Box with  characters in on XP boot.

mr_fishbulb

My Girlfriend's parent's machine has an info box when XP loads and comes to the welcome screen with a few  characters and an OK button.

When you click OK you can then log in through the welcome screen and XP seems to work fine. Doesn't have any other problems but I can't find out what this box is for becuase it doesn't have any info apart from s. There is a different number of s each time.

Anyone else had this?

pchelpman

New one on me. What "characters" are displayed in this mystery info box? Just variable amounts of the letter "s"? What does it say at the top of this "box"? Is there the usual coloured stipe with some text in it?

tigermatt

From your description it sounds like it is one of the "Legal Warning" boxes that companies use when you switch on their machines to say: WARNING: If you don't have permission etc. etc.

Go into regedit.exe (Start > Run) and then browse your way down on the left to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon (with only single clicks on the small + next to each key/"folder") Then make sure the LegalNoticeCaption and LegalNoticeText are blank. If they aren't then post back.

thewizard

I get a message similar to that message but I set it to display, it is somewhere in the registry, although I used TweakNow PowerPack to set it. The message that usually displays is the name of a computer network. Network managers set them so you know what network you are connecting to and to make it harder for robots to automatically log on to your network. I dont think there is any sort of malicous coding on your system although Im not sure how the message was set to appear.

mr_fishbulb

tigermatt wrote:

From your description it sounds like it is one of the "Legal Warning" boxes that companies use when you switch on their machines to say: WARNING: If you don't have permission etc. etc.

Go into regedit.exe (Start > Run) and then browse your way down on the left to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon (with only single clicks on the small + next to each key/"folder") Then make sure the LegalNoticeCaption and LegalNoticeText are blank. If they aren't then post back.

I'll give that a go. No idea how that could have been set though cos it's a home system and has never belonged to a company.

mr_fishbulb

pchelpman wrote:

New one on me. What "characters" are displayed in this mystery info box? Just variable amounts of the letter "s"? What does it say at the top of this "box"? Is there the usual coloured stipe with some text in it?

The character is a square box. In the window title is has vaying amounts of box characters and in the window it also has box characters.

mr_fishbulb

thewizard wrote:

I get a message similar to that message but I set it to display, it is somewhere in the registry, although I used TweakNow PowerPack to set it. The message that usually displays is the name of a computer network. Network managers set them so you know what network you are connecting to and to make it harder for robots to automatically log on to your network. I dont think there is any sort of malicous coding on your system although Im not sure how the message was set to appear.

Hope it's just that. I'll try tigermatt's reg fix.