XP fast-user switching doesn't work

the title says it all...

sometimes i cannot switch users... i can log off, but can't "switch user", and seeing how that's my main way of security... it sucks not having it.

someone please help... any ideas?


oh yeah, rebooting sometimes helps...

are you using the welcome screen?

welcome screen? i dunno

Before redduc shows up and works his magic, I'll offer a suggestion.

Is the service that runs this "User Switching" dead when you try to switch over?

ThePerfectCore said:

Before redduc shows up and works his magic, I'll offer a suggestion.

Is the service that runs this "User Switching" dead when you try to switch over?

Click to expand...

and which service would that be???
i've already tried restarting every service i could find... no go... the only way to get it to work is to reboot, and sometimes i have to reboot a couple of times in order for it to work...

*waits for redduc to show up and work his magic*

Everytime I see redduc post, I think do myself "DANG! That guy needs to be a Senior!!". And then, every time, I realize 3 seconds later he is one

The service you're looking for is the Fast User Switching Compatibility service. It should be enabled (duh) for it to work. There are a handfull of other services that should be enabled if I remember right, but they're not crucial to making it work.

Also, you'll need to be using the Welcome screen for Fast User Switching to work. If you have to type in your user name and password (as opposed to clicking your name and typing in the password), then you're not using it. Control Panel -> User Accounts -> Change The Way Users Log On and Off -> Use Welcome Screen.
(though it sounds like it's already on since you can get fast user switching to work some times...)


What happens when you click Switch User? Does it hang? Does it simply log off?
JigPu

ok... ya, i'm using welcome screen....

fast user switching works most of the time, but sometimes it doesn't and i have to reboot a couple of times for it to work... here is what it does

i hit start > log off > switch user... and it just sits there, as if i didn't do anything... (same thing when i use the windows logo + L shortcut, and same when i use the switchuser thing from the shutdown menu in taskmanager)... it just sits there and does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING

and yes, i have the service running ... because fastuserswitching works 98% of the time... its just that a couple times a month it doesn't work and then its extremely annoying having to reboot it until it works...

Since Fast User Switching (FUS) seems to work the majority of the time for you, I'm not sure if my suggestions will be of any good to you...but they're all I can think of offhand.

1. Just for information only, since I noticed you have 512MB of RAM installed...but if you only had 128MB of RAM installed, Shared Video Memory (SVM) reserves 8MB or more for use as video RAM--in as such Fast User Switching would be disabled because FSU actually requires 120MB of RAM.

2. Either a corrupt or third party msgina.dll (Windows NT Logon GINA DLL) can cause FUS to stop working. I believe you would need to delete the msgina.dll reference(s) under the following Registry Key (or at least restore the original Windows version of the file...located in the %systemroot%\System32 directory, by using the System File Checker or extracting the file from the SP1 upgrade). I believe the latest version of the *.dll is 5.1.2600.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920). Start | Run | Type regedit and click OK | Expand the following branch...

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE | SOFTWARE | Microsoft | Windows NT | CurrentVersion | Winlogon

3. There are also known problems/conflicts if you have PCAnywhere, Lotus Notes, and/or Cisco VPN software installed.

4. In Services...scroll down to Terminal Services and make sure it's started, and the "Startup type" is set to "Manual"

Path to executable: C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs

Also under Log, verify that your profile is enabled: "Log on" tab | Hardware Profile-->"Profile 1" | Enabled.

5. Check to make sure the following Services are set to "Manual"...
Remote Access Connection Manager
Remote Access Auto Connection Manager
Telephony

6. Open the Event Viewer in order to access the error logs, and check for any critical errors...Start | Run | Type eventvwr.msc and click OK | Highlight "Application" and "System" independently in the LH pane | If any are found, right click the error message(s) (critical errors are in Red), and select "Properties" | Write down a couple of the error messages related to Fast User Switching exactly as they appear (under the "Description" field), and post them in this thread.

oh boy... reinstall time...

241 errors under application, 267 under system... but i can't find any that are user switching errors...

system error types:
DCOM
Service Control Manager
IPNATHLP

application error types:
Perflib and MsiInstaller are the 2 most common ones....

i checked all my services and they seem to be running "fine".... the ones that you said that should be manual are....
and i don't have PCAnywhere, Lotus Notes, and/or Cisco VPN software installed.
no reference of msgina.dll in the registry

i have to go to work right now, so can't play with this.... thanx for trying