Classic
Klite codec pack
a new theme (Royale Noir, proper MS signed theme for XP)
Sorted out my network stuff and mapped my network drives

then closed the language bar from the toolbar, sorted the systray shortcuts etc, changed the start menu to how I want it, and a few more things...

When it defaults back, it removes me from being the administrator, sets a default administrator account, and everything I have installed dissapears. IE is back to 6, WMP is back to 9, the theme has gone, the systray, start menu, task bar language bar etc all back to default, the programmes I installed gone, the codec pack gone, etc etc..

Then when I try and redo the changes most of the time it just reverts back again :wall:

touch wood this time it hasn't done it, and to be sure I've done a few reboots, shut downs etc, but I am not 100% sure it hasn't fluffed it again....

I've never had a PC do this, and all my PC's (and my mums) are set up as single user PC's, and the only user there is Admin under a name.... And they all work - except this one....