I recently have lost my administrator rights on windows xp. There is only one user account on the computer and that is the default account. the control panel is gone and when i hit cntl alt delete it says to contact administrator. the same response when i try to access windows security center. I have a white background on the desktop and can not "restore my active desktop". when i right click the desktop and goto properties it says to contact the administrator also. This all started after the trail period of norton antivirus expired, ran a free virus scan program and got alot of threat alerts cleaned them out. I went in and uninstalled un needed programs and virus software then downloaded and ran AVG antivirus from cnet.com this removed some minor threats and returned no threats after second scan. was going to do a repair install but i do not have a windows xp cd. I was wondering if this was another norton company prank for not continueing to use their software? I had a problem when i switched from norton to mcafee on an old computer. is there a way to repair windows xp with out a disc. its an HP desktop with an oem windows xp install. Any suggestions would be great!!!!! thank you!!!!

If its an HP desktop you should have got an HP restore disc, you should use that. Also Have you done a system restore to a date when there was not a problem? To use the windows repair console you need the XP disc or an HP repair/restore disc. Let me know if that helps any.

If you have no HP OEM factory restore CD's, and no XP retails CD's of your own, you are restricted to the XP System Restore (if it's engaged and running with back restore points).

Norton (Symantec) and McCafee are two of the worst, bloated, AV's around. (In my humble opinion.) AVG is a good start towards AV protection.

Ensure Norton is fully cleaned out. There's a "clean-up" tool/instructions on their website.