Copying user profile from one user account to another user account on the same conputer ---- 3 challenges , 2 of them solved

Challenge 1 :

When I tried to copy the user profile of one administrator user account
(let's call it A) in Windows XP home edition to another user account
(let's call it B) , the advice given on the web is:
Create a new user account (let's call it C). Then restart computer.
Then log into C to effect the change. Then restart computer ( this may
or may not be necessary , I don't remember). The log back into C to
start the transfer from A to B . In account C,
Right click "My Computer" --- > Properties ---- > Advanced --- > User
Profiles --- > Settings .
Highlight A , click "Copy To" and then specify the destination path as
C:\Documents and Settings\User Account Name.
I am told this is all I have to do.
If I do not follow the above procedure , I will find that "Copy To" is
grayed out and I cannot do any copying.


OK, this grayed out challenge is solved.


But the next challenge is :
When I click "Copy To" , I get the message , "failed to set security on
the destination profile".
The source of this challenge seems to be in account user A.
So I go into account A , I right click the owner folder ( at
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner ) ---- > Properties --- > Sharing --- >
"Make the folder private" (needs to uncheck this).
How this owner folder had that checkmark in the first place is probably
when I set up user account A to stop others from having access to my
computers when I am not around, I went to Start --- > Control Panel
---- > Switch to Category View --- > User Accounts"
And when I created a password, Windows asked me "Do you want to make
your files and folders private?" and I clicked "Yes, Make Private"


OK, uncheck that box in owner folder properties and also delete the
passwords used by account A and B and this second challenge is
solved. No more "failed to set security on the destination profile"
message.


The next challenge is when A is being copied to B , I get messages such
as
"Windows cannot copy file C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Start
Menu\Programs\Folder View\Visit Folder View Website.lnk to location
C:\Documents and Settings\Surfing\Start Menu\Programs\Folder View\Visit
Folder View Website.lnk. Possible causes of this error include network
problems or insufficient security rights. If this problem persists,
contact your network administrator.
DETAIL - The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process. "



I am pretty sure it has nothing to do with Folder View per se. Becuase
I tried to find out if this error message is consistent by creating
user account D, E, F and tried to copy A to each of them and I get the
same message the only difference being other programs memtioned instead
of Folder View.

This means part of the profile is copied and other parts are not
copied.

So far, I haven't found the solution yet.

So I cannot do anything with this particular computer in terms of
copying user profile from A to B , both of which are administrator
account type (as opposed to limited user account type).

May be I will not have any problem if both A and B are both limited
user account.

To confirm this , I did the copying experiment on a freshly reformatted
and reinstalled laptop. And I followed the procedure above and I have
no problem copying the user profile from A to B , both of which are
administrator accounts.
One thing I have learned is when in doubt and if I don't see the
changes, just restart computer.

And when an adminstrator account is downgraded to limited user account,
it would lose all the settings copied.

So a freshly reformatted and reinstalled laptop with only Windows XP
Service Pack 2 and two other softwares installed have no problem
copying user profile from account A to B.

But a desktop computer with lots of softwares have problems copying
user profile.

What gives? What am I missing?


By the way, this post was inspired by Ryan Nordman's
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment/browse_thread/thread/78544fb259375b/33b85b9802a26ec4?lnk=st&q=failed+to+set+security+on+the+destination+profile&rnum=18&hl=en#33b85b9802a26ec4

.

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