Comments on: Windows XP Login Logout Loop (Virus)

By: GRM

GRM — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:39:20 +0000

Nephew brought me his laptop with this problem after installing and running Norton. Read through a lot of helpful information here. Because of this Iwas able to find that his laptop was missing the userinit.exe file in system32.

I copied the file from my desktop computer onto a usb stick, then using the windows cd in recovery mode I simply copied the userinit.exe into system32 from the usb stick.

This stopped the login loop and just reports a log on error, but giving me full access to a normal windows start up.

I just have to stop the error window by following advice given above by using regedit to completey remove the problem if this is part of the same problem.

Having the logon errorr is not a problem for running windows especially as Norton does not report any problems and one click and the message is gone. I presume this is a cause of the logon loop being interupted.

By: william

william — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:00:58 +0000

i tried everything and it still loging off ….

By: Suresh

Suresh — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 08:04:22 +0000

I install Avast antivirus and run fist scan from the booting. after clean the viruses this error appear.
i have try with your CD and the error still the same,
Please help if you can,
Thank you!

By: ali

ali — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 15:09:26 +0000

hi i read all your comments but, must tell you that in my case i actually deleted this file called userinit.exe when trying to remove a virus.
my cd rom drive had a problem in picking up cd so was unable to do the bartpe option….after a few huches i foud a way to fix the problem without the need for a cd…

ok what i did is that i restarted the computer and started windows normally. as it came to the welcome screen i punched in my password for the admin account as it was login in i pressed ctrl+shift+esc this opend my task manager i then clicked on file new task and typed regedit….i was loged off again…i again restarted my computer and again came to the welcome screen i typed my password for the admin account and it logged me in i again opend my task manager new task and the word regedit was already typed for me…i opend registry and went to HKLM/SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT……Iwas logged off again….i had to reapeat the same procedure and this time when i opened regedit from my task manager i had the HKLM/SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT opend i clicked on Windows NT/Current Version/ i was logged off again….restarted my comp again dis time i managed to reach the Current Version before being logged off i opend the userinit entry and typed C:\Windows\system32\userinit.exe,…..given that i am not a fast typer i was logged off again so had to restart and went back to the userinit edit entry where as much as i typed was still there i then completed the whole path and pressed ok restarted the pc and bingo it was working again……….
i actually managed to do all this without xp cd which was great the key is you have to restart as this gives you time when you login to your admin account…further you need to be very quick in opening task manager and then regedit then the reqired folder but do not worry if your loged off just restart and start again you will notice that the computer saves your opend folder so you don’t have to start everything from scratch..i hope this makes sense if not you can e-mail me for help

By: Adriano Chelentano

Adriano Chelentano — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:50:16 +0000

brilliant solution with startup disc and handy bat file, which does all the necessary stuff to get your system going again:

http://saveme.danfischbach.com/

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:21:50 +0000

This has helped many people and I have used something similar for quite a while. One thing to note, is if you upgraded your XP install from 2000 your Windows directory may be WinNT instead so the above paths would need to be adjusted.

Also, I have seen some viruses change the permissions for the registry and those have to be changed (even in Bart) to allow the reg file to be imported or edited.

It is a good habit to check the values of these settings and files after cleaning a PC but before restarting. A good utility to do that is the free Autoruns program from Microsoft’s Systernals Utilities.

By: Juvix

Juvix — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:02:05 +0000

Hey for everybody having the ‘access denied problem’ here’s the real solution!

Go to http://windowsxp.mvps.org/peboot.htm

at step 3 manually type this into the open field: C:\Windows\System32\Config\software
you may receive a file not found error if so you will be able to atleast see the files in the explorer and now you can just manually go to the correct directory, and now follow the rest of the steps on the website, I hope this helps if not email me jmextreme713@yahoo.com and we’ll work on it together, please share this if it works, and let me know as well, have nice day.

-Juvix

By: Crazy GUy

Crazy GUy — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:06:58 +0000

Can anyone PLEASE tell me how to edit the registry key if I am unable to boot from ANY CD at all?? I made the BartPE CD from a friend’s computer and changed the bios to boot from CD-ROM first; the BartPE booted when I tried it on my friend’s CD but it won’t boot at all on my computer. Instead the PC just boots up normally and goes to the log-in screen. I think my CD-ROM is jacked.

Is there a way to make this fix on the registry from a different computer? Email me, theworldiscrazy2@yahoo.com if you have the right solution, thanks so much.

By: Christophe

Christophe — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:19:40 +0000

Ok guys you are all god cause it works after a combination of your explanations

Thanks !!

By: Mike m

Mike m — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:28:50 +0000

I had to create my own string value for userinit, but other than that I had no problems. BartPE is a great find. Thanks for taking the time to help with this most annoying of pc problems; I am in your debt.

By: Jason Saunders

Jason Saunders — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:46:51 +0000

I would like to thank Mr. Kane for posting this to the web. I am an artist and frankly don’t have a lot of money to hire someone to fix my computer. So, I have to do it myself. After Googling the description, and following several false paths this page finely set me on the right one. In my case usernit.exe has gone missing. Once I found instructions on how to restore that program my computer immediately started functioning. I was down for about a day. I have no idea if a virus erased it or if my computer hiccuped and deleted it. I’m just super happy to have my computer working again. Thanks :*)

This is the page with the instructions:
http://www.f-prot.com/support/windows/fpwin_faq/106.html

P.S. PC’s may be more susceptible to viruses then Macs but they’re more affordable and they have a right mouse button.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 17:59:50 +0000

i have followed the steps for the harder fix but userinit reg does not exist in the winlogon folder ,c:\windows\system32\userinit .exe exists any ideas how to fix this

By: Foundtheansw

Foundtheansw — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 01:48:07 +0000

Ok I got the answer to all those whose BARTPE’s cant find the c drive,

go into recovery console and go to windows\system32\config
ren software to software.old and then type “copy C:\windows\repair\software”

now it should load into windows where you can do the hive fix. Dont even need bart pe.

then go back to the recovery console and rename software to software.temp and rename software.old(the one where you did the hive fix) to software, reboot and viola!

By: Andres

Andres — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 05:44:52 +0000

Thank you so much, the second link did the trick, finally managed to save a friend’s PC without having to reinstall windows XP.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 06:41:30 +0000

FOR GREG,

I see exactly your problem, i found this video that explains it step by step. This is a BRITISH guy who mubbles the word Ultimate boot CD for Win…….

hopefully this will help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avjLawmpWZ8