RunAs kills Explorer

[thefourthwall]

Hey folks,

An interesting problem showed up this week on my work computer. It's running XP SP3. Starting about four days ago, runas no longer worked. Secondary logon service is running, oddly enough.

I have searched tek-tips and the larger web via google and only have found a small number of this occurrence.

So I'm logged in with a domain account that has User rights. I open a CMD prompt and run the familiar runas line to launch another CMD window running with Administrative privileges. And now as soon as I hit Enter after typing the password, Explorer dies, the second CMD window never opens, and a My Documents window opens.

It's one of the oddest things I have seen in awhile, and, to be honest, I am hoping to avoid reimaging but will if that's what it takes.

I am hoping that someone has seen this and knows of a solution.

Thanks,

-thefourthwall

 

[DrB0b]

Honestly haven't seen this issue, but a few things I would try if I was in your situation...

sfc /scannow - make sure you have your XP disc handy in case it finds something it is missing because it will ask you for it.

chkdsk /r - if requested run on startup otherwise let it run while you are in Windows.

"Silence is golden, duct tape is silver...

 

[goombawaho]

I'm suspicious about a malware infection if nothing else makes sense.

 

[thefourthwall]

DrB0b,

I appreciate your reply. Because we had trouble finding an original XP disc I threw another image on it and everything's working great now. Sorry for the delay in replying back to you - I was away for a couple of days, but wanted to let you know.

goombawaho,

I started leaning in the direction too, and ultimately reimaged the pc so it's all good now, thanks.