My Login Icon Is Gone

[Solid Snake]

I'm just going to get straight to the point i was using a crappy software to find viruses and it detected these 2 things as viruses MRT.exe and MsMpEng.exe located in regedit HKKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE so i let the software do it's thing and it tells me i need to restart. After i restart i come back to no user login icon or password input i'm just stuck looking at the wallpaper before you sign in. Now i'm not sure if it's cause those weren't actually viruses but important system files or the fact that i removed all permissions for HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG in regedit

 

[Solid Snake]

I have tried to troubleshoot, startup repair, system restore point, reset pc, and they all ask me to put in my password which is correct yet it keeps saying it's incorrect please if you know anything or any way to revert it back to normal or just make sure my files don't get deleted even if i have to transfer them to another hard drive. [redacted]

 

[Brian Boru]

system restore point

There should be a few of those, try an older one.

Another thing to try is in an elevated Command Prompt, run SFC /scannow.

Your problem is beyond my comfort level, so I'm afraid I don't have anything better to add—other than if you mess with the Registry in future, make a backup of it first.

ETA: if you still need to chase viruses after you get back up, I recommend:
1. Get Windows Defender to do a full system scan;
2. Let one or two reputable online scanners have a go—I would go with Eset, but there are a good few like MalwareBytes, BitDefender, etc.

 

[Colif]

MsMpEng.exe

that is windows defender...

MRT.exe is the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool

That AV software is really questionable. Its trying to kill the things designed to keep windows safe. Real AV programs don't do that, Real ones are recognised by defender and it doesn't even run. No need to remove it.


Brians advice won't work if you have removed defender

On the logon screen, click the power button in bottom right
while holding shift, click restart buutton
this loads windows into a blue menu at start
choose troubleshoot
choose advanced
choose system restore
if you lucky there is a recent restore point. Hopefully not too far in past but before this happened.
Pick it, the system should restart and roll back to this point...

It may ask for logon info.

if you can't logon at all.

in the same blue menu

• choose troubleshoot
• choose advanced
• choose command prompt
• type notepad and press enter
• in notepad, select file>open
• Use file explorer to copy any files you need to save to USB or another hdd

Once you copied anything off PC you cannot lose, I would suggest a clean install. This is only if you can't logon
On another PC, download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB

boot from installer

follow this guide: https://forums.tomshardware.com/faq/how-to-do-a-clean-installation-of-windows-10.3170366/

when you reach the screen asking for licence, click "I don't have a key" and win 10 will continue to install and reactivate once finished

 

[Brian Boru]

i was using a crappy software to find viruses

Based on what Colif said, it's fairly certain you were using malware—disabling legit anti-malware apps is a standard first step for malicious apps. Stay away from wherever/whoever gave you that.

After you do the fresh Windows install per Colif's instructions, make sure you use legit anti-malware from now on. Windows Defender is very good these days, and works well with some others—I use it with MalwareBytes.

 

[Solid Snake]

that is windows defender...

MRT.exe is the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool

That AV software is really questionable. Its trying to kill the things designed to keep windows safe. Real AV programs don't do that, Real ones are recognised by defender and it doesn't even run. No need to remove it.


Brians advice won't work if you have removed defender

On the logon screen, click the power button in bottom right
while holding shift, click restart buutton
this loads windows into a blue menu at start
choose troubleshoot
choose advanced
choose system restore
if you lucky there is a recent restore point. Hopefully not too far in past but before this happened.
Pick it, the system should restart and roll back to this point...

It may ask for logon info.

if you can't logon at all.

in the same blue menu

• choose troubleshoot
• choose advanced
• choose command prompt
• type notepad and press enter
• in notepad, select file>open
• Use file explorer to copy any files you need to save to USB or another hdd

Once you copied anything off PC you cannot lose, I would suggest a clean install. This is only if you can't logon
On another PC, download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB

boot from installer

follow this guide: https://forums.tomshardware.com/faq/how-to-do-a-clean-installation-of-windows-10.3170366/

when you reach the screen asking for licence, click "I don't have a key" and win 10 will continue to install and reactivate once finished

You guys are the best i was about to give up and just take out my SSD and perform a file transfer to my external from another PC. Again literally nothing was letting me troubleshoot it asked for a password for everything i clicked on even command prompt. The only thing that let me troubleshoot was if you use the media tool to reinstall windows and instead click on repair your pc i immediately clicked on system restore and it worked! I'm pretty sure command prompt would of worked too to scan and repair what was wrong like i usually do if the restore didn't work. It's the only way to do it without requiring a password if this ever happens to anybody else let's pray it doesn't lol 🤦‍♂️