Control Panel missing?!

[mitzi]

Hi All,

May sound like an odd problem, hope someone can help.

I'm home from college and on the family PC when I notice when I tried to go into 'Properties' I was told there was restrictions on the computer and to contact my administrator. I also couldn't get into the date/time settings when I double clicked on the clock in the taskbar.

I was always the administrator for this computer. I went to go into the control panel to try and change it back, because I thought for some reason my dad changed it. It's not in the start menu, It show up in the 'Other Locations' part of 'My Computer' like it normally would. I've went into all the other user accounts on this PC and it's the same in every one of them.

Anyone have any ideas because I'm stumped!

It's Windows XP SP2, Dell Dimension 2400.

 

[veedubfreak]

Sounds like someone demoted you. You'll need to log in as administrator.

 

[mitzi]

Sounds like someone demoted you. You'll need to log in as administrator.

I know, all the other accounts are the exact same way, all their settings are restricted.

 

[motoxer4533]

Can you log in as the admin and give everyone else the raised setting?

 

[KSoD]

Either the PC has hacked and the hacker demoted you or someone else did. If that is teh case if you cant get to the Admin account thru Safe Mode you are outta luck.

 

[MajorHertz]

I fixed a machine like this. I ended up having to wipe it because of all the spyware and junk on there.

You can try to go in the back way by going to the login screen, pressing control+alt+delete twice and typing in "administrator" as user and no password. This was a security threat known to dell systems and depending on the age, may still be open on yours. If this works, fix this problem!

 

[mitzi]

Right, did a scan and a little bit more research and there was viruses on there called infos.exe, autos.exe, winters.exe and proper.exe...among others. They disable the control panel or something to that effect.
I have cleared these viruses off the machine but still the admin restrictions are still in place and I still can't access the control panel...still can't even find it.
Any ideas?

Also I'm not sure if this is even in the right thread anymore since it's more related to a virus now so feel free to move if necessary!

 

[mitzi]

Just a last update, ran combofix and everything appears to be normal again. Control panel is back, can access everything once again.

Thanks to all who replied!

 

[KSoD]

Thats good that you got it working.