Fixing a Corrupt User Profile in Windows 7 - Copy and Restore MethodWhat are Window's User profiles?Your user profile is a collection of settings that make the computer look and work the way you want it to. It contains your settings for
desktop backgrounds, screen savers, pointer preferences, sound settings, and other features. User profiles ensure that your personal
preferences are used whenever you log on to Windows. A user profile is different from a user account, which you use to log on to Windows.
Each user account has at least one user profile associated with it.
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1 - Restart your computer. This releases any locks Windows may have on the profile folders.
2 - Log on with an account with administrative priviledges.
3 - Move
C:\Users\%username% to a safe location (%username% being the account that has the corrupt profile)
4 - Delete
C:\Users\TEMP, if it exists.
5 - Delete the profile registry key from:
“HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList”
6 - You can confirm you’re choosing the right registry key by checking the value “ProfileImagePath” to make sure you pick the right profile.
7 - Reboot the computer and log in as the “broken” user to make Windows recreate the profile automatically.
8 - Restore any documents, favorites, desktop, files, etc. from the original profile folder you moved in the third step.
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