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Corrupt User Profiles

Working with Corrupt Windows Profiles

A common problem with Windows machines is a corrupt user profile. This can manifest itself in various ways including applications not operating correctly. You can usually prove it by logging in to the same machine as another user and discovering that the applications or settings are correct.

If you find this is the case, then you need to create a new profile for the user.

DO NOT use "Files and Settings Transfer Wizard" as this will transfer corruption to the new profile.

1. Reboot the machine.
2. Login in as a user with local administrator rights. Do not use the username that has the corruption, even if they have local admin rights.
3. In C:\Documents and Settings. You should see a directory that matches the user name of the corrupt user. Rename that directory to something like <username>.old.
4. Log back in as the user with the problem and verify that the problem has been resolved.
5. If the problem has been fixed, logout again, and login back in with local administrator rights.
6. Copy the contents of My Documents, Favourites and any other folders that contains the user data to the new profile.
   You may want to look through the Application Data and Local Settings folders as these will contain the files that could have user settings in it.

If the replacement of the profile doesn't resolve the problem, then check whether the problem follows the user by asking them to login at another machine. The problem may be local to the machine.