How To Delete Temporary Profile In Windows Xp BETTER
One of my users logged into his computer, Windows XP, last night only to be meet with an error message that it could not load his profile and he will be logged in using a temporary profile. Typically when this happens I shut the machine down and restart and the correct profile will load when they log in again. Not this time. In the user profile options under computer->properties->Advanced->user profiles it show that there are three profiles with his name. Two are the exact same size with the same modified date (5/5/10) and the other is what I would expect size wise for a new profile with a modified date of today. What are my options to restore his profile?
How To Delete Temporary Profile In Windows Xp
ok so all I did was delete the profile that was the smallest around 18 Mb from the Computer Properties->Advanced->User Profiles I then rebooted the machine and had the user log in and it used the correct profile. I would say the reason it continued to use the Temp profile is because it has associated the temp profile location with his log in and once the temp profile was removed it reverted back to the correct profile.
There could be several reasons why Windows loads temp profile. Usually there is a delay in loading the profile. Profile could get corrupted, but loading of profile could get delayed due the anti virus programs, some service not responding or any other operation which prevents loading of the profile. When a temporary profile loads for the first time, it will continue to do so. From that point forward a user will always log in with the temp profile.
Sometimes it helps to restart a computer. Windows may boot in a regular profile. If you will log in to temporary profile again after a restart, you will have to resolve the problem with this tutorial.
Nobody wants a temporary profile. So why do I get one? Here are the most common reasons for Windows to only issue a profile that is deleted at logoff instead of the regular local or roaming user profile.
A user profile is no more than a directory on disk, but if you try to delete a profile by simply removing that directory below C:\Users you fail miserably. Why? I do not know why Microsoft did this and I do not like it, but beginning with Vista you also need to delete the ProfileList registry key pointing to the profile you removed.
If you have configured the group policy setting Set roaming profile path for all users logging onto this computer and log on with a local user account, the local user in all likelyhood cannot access the roaming profile path and a temporary profile is used.
If a user is a member of the local group Guests or the domain group Domain Guests Windows issues nothing but temporary profiles. Sorry, but nothing to be done about that except to get rid of that guest status as soon as possible.
As the SIDs of all groups users are a member of are added to their Kerberos Tokens the maximum allowed token size may not suffice for users that are members of many groups. This issue has been around since Windows 2000 and it can cause all kinds of weird errors. Apparently it can also cause the creation of temporary profiles (thanks for the hint, Thilo!).
It is a great article. Recently, I saw a strange case that a user logged on with the default profile for the system. Actually, Windows had tried to log a user on with a temporary profile, but it was failed. Then, I hope you will deal with the default profile for the system.
Oh, and it keeps saying that i'm logged in using a temporary account, but if i use the account in windows 7 within same domain, it works fine. The account also works fine in windows XP. FYI, i'm using Windows Server 2008 as the Domain Controller.Another weird thing is, i found keys on HKLM/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows NT/Current Version/ProfileList, somehow only administrator account had it's key kept. Other account will get wiped instantly after it's logged out (i wonder if it's because it's recognized as a temporary account? but in windows 7 even if it's a temporary account, they'll keep the key). This, also happen in C:/Users where temporary accounts in windows 7 will get it's profile kept, but in windows 8, they'll delete it. But, if i make some personalization using domain account i.e. personalizing desktop, they'll keep the changes even after relog or restart, this doesn't seem that the account are actually using temporary profiles since i can update the profile.
The problem's solved, i turned off the firewall, delete account's profile folder on server, reset their permission to the folder, and recreate the profile through windows 8 login, afterwards, copy c:\users\user name\appdata\local\microsoft\windows\winx from other local account at the computer and paste it to the domain account's windows 8 profile folder. I can use the right click on bottom left, and it's not a temporary profile anymore now, thanks!
If you are logging in with temp profile, this means that the profile cannot be loaded or the location of user profile cannot be writable. Please check that first or delete your current profile, then try to create a new one.
So, actually the first thing i need to solve is about this temporary profile. As i said before, i have the account works fine (not temporary) when logged in windows 7 and windows XP even in another computer, so the profile can be loaded and the location of user profile are, writeable.
I've tried delete the profile and create a new one, the problem stands still, it's still recognized as an temporary profile in windows 8. But, any configuration i've made with the profile at windows 8 actually saved at server and can be read at other computer if i log in with the same account.
To get a windows 8.1 working with a roming profile, I need to delete the entire %userfolder% folder (HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\%userfolder%) to get it working again.
I always start by having the user log on. (They will get the message about the temporary profile.) I then start by taking ownership of the roaming profile on the server and rename it. Next I have the user log of and then back on again. This usually fixes the issue when the system tells them that they are using a temporary profile.
If you just want to go from roaming to local it is a cinch.Just delete the Profile path property so it is blank in AD. The user profile service will convert the profile to local the next time the service queries AD when logging off/on. Do it all the time. It can occasionally cause profile corruption and you will have to rebuild the users profile on certain computers but is generally ok and certainly a lot easier.
The Adobe Captivate demonstration illustrates how to delete temporary files using the Disk Cleanup utility. For more information about viewing this demo, see Viewing Captivate Demos in Knowledgebase Documents (TechNote 403894).
Delprof2 has additional filtering options: you might want to delete locally cached copies of roaming profiles only or delete only those profiles that have not been used in a specified number of days. Delprof2 does it all, both on the local system and remotely.
It is a frequent requirement to delete all profiles except one or two which should be left unchanged. With version 1.5 of Delprof2 that is easily possible: profiles can be excluded from deletion using a wildcard notation. If, on the other hand, only a few known profiles are to be deleted, use the inclusion feature and Delprof2 ignores everything else. Combining excludes and includes is possible, too, of course.
User profiles often have permissions set on them in such a way that not even administrators have access without prior ACL manipulation. Delprof2 circumvents this requirement by making use of backup and restore privileges to analyze and delete even the most tightly secured profiles.
When using the Delprof2 1.6 version, is there a way to recover data that has been deleted? We have an instance where the utility deleted the current users profile. There was a year of cadiovascular research delted that we need to try and recover. Any suggestions would be great.
Hi Helge,I have a generic Windows 10 account whose profile I would like to be deleted on scheduled restarts. I can use Windows task scheduler to time the restarts. Can Delprof2 scripting delete the profile if the account is already logged on before the restart? or can Delprof2 delete the profile after the PC restarts.
from my testing, if you successfully log on to a windows 11 machine using a domain account, and then log off and have delprof2 clear out the profiles, the next time that same user tries to log on, the profile will not load correctly and be unusable
I have a question, after i deployed on my environment, some users who wasnt on the rule of number of days got the profile deleted, but i think it wasnt the tool. Is there some way we can log (by shutdown script/GPO) what users delprof2 deleted?
I noticed that sometimes only the subfolders of the profiles are deleted, but the top folder (username) is still there. Only after a restart and restart delprof2 these remains are also deleted.Is it possible to solve this without restarting? Apparently the leftover files are locked by Windows or something.
I'm wondering how to safely remove a domain user profile from a computer that is a part of a domain. I don't want to delete the account from the domain itself, I just need to remove the profile from this computer, to do some cleanup.
You are in the right HKEY_USERS\[SID]\Software\Microsoft\Windwos\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Foldersbranch if the ACCOUNT in "Shell Folders" matches the ACCOUNT you just manually deleted form the C:\Users\[ACCOUNT] directory. This branch [SID] can be exported and/or deleted to clean up the last of the user profile.