Hi alan_dav-ga,
The MSN/.NET Messenger service stores information about last logged on
users in the system registry. The key in the registry where this is
stored is:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MessengerService\ListCache\.NET
Messenger Service under the name "IdentityName"
You can navigate to this by following these steps:
1. Start, run, type in: regedit
2. From My Computer, click the + sign beside HKEY_CURRENT_USER
3. Then + for Software
4. Then Microsoft
5. Then MessengerService
6. Then ListCache
7. Then .NET Messenger Service
8. Now in the right pane of the window, look for "IdentityName"
9. Double click on it. This will give you the Passport signin name of
the last logged on user.
The password apparently is stored somewhere else (most likely
encrypted) for security reasons. Hope this was what you were looking
for.
Regards,
mrbuzz-ga |
Request for Answer Clarification by
alan_dav-ga
on
30 Oct 2002 00:45 PST
Thanks for this Mr Buzz.
But is there any way to view these registry settings without using
regedit as the administrator has disabled regedit.
And can I do this remotely, (i.e. view these registry settings from
another pc on the network) as my user id does have full C:\ access to
all pc's ?
Alan.
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
alan_dav-ga
on
30 Oct 2002 03:15 PST
In addition to my earlier point today, I have just tried this on my
pc.
Everything worked fine up until point 6. I could access the
MessengerService entry (point 5) but there were no sub folders from
that. The only thing listed under MessengerService were four items.
These were :-
Default
CorpPC2Phone
MSNState
PrimaryService
I also did a search of the registry for the username that my Messenger
is defaulting to and I couldn't find it.
Please advise asap.
Thanks.
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
alan_dav-ga
on
30 Oct 2002 03:16 PST
Just a reminder that it is Windows 2000 that I am using.
|
Clarification of Answer by
mrbuzz-ga
on
30 Oct 2002 07:04 PST
Hi alan_dav-ga,
In response to your first question, you can view the remote registry
only if you have a user account on the remote computer. That being
said, even with a user account, the remote registry will only give you
access to the portion of the registry with settings belonging to that
user profile. Only if your user account is part of the Administrators
group, then you will be able to view the entire registry. To connect
to a remote registry, it's under the File menu under regedit from any
other machine with access to the computer where the registry resides.
As for no subfolders under MessengerService key in the registry, it
could be due to either the fact that you're using Win2K and MSN
Messenger storing the info in another location or you may not be using
a more recent version. If you are not using the latest version of MSN
Messenger for Windows 2000, you can download the latest version at
http://messenger.msn.com/download/download.asp?client=1.
I'm currently trying to locate a Windows 2000 machine where I can test
this on; if I'm unable to find one, I'll install Win2K on one of my
old machines.
I'll let you know once I find something.
Regards,
mrbuzz-ga
|
Clarification of Answer by
mrbuzz-ga
on
30 Oct 2002 13:30 PST
Hi alan_dav-ga,
A good friend of mine was nice enough to let me test this on his Win2K
laptop. Interestingly, the registry key I mentioned in my answer
above DID exist on his machine. He is using MSN Messenger v4.6.0083
for Windows 2000.
However, I did find another registry location which appears to give
the latest signin name regardless of whether they wanted to remember
their password or not! The registry key for this is under the folder
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MessengerService\. Look for
"User.NET Messenger Service" on the right pane.
The only thing I don't know is if this will work with your version of
MSN Messenger. If it doesn't work, my only advice is to try to
upgrade to the latest version to see if that'll help.
Good luck,
mrbuzz-ga
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
alan_dav-ga
on
31 Oct 2002 01:48 PST
Mr Buzz, I have some more info on this.
Under my own user id, I am unable ro run regedit as it has been
disabled by the administrator. However when I log in using a user id
with admin rights, I can run regedit.
So yesterday I was unable to see the registry entry you were talking
about because the user id with admin rights has never run MSN
Messenger. But this morning when I logged in as the user with admin
rights, ran MSN Messenger, closed it down, then looked in the registry
and I could then see the Messenger id I used.
So I guess my problem now is........When logged in as an admin rights
user, how do I view the registry entries for another user who has used
MSN Messenger on that pc.
