Locked Computer showing as locked but with no username?

[burgemaster]

A Strange problem has occured around the school...

Teachers are going back to there computer that have automatically locked..
When they look at the screen is gives the message
"this computer is locked to user..." but there is no username?

Also if domain admin trys to unlock the computer they get the message:
"only an administrator can unlock this machine"

Has anyone come across this before?

Thanks in advance

[OutToLunch]

Any chance someone's knocked up a fake "This computer is locked" app in VB to act as a keylogger / password stealer?

[BatchFile]

Any chance someone's knocked up a fake "This computer is locked" app in VB to act as a keylogger / password stealer?

I was thinking along those lines but wouldn't having to press CTRL-ALT-DEL first negate that one????

[burgemaster]

I was thinking along those lines but wouldn't having to press CTRL-ALT-DEL first negate that one????

Thanks guys. But no, you need to press c,a,del first to enter your credentials...

Im thinking that it may be shutdownatron trying to shutdown a locked computer..
Will look into it

[Geoff]

RDP session perhaps?

[Michael]

I've seen this happen before. Initially I thought the workstation had lost communication with the school servers, but in the end, it was Windows which was corrupted. This was way back in the XP SP1 days. Not had the problem since.

[burgemaster]

Getting a little worried now, its happening on a few more computers.

I have tried removing all the local profiles and also the teachers server profile.

Is there anything else you can suggest that i delete please?

[_Bat_]

Administrator unable to unlock a "locked" computer ?

[burgemaster]

YOU ARE A STAR !!!!

Not tested yet, but this is exactly this behaivour.
Just out of interest how did you search/come across this?

I googled all sorts to no avail?

Thanks again.

[_Bat_]

I googled part of the message in your last screenshot. The first link in google provided a link to the MS support site

[ZeroHour]

burge: if it fixes it better remember to thank the may using the button or rep button

[burgemaster]

thanks again,

Im pretty sure this is our problem, but the suggested registry settings are already there, and the (default) screensaver selected is working fine.

I will try disabling the default screensaver...

[Michael]

Interesting article that. If it is just a standard workstation with no data on it, it probably will be quicker and easier to re-image.

[maniac]

You could probably knock up a VB script to modify these registry settings on startup if it's necessary to do it on all your machines.

Mike

[burgemaster]

well after hours and hours i think ive found the solution....

The settings were correct in:
HKEY_USERS\.Default\Control Panel\Desktop

BUT there were also some extra registry settings entered in:

HKEY_USERS/.DEFUALT/Software/Policies/Windows/Control Panel/Desktop

On any of the working machines, there were no "control panel / desktop" keys at all.

I deleted these and the locking seems to have stopped !!! phew..

It had built up from 2 to 7 machine over the last 2 months.