Every couple of weeks, I get a popup that says something like “To help you get more out of MSN, do this update.” When I try to do it, I get another popup saying that I need to sign in as an administrator, and if this is the second time I’ve gotten this message to close my programs, or something like that.
WTF? I’m the only user of my computer. Am I not the administrator? Yeah, I’m no computer guru, if you can’t tell. What should I do?
Your current user rights must be wacked out or you may not have Adminstrative rights. You can check by going to Control Panel > Users > and select your login name and to check current settings. If you don’t have Adminstrative rights I don’t think you will be able to change them unless you are logged in as the Adminstrator.
Windows XP will install an Adminstrator account by default but you may not be able to see it if you are the only person with using the machine and it is set not to show. I would first check to see if there is a password set for the Admin account by trying to log into it without one. To get there read this page for instructions by using Control-Alt-Delete. See if you can log in without one. Hopefully that will work and if you want you could then setup a password for it. It would also be the time for resetting your regular login rights.
If you cannot log in you could try to get there under Safe Mode. When in Safe Mode the Admin Login always is shown and you might be able to access the system from there and set a password. Here are some instructions to get to Safe Mode if you do not already know. Hope this helps.
To disable Windows Messenger go to control panel=>Administrative tools=>services.
Scroll down the list to ‘Messenger service’.
Right click the entry, and select ‘properties’. Click the stop button to stop it temporarily.
To disable it permanently just select ‘disable’ in the ‘startup options’ listbox.
Are you sure that’s a legitimate pop-up? How and where is it coming up?
Okay, I think I’m in trouble. What happens is, a window comes up, saying “In order to get more out of MSN, we need you to update” and it looks legitimate but what do I know. Just now I went ahead and tried to do it. It says I have to restart the computer and if I’m seeing this message for the second time then I have to reinstall MSN. In the past when I’ve attempted this, when it came back up it would give me a message saying I have to log in as an administrator, and I would give up and quit. This time I just got a whole bunch of error messages and script error messages. Something complicated must be wrong. I did check (before I did this) and I am the administrator.
I don’t know where I was when everyone else my age (36) learned about computers (probably off with some boy!) but I really don’t understand shit about them. I’ve moved twice since I got the thing, and I know more would know how to reinstall MSN or where the stuff I’d need is than I know how to fly to the moon. I was hoping this would be some common quirk that everyone goes through, but apparently not. Time to call one of my nerdy computer friends.
Thanks for the help anyway! You guys so rock.