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WIN XP created an ASP.NET Machine acct w/a current user's files.

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by mminick

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Hi,
I recently ran some spyware and adware applications to take care of an issue with one of my computers. The main user account is "Limited". I ran these from a second "Administrator" user account. All seemed okay until the Limited user tried to access his account. His data files, desktop icons, etc. were all gone. When I checked the "Users", I found that Windows had created a new user named "ASP.NET Machine A..." and had moved all of the data files, etc. to that User. I tried simply renaming that User, but it does not show up on the Welcome Screen. How do I fix this? Can I just copy the files (data, Outlook, Desktop, etc.) back to the original User account?
Also, why did this happen?
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

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by Former member

This might help with your issue.

Warning!!!.
Changing the registry configuration could make your computer un-usable or un-stable.
.........................................

Why does it need another User Account?

Another user account is created for the ASP. Net Worker Process (Aspnet_wp.exe) so that it is not running with administrator privileges. This helps to increase security because if there was a breach the worker process is running as a lowly restricted user rather than having administrator privileges on the local machine. The big complaint with there being another user created is that when it is created it will prevent auto logon had there previously only been one user on the computer.

This can easily be corrected on the first version of the .Net Framework v1.1 by downloading the following registry file which fixes the problem by adding ASPNET to the special accounts list. To do this manually rather than using my file, go to Start > Run and type in regedit. Then create a new DWORD called ASPNET under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList. There is also another manual method which can correct this issue by having the user specify which account should be used for automatic logon (see here for details).

In September 2004 Microsoft released Service Pack 1 for version 1.1 of the .Net Framework, the automatic logon issue was corrected along with further security enhancements, and full support for Windows XP Service Pack 2. To download Service Pack 1 for the framework click here (10.2Mb Download).

Can I delete it?

You can remove this account, but it is vital if you do asp.net development work on your machine.
By removing the account you may find your ASP.net projects will no longer function correctly.

It is possible to recreate the user by issuing the following command from the run dialog (changing the framework version number as appropriate)
%systemroot%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\aspnet_regiis.exe /i

Please post back if you have any more problems or questions.
If this information is useful, please mark as helpful. Thanks.

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