I cant overcome the admin restrictions on my own computer!?

There are certain malware programs that can cause this behaviour and that may have gone undiscovered by your security applications. You need to go through a troubleshootinfg process to start identifying the programs that are running on your PC, so I would recommend by starting with Hijack This and, if you are not sure what you are looking at, posting the report to here or a spyware forum to see if someone will help you.

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/programs.php

I'll have a look at the report if I'm still around when you post back.

Update

Can't see anything that stands out yet, except this:

C:\DOCUME~1\MISSCL~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\Rar..

Which is unidentifiable from your post....could you clarify?

Update 2

That looks like a culprit if I ever saw one, but would be useful to see the whole line.

When you scan, save a log file which will open the contents of the report in Notepad and then copy the second half of that line only and paste to here so I can see the end.

If you are the owner then a logging in safe mode as administrator will allow you to change the accounts in control panel.

Alternatively you could backup all your documents and pictures favorites and stuff to another drive/DVD and do a clean (format) reinstall of the windows XPSP2.

Don't use file & settings transfer wizard as you'll get the security settings back if your unlucky

If you originally had adimin access and now you don't, it sounds like like you have a trojan on your machine. The same thing happened to my kid's computer and I think even the control panel disappeared in that case. I was able to clean it, but it is a very long and involved multi-step process.

If you are also getting messages telling you to buy a software anti-virus tool, DON'T. It infects your machine even worse, and you have probably contracted a SmitFraud virus.

Go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyware_Quake for a definition of SmitFraud and a host of links to get you on the right path.

Other than that, I don't see how you could loose your adim access unless you have been hacked.

In some programs, for you to overcome administrator restrictions you have to be logged in as administrator even if you are able to enter administrator's password when using a regular account. Try logging in as administrator and check the settings for all the accounts on your computer and check the restrictions, maybe parental control was enabled for your account. If you are already logged in as administrator, I really don't know what you should do. Maybe you could try to undo the system restore or try to remember if you had a different password them.

Example: If on December 5th your password was "administrator" and you restored your computer to September 10th and back them you had a different password, it could be that your password has been restored also or that back them your account was not the administrator's. Try entering any previous password.

Just guessing!

Good luck.

Can only suggest a couple of things, one is seeing if it will allow you to open another account with administrative privilages, if it does this then maybe you could use this to change your account to administrative privaleges. The second way I found on the net, which is to start computer in Safe Mode with no internet connections by pressing F8 on start up, sellecting this in the list and clicking enter, it then said to start in administrator mode by entering password which is normally just "password", if this works then you should be able to change your account back to administrator.

My advice, download 'Ultimate Boot CD', with this you can scan your drives with various Malware/Virus Scanners and also create a new admin account if necessary using an application that is included: http://www.ubcd4win.com/news.htm

Note: you will need your XP disk for this, or the source files(i386).

Alternative, format, reinstall, jobs a good un.

an awkward thing to answer really,i am presuming you are on your OWN computer and wonder who set the xp to admin only ? if it is not been altered from new then the admin password is set to admin as default,there are other ways to remove this password but as i cannot be sure you are the owner etc and are allowed access to this pc then i will not give details as im sure you will appreciate.

you may get carry of this element referred to as boot plus and burn it on a cd and boot from it on the pc and do away with the password with it. Watch tutorials on the thank you to apply it first.