Each user profile records desktop preferences like:

  • background
  • color
  • shortcuts
  • icons A corrupt user profile may prevent logging in May be caused by:
  • antivirus tampering
  • switching windows versions

Rebuilt Profiles

New User

To fix this, you make a new user with Windows net and copy old profile settings (only copy user preferences, dont copy the entire profile) into the new account with regedit. Your profile folder can be found in: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList Find the folder with the key corresponding to your name Additionally, set the RefCount key to have the value 0 on the new profile (if you dont have make it DWORD 32bit value)

Copy Good ntuser.dat

ntuser.dat is a hidden file by default. If you enable hidden files in Windows File Explorer then you can copy it to a different profile. ntuser.dat is usually a 5-20MB file.