Problems Creating account on XP

[SebAguilera]

I have Win XP PRO on my home system and it has 3 users that are all designated as "Compute Administrator". From one of these accounts I create a new account also designated as "Computer Administrator". When I log on to this new account the system tells me that it cannot find the correct file for this profile and will use the "Computer's settings" instead. After I am logged on, I cannot adjust any desktop settings or any settings at all for that matter. I mean I cannot change my screensaver, wallpaper, sound options, Office settings ..nothing. As soon as I change any of these settings and click on OK the settings revert back to their original stat. Anybody have any clue what's going on. I've added 2 accounts recently and had no problems.

I run Ad-Aware,Ad-Watch,PC-Cillin on startup for all the other accounts. None of these thigns startup for thi new account and when I check the Task Manager there are only 2 or 3 processes running as opposed to the 20+ I normally see from the other accounts. Any help would be appreciated!!


Seb

 

[bcastner]

As a guess, you are trying to use a reserved word as an account name.

Try a different account name.

 

[SebAguilera]

Thanks fot the reply,

Not unless "Norma" [my mom's name] is a reserved word

Seb

 

[bcastner]

Remove the profile and recreate it, it clearly did not initialize the profile correctly.

Do this logged in as the true Administrator of the machine, rather than as an member of the Admin Group.

right-click My Computer, Properties, Advanced, User Profiles, Settings and remove the faulty profile. Then use Control Panel, Users and Groups to create the new user.

BTW, Norma should be fine, but Normal in some XP programs is a reserved word.

 

[SebAguilera]

I tried what you suggested but got the same results. By the way here is the exact error message I get

User Environment
Windows cannot find the user's profile but has logged you on with the default profile for the system

DETAIL - THe system cannot find the file specified.

 

[bcastner]

Did you both remove Norma as user, and remove Norma's profile, then add Norma as user?

Also, do not use Fast User Switching for this task.

 

[leonec]

I had the same problem with xp pro a while back, then for some other reasons I recently had to format and reinstall and now it works properly, but before that I tried everything I new and nothing worked.

 

[bcastner]

It is possible that with all of these Administrative users on the system someone played with the group policy objects.

Set them back to their defaults:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;313222

 

[bcastner]

No one was taking linney's advice and disabling Services on a whim, were they?

It is possible you have shutdown the two security principle services.

Also, check the NSFT permissioins on the C:\Domcuments and Settings folder to make sure it is not set to just Administrators with child inheritance of properties.

 

[SebAguilera]

>Did you both remove Norma as user, and remove Norma's >profile, then add Norma as user?
Yes I did this

I will keep your suggestion about resetting the Security Settings Back to the Defaults in mind but I won't do this yet as i sounds a bit scary.


No security services have been shutdown so it's not that either

How do I check to see the permissions of the Documents and Settings Folder? I right clicked on it but all I see there is that it is not a private folder.

Could Adaware have anything to do with this?

 

[bcastner]

I do not see this as an AdAware issue.

When you right-click the Norma profile, Properties, Security, you should see a listing of the security settings for the profile.

Try as administrator to assert ownership of the profile and add Norma as a full rights user of the profile:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421

 

[SebAguilera]

OK, I solved the problem!!!Here's how I did it:

1)Created a new account named "Norma"
2)Logged Off the "Norma" account
3)Logged on to any account with administrator privileges
4)Right Clicked on My Computer-> Properties
5)Went to "advanced" tab
6)Clicked Settings button in the "User Profiles" section.
7)Clicked on the profile name of a working account that was not logged on and clicked "copy to"
8)Clicked on "Browse" and then found the directory of the non-working account[In my case Norma] and selected it.
9)Logged off and back on as troublesome user

I got this from someone on the experts Exchange Forum

Thanks to everyone that helped out. Hope this can help someone!


Seb

 

[SebAguilera]

Note: The only annoyance is that I had to change the preferences of all applications that pointed to the folders of the working user account that was duplicated. I did this for apps like Office, Kazaa, MSN Messsenger, Outlook Express etc...

 

[bcastner]

I am glad that worked for you, but I must admit to some misgivings.

The approach you used is commonly done when a profile gets corrupted after use.

The fact that brand new profiles appear corrupted still worries me.

I believe there is an underlying issue. At some point you should at least run the Recovery Console and do a chkdsk /r

 

[SebAguilera]

You are right. In my particular case it was a workaround NOT a solution. This is just my home computer so thankfully I don't need to add any more users as everyone now has an account so I can get away with it this time.

Thanks bcastner for all your help.