Registry Problems??

[icehokplyr]

Okay I need some help again. When I boot-up my machine, it comes to the log-on screen as usual. When I click on my name and put in my password, I am now getting a message that says this:

" Windows cannot load the selected profile but has logged you on with the default profile for the system. DETAILS - Access is denied"

It logs