msgina difficulties

[ian.mcmanus]

I wonder if anyone could help. I recently discovered my old webcam and thought I'd see how it works. Of course I had to install the driver and the software it originally came with .....big mistake. It replaced the msgina.dll file for it's own gina.dll file.

The main problem I have now is that I cannot change the way I logon to my system. I would like to logon to the system with the welcome screen not the windows 2000 way that I have to now. When I go in to Control Panel/User Accounts/Change the way users logon it comes up with a message that states I have to unistall the programme that has changed the msgina.dll.

I have read a white paper from the Windows 2000 website but that didn't really help. If any one knows a way of editing or adjusting this so that I can logon the old way, that would be really helpful.

System Specs:

[Statica]

Have you tried running a system restore to before you installed the software?

[doctorgonzo]

Does the msgina.dll file still exist on your computer? If so, I think there is a registry setting that you can change to tell Windows to use msgina.dll instead of the one that came with your webcam.

[ian.mcmanus]

not in the habit of using the System Restore function. So no that wouldn't work. I did think of it before though!

I'll have a look when I get home (at work currently) then post a reply. Do you know what the Registry Tweak would be?

[doctorgonzo]

Don't quote me on this, and keep in mind that fiddling with the registry could screw up your Windows installation to the point that it may not work.

I think the correct key is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\GinaDLL. The value now is probably the gina.dll provided by your webcam. If you change that to the msgina.dll, it may get it back.

I think, though, that you should try uninstalling the webcam software first before you try this, as there may be something that I am forgetting. I think I have used this trick once, but I can't remember.

[ian.mcmanus]

I unistalled the webcam and all it's software this morning. It looks to me like the registry would just need to be set back to where it was.

I read a WHite paper on the Windows 2000 website today and that seems to give the same path you're suggesting. I'll give it a go.

[ian.mcmanus]

fixed now. I found an article on the windows website that basically said that I should delete that string. I was quite reticent to do it at first but took the plunge and it's ok now!

Thanks,
Ian