Are these registry entries held as part of the local or romaing
profile ???
Thanks.
|
Clarification of Answer by
mrbuzz-ga
on
31 Oct 2002 05:40 PST
Hi alan_dav-ga,
Ah, I see what you mean. These profiles should be local unless you
are connecting to a Win2K Domain to logon and authenticate. Although
what I think you mean by that question is if you can see other user's
registry for their last logon if you were logged on as Admin. This
info is available in the Registry under HKEY_USERS. This will show
all user's profiles stored on the local computer.
Each user has a unique ID like
S-1-5-21-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. What you need to do is
look under all the really long ID's under HKEY_USERS. All the ones
with the really short names like S-1-5-18 are system user entries and
should be left alone. Anyway, once you open a particular user's
branch, the only easy way to view what username it is from within
Regedit is to look in the "Volatile Environment" key. Then on the
right pane, there's a "HOMEPATH" string with the user's home directory
which also happens to contain their username. Once you've determined
it is the correct user, you can then begin looking under that user's
Software\Microsoft\MessengerService key.
Hope this helps,
mrbuzz-ga
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
alan_dav-ga
on
31 Oct 2002 08:09 PST
Hi,
I tried what you said. But the only Messenger username info under any
of the users in HKEY_USERS was that of the user I was currently logged
in as, i.e. the user id with admin rights that I was currently running
regedit with.
I couldn't see the registry of any other user on the pc. Even when I
did a registry search, the info that appeared was only to do with the
currently logged in user.
Does this mean there is no way to view this info for other users who
aren't logged in at the time ?
|
Clarification of Answer by
mrbuzz-ga
on
31 Oct 2002 10:04 PST
Hi alan_dav-ga,
Try this: From your admin account, in regedit, select the HKEY_USERS
key, then goto File menu, Load Hive, then go into C:\Documents and
Settings and open the folder of the user whose User registry you want
to look at. Then in that folder should be a hidden file called
NTUSER.DAT. You may need to Show hidden and system files under the
Control Panel, Folder Options, View tab.
Let me know if this works,
mrbuzz-ga
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
alan_dav-ga
on
01 Nov 2002 03:50 PST
Here's what happened :-
From my admin account, I ran regedit. There wasn't a 'file' menu
option, instead the first one said 'registry'. Inside that menu there
was an option for 'Import Registry File', so I selected that. The
browse box then appeared and I navigated to the documents and seetings
folder for the non admin user I want to view.
At this point, the browse box defaulted to 'show files of type :-
Registry Files'. No actual files were in the box, only folders. When I
changed this to 'show files of type :- All files (*.*)' a few files
appeared, one of which was the NTUSER.DAT file.
But when I tried to open this file, an error dialog box appeared
saying something along the lines of 'This file is not a registry file.
Only registry files can be imported.
Any ideas ?
PS - The version of regedit I'm using is WIndows 2000 v5.0 SP 2
|
Clarification of Answer by
mrbuzz-ga
on
01 Nov 2002 06:07 PST
Hi alan_dav-ga!
Okay, I've did a little look around and Win2K's registry editor
appears to function slightly differently. However, I have a new
suggestion for you to try. Instead of using regedit.exe, try using
regedt32.exe. This apparently lets you Load Hives in Win2K. Try the
following:
1. Start, run, regedt32.exe
2. Make sure all key folders are closed
3. Highlight HKEY_USERS
4. From the Registry menu, click on Load Hive...
5. Now try to select that user's NTUSER.DAT
6. Give it any name (you'll need to reference this later to unload it)
7. Follow one of my previous instructions to obtain the last login
8. Once you're done, highlight the new name you've given the
NTUSER.DAT and select Unload Hive from the Registry menu
The Load Hive menu is only available when HKEY_USERS is highlighted.
Let me know if this menu item does not appear at all.
Thanks,
mrbuzz-ga
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
alan_dav-ga
on
01 Nov 2002 07:57 PST
Mr Buzz,
This now works. I can now see the registry entries of other users.
Thanks again for all your help.
|
Clarification of Answer by
mrbuzz-ga
on
01 Nov 2002 10:30 PST
I'm glad I was able to help. :) Learned a few things too.
mrbuzz-ga
|
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