what you could have done is several things, i'll name a couple. boot up with your windows cd and preform a Repair (not repair console, but an actual repair) it will reinstall windows, basicaly, and you will keep you registry (all your settings and installed programs) as well as keep all your files. there's a program called wininternals (erd commander) which you can boot with and it gives you multiple ways of fixing xp, among them is a restore to previous state, as well as registry tools. and you can reset any password on the system with it (yes it works on win2k3 server, yes you can take over any server you have physical access too and that you can reboot without anyone knowing). way more complicated: you could have backed up your registry and then used parts of it to restore program installs but i wont get into that. the next time your comp ASSS up, i strongly recommend you do a windows repair because you won't lose any data/programs. however if that doens't work, yank out your hard drive, shove it into another comp you have access to, backup your do!@#$%^&*ents and settings folder, as well any other folders on your root that you put yourself, use microsoft office settings saver or whatever it is called, there's one for outlook express too and outlook. format then reinstall windows and replace your data. it will be like the first day you got it!