Re: User name assigned to a new profile!


"Nepatsfan" <nepatsfan@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"spamlet" <spam.morespam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"spamlet" <spam.morespam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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Hi,

This seems a similar problem to that noted by Bea below: as yet
unanswered. (Is something going around?)

Old Dell laptop, XPHome.

On logging out of one profile and logging back on in my normal
(administrator) one, 'userenv' in event log says a 'temporary' profile
was substituted, and it would disappear on logging out. Not a bit of
it!

Now all I get after log on is the blue basic dell screen and a handful
of standard desktop icons.

Windows explorer shows that my folders and files are still there, but I
cannot find any way to reassociate them with my user id, which now seems
to be permanently referenced to this unwanted empty new one.

There are still NTUser.dat and NTUser.dat.log files in the 'real me'
folder, and the former is still a good 6meg full of data. The first
lines of these two files seem to share a similar structure and
relationship to those on my pc profiles, yet they seem to be being
ignored in the log on process, even though I am still getting in with
the same userid and password!

The 4 userenv messages went like this:

Unable to load registry: the process cannot access the file because it
is being used by another process for..... \ntuser.dat

Windows cannot load the locally stored profile. Possible causes of this
error include insufficient security rights or a corrupt local profile.
Detail - The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.

Windows has backed up this user's profile [WHERE?] Windows will
automatically try to use the backed up profile the next time the user
logs on.

Windows cannot find the local profile and is logging you on with a
temporary profile. Changes you make to this profile will be lost when
you log off.

Well thanks a bunch!

I don't know my way round Home very well, and can't see how to bring up
dialogues that would enable me to take ownership of my own folders
again. There seems to be no 'use simple file sharing' tick box to untick
and get a security tab detailing the permissions and inheritance
situation/ownership etc. And when I try to change attributes on my real
files from read only - which they all seem to have been rebranded - back
to normal, the change does not stick (though they can be deleted).

Userpasswords and userpasswords2 via run both show 'only one' me, and
still as an administrator, but I cannot see how to get it to stop using
the 'new profile' and go back to the proper one!

Even more confusingly, there is another user, who just has a limited
account, but still signs in with a user name and password via ctrl alt
del. Yet he does not get a mention on user accounts at all, in either
control panel or userpasswords! He also used to show up on the welcome
screen but not now! Where is his account?

A final odd thing is that when I went to tried a system restore, I found
this had been turned off, though I have no recollection of having done
this - and would consider it madness to do so! When I turned it on, the
event log duly registered it, but, looking right back through the log,
there is no entry to say it was ever turned off!

Digging a little deeper, and right clicking for the properties *** of
'the new me's' 'my documents', I find my whole new package is in a Temp
folder c:\documents and settings\temp.
If I just empty this, will my logon revert to the proper files?

Even then, I still would not know where the limited account user's
details are and why they don't register in UA or userpasswords!

How can I go about getting my proper files reassociated with my user id,
and having all of the users on the machine properly represented in the
dialogues.

This one really does have me confused I am afraid. Any light that can
be thrown on this would be very helpful, thank you.

Much obliged,

S


Right,
More digging and tinkering, I see that if I replace the NTUSer.dat, and
NTUser.dat.log in the new Temp identity, with copies of those from the
old one, I then get my old screen picture, but only a few of the icons
and folders normally on it. 'MyDocuments' is still the temp one...



In order to take ownership of folders in a system running XP Home Edition
you have to boot the computer into Safe Mode. Restart your laptop and keep
hitting the F8 key until the Windows Advanced Options Menu is displayed.
Use the up arrow to select Safe Mode. Hit Enter and log on with an account
that is a member of the Administrators group. The built in Administrator
account will do the job. You should now have access to the Security tab on
the properties *** of your old folders. From there you can take
ownership and give your account Full Control permissions.

How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421

"Access is Denied" Error Message When You Try to Open a Folder
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810881

As for your other issues, you may find that copying the ntuser.dat and
ntuser.dat.log files leads to your experiencing the same problem with your
new account. There's always the possibility that they were the source of
your original problem.

Good luck

Nepatsfan

Hi Bea,
And many thanks to Nepatsafan: the lack of those security tabs on
'properties' in XPHome has caused a lot of head scratching in the past. I
will now post your link in a very prominent place on my desktop! (And on
paper...)

I am not convinced that the problem is not a bug in the system itself, as I
have found similar things happening on our XPPro desktop: on 'fast user
switching' from one account to another, the second account's profile
'suddenly can't be found' and you have to pull the plug pretty damn quick
before Outlook.pst gets trashed. (Thank heavens for Google Desktop search,
which copies all your email into its index file!). On this occasion, the
event log messages at first said that the profile could not be loaded
*because it was in use by another*. As I have various networking and shared
folders on my desktop, I wonder if they could be making the system think
some part of the other user profile was already in use?

And Bea, curiously enough, after writing my own plea, I browsed through some
of the others below it and ended up reading the thread on 'Cleaning up the
windows registry' (Which: don't).

Following the links to discussion of why not to do this, on AumHa, I
usefully learned more about the NTuser etc files (which up until now I had
never come across). Included in how to repair the damage done by registry
cleaners was this link to the MS Knowledgebase articles on how to get back
your lost profile:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555473

AumHa also recommend something called ERUnt (download on their site) for
regular backing up of the registry and the individual NTUser files. Read the
relevant thread here:
http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=28099&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&sid=1a1e5e5b66cd4790a1f11595c1f713d1&start=15

After which you should understand more about NTUser and the other registry
files.
I downloaded the Erunt, but on a first read through it seems to require some
setting up, if it is to work automatically, that is a bit techy for me...

And so to the profile.
The KB articles say to create a new account, and then copy the old one into
it via the my computer properties/advanced dialogue.

Having done this I am at an intermediate stage of a solution. Whereas, when
I just moved the NTUser.dat and NTUser.dat.log, files to the profile XP had
created for me in the Temp folder, my profile remained the basic temp one
bar the fact that it had the right desktop picture, now that I have copied
the old profile into a new one and deleted the temp folder, my new profile
has most of my desktop files and folders, but not the picture...

Also, looking at the folder sizes of my various profiles and ex profiles in
Docsandsets, I find that the newly 'restocked' one is some 500 meg smaller
than the original! I have not looked far into this yet, but I assume it is
because it is not yet associated with my email dbxs, and has lost the Google
Earth cache (Of which I am only vaguely aware as to its purpose on my m/c,
and what I will lose if I delete it or allow it to be deleted.)

I have now added folders to all the profiles on my m/cs in which to back up
the NTUser and dat log files. Whether I remember to look for and back them
up regularly is another matter... And even then there is the email, but I
do use OE quick backup, and copy Outlook pst to a separate drive fairly
regularly. Seems this is yet another hint I should finally get around to
imaging my whole drives with Acronis!

Keep us posted on progress with your own profile problem. Any more tips and
conclusions would be most interesting. I too will let you know how things
pan out this end when I've had time for some more tinkering.

Cheers,
S


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