Can't boot after v1.5.2 installation

[Niteblitz]

Is the 30-day free trial of RegDatXP not allowed to edit? Is there something else corrupted in his HKLM that makes the data type=1 and lenght=1? How can I update the length so I can make the change?

thanks for your ideas...

I created that bart cd and fallowed the the instructions in the link i gave above. theres a file that you link to your bart cd and it is burnt on there It automatically changes the registry. When i put it the bart cd in all i had to do is hit go and find the file which was on the cd and click on it and restart my computer. Excluding the creation of the cd the proccess took me under 5 min. Hopefully that will help.

[hoagies]

Sorry to post again, but I've edited it!

For those still struggling, things I learned along the way.

First, RegDatXP cannot edit keys to be larger than they are set to be. Since the value of the key “UserInit” was reset to nothing with a length of 1, RegDatXP cannot increase it to contain the correct value:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe,

Second, the Load Hive thingy is *scary*. Seriously, you appear to be loading something into your own Registry on your functional machine! But it doesn't seem to hurt anything on your PC's registry. <deep sigh of relief>

Follow Malloc's instructions, click on HKLM hive, Load Hive (use a really unique name so you'll see it - NOT a name like other hives and keys), go to your newly loaded hive, edit the value of UserInit, and then go back to the top of your new hive (I called mine Ed) and Unload the Hive. It saves the updated hive back where you loaded it from, in my case, on my uncle's hard drive.

I'm putting the drive back into his computer... and... it works!!

Somewhere along the line, both my and Uncle's PCs now skip the login screen, but I'll go into control panel and reinstate that. It's certainly a tiny problem compared to the logon/logoff loop!

Can anyone confirm that 1) this was a Spybot problem, and 2) ... I'm not sure - should I update his Spybot, or just tell him never to run it again??

(My problem with Bart was that I used my husband's Bart CD - we didn't realize that Bart CDs are situation specific, and the links that I visited from this thread didn't give instructions - just told you to create a Bart CD.)

[walker]

You have toasted (i.e. destroyed) 100's...maybe 1,000's of people's machines. The solutions are complex and take advanced knowledge (like is the Bart CD good on Win 2000 Pro?....it looks like XP only)....it takes an advanced user to create this disk and load the three files. Thanks. Your software is worse than the baddest virus out there....complete destruction...and thanks again!!

[walker]

I downloaded the latest update last night, and today I am in the login/logout loop! My machine is a Dell. I came to work and asked our IT guy about it and he said 2 other people at work had had the exact same problem after running Spybot over the weekend!

I really think you should be devoting time to figuring out what your last update is doing to people's PCs... PRONTO!

Toasted mine too....time for a blanket party!

[walker]

I've had this happen on 6 computers so far, but I have them on the network so I can remove registry edit though them.

Here are some other tools that have offline registry edits:

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/peboot.htm
http://ubcd4win.com/index.htm

Try that first link...maybe you need a passwordt?

[walker]

What do you do in win 2000 pro to fix this...thanks...10 hours so far...everything tried...many dvd's wasted...nothing works......computer worked fine before Spybot reg. edit/deletion. Thanks!drowning

[walker]

The website/server/download does not work...also will this work on win 2000 pro......great software that SpyBot is...........thanks!!

Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!






2. Method : Offline registry tools and password resetter

Requirements:
This tool requires a 2nd computer to download and create a bootcd, there are no further requirements.

The download can be found here
Download size is about 3 MB, which is quite small and makes this method recomendable

Once the CD is created the userinit affected computer needs to be started with this CD.

After the boot procedure has been completed, the system asks for the boot partition.
Usually the choice would be "1".
In my example it is "2".

Screenshot 1

After that the path to the registry is asked. By default the correct path is already given, so this can be accepted by pressing the enter key.

Screenshot 2

Next choose "2" : RecoveryConsole parameters [software]

Screenshot 3

On the next prompt choose "9" Registry editor

Screenshot 4

The system now enters a bash console like navigation for the Software key of the Registry.
Following commands may be helpful:

Code:
note that Names are case sensitive
ls - will list the current key contents
cd <$keyname> - will open the key given in <$keyname>
cd .. - will go up one layer of the key structure
ed <$valuename> - will open prompt to edit the value specified in <$valuename>So entering:
Code:
cd Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WinlogonWill lead you to the required location.

Screenshot 5

The command ls will list the contents.
Type
Code:
ed UserinitScreenshot 6

Now enter the required Data for the Userinit Value:
Code:
c:\windows\system32\userinit.exe,Screenshot 7

With the following command the Data of the Userinint Value can be confirmed:

Code:
cat UserinitScreenshot 8

If the data is correct you can now enter q to quit the registry editor mode.
Enter q again to exit the Software Hive.
You will now be prompted to save, enter y to save.

Screenshot 9


After that a prompt for a new run appears, enter n for no.
Screenshot 10

Reboot normally and log on to Windows.

[MisterW]

Walker, do you own a real Win2000 installation disk?

[jms1002]

I'm guessing that all my data is still accessible and intact? I'd like to take my pc to a computer repair place (Geek Squad, etc.) and have them image my hard drive and then I'll just throw my dell in the garbage (courtesy of spybot). My time is worth more than the hours I know I'll need to fix this mess that sypbot apparently created with their malicious product. I'm buying a Mac today and will never use spybot again.

[md usa spybot fan]

jms1002:

I'm guessing that all my data is still accessible and intact? ...

Everything should be intact except the one registry entry that is causing the problem.

On Windows XP the normal entry is looks like this from a registry export:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
"Userinit"="C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\userinit.exe,"

Or like this in Registry Editor (regedit.exe):

Userinit REG_SZ C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe,

Where:

• Name: Userinit
• Type: REG_SZ
• Data: C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe,