Administrator locked me out

I had not bothered to add users on my computer because I was the only one
using it, but knowing my daughter would be coming to visit, I decided to set
up a user account for her. It told me that I had to identify a user as an
administrator before adding a limited user, so I also set one up in my own
name as administrator. The problem is.....now the old settings are all
locked away and when I got to Windows Explorer to try to get them back, it
tells me I'm not authorized. All my settings, files, etc. are in there and
I'm ready to scream. Please help me if you know how I can get them back.

Hi,

This would indicate that a user account was never created, and the
normally hidden account named Administrator was being used as a day to
day account. In this case when a new account is created the account
named Administrator is hidden, as it should be, except for in Safe Mode.
What you should do now is logon to the newly created Admin account and
move the data stored in the hidden account to the newly created account.

You may need to use Safe Mode, log on as Administrator account and 'Take
Ownership' of the files.
How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;308421

To boot into Safe Mode, Restart the system, hitting F8 as BIOS info goes
to black to get the Menu and select Save Mode.

How to copy data from one user profile to a new profile
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;811151

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org


Gramma Jay wrote:
> I had not bothered to add users on my computer because I was the only
> one using it, but knowing my daughter would be coming to visit, I
> decided to set up a user account for her. It told me that I had to
> identify a user as an administrator before adding a limited user, so
> I also set one up in my own name as administrator. The problem
> is.....now the old settings are all locked away and when I got to
> Windows Explorer to try to get them back, it tells me I'm not
> authorized. All my settings, files, etc. are in there and I'm ready
> to scream. Please help me if you know how I can get them back.