I thought I’d post about the BCMLogon.dll problem I had with my computer in case other people run into the same error. I had this BCMLogon.dll issue with my Dell Inspiron 9300 Laptop. Apparently it has something to do with the wireless card. I don’t know what happened to create the error and I don’t remember changing any settings recently. Here’s the error my computer gave me:

A recently installed program has disabled the Welcome screen and Fast User Switching. To restore these features, you must uninstall the program. The following file name might help you identify the program that made the change: C:\WINDOWS\system32\BCMLogon.dll

I tried but I wasn’t able to switch to the logon screen. I couldn’t access the Internet either no matter what I tried. I had to go to another PC to figure out a solution to this BCMLogon.dll issue.

Here’s what I did to resolve the BCMLogon.dll headache and get my computer back up and running. If you follow the steps I provide, you’re going to be editing your registry so do this at your own risk! I highly recommend that you back up your registry before making any changes!

Update: There are two solutions that other people with this problem have shared in the comments section. It seems much easier than what I did so I’ll share them first.

Here’s a solution shared by Pdunn56:

1. To restore the fast user switching:
2. Go into the Windows control panel. Choose the ‘wireless configuration utility’
3. Uncheck the first box that says “Let this tool manager your wireless networks”
4. Hit okay.
5. I’m not sure if you need to reboot or not, but that should be it.

The solution that annnnnnnnnnt shared sounds a bit confusing, but if it makes sense to you then go for it. Here’s the solution which I’ll directly quote: all you had to do is in “run” type “msconfig” temporarily disable your wireless card”¦ restart/reboot, enable the “Fast User Switching Feature”, restart/reboot, re-enable your wireless (msconfig) resart/reboot. Done

I hope that works. If not you should check out my solution below. If you have another solution not posted please leave a comment and share what you’ve done.

First step is to back up your registry. I’m using Windows XP so I did it this way

1. Click Start, click Run, type %SystemRoot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe, and then click OK.
2. On the Welcome to System Restore page, click Create a restore point, and then click Next .
3. On the Create a Restore Point page, type a name for the restore point and then click Create
4. After the restore point has been created, click Close.

If System Restore is turned off, you receive a message that asks whether you want to turn on System Restore now. Click Yes. Then, in the System Properties dialog box, click to clear the Turn off System Restore check box, click OK, and then repeat this step.

Click this to visit Microsoft.com and read about backing up your registry if using Windows XP or Vista.

Once you’ve backed up your registry it’s time to restore the Welcome Screen and Fast User Switching. To do this you will need to reset the GinaDLL entry which can be doing using these steps:

1. Click the Start Button, click Run, then type REGEDIT and hit enter. This will bring up your registry.
2. Navigate to the Winlogon key. It’s located down the registry tree here:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ Winlogon
3. For an extra safety step you should backup the key by selecting it followed by clicking FILE and EXPORT
4. You’ll see two window panes in the registry. The left side you have Winlogon selected. In the right pane you’ll see GinaDLL. Right-click GinaDLL and then click Delete. (You need to remove the whole value, not just its Value Data)
5. Close the Registry Editor

Your problem should be fixed now! If you see no difference you could reboot and then it should be good to go. You can read more about this at the Microsoft Knowledge Base under How To Use the Fast User Switching Feature in Windows XP

This entry was posted on Monday, November 5th, 2007 at 12:44 pm and is filed under Tech Talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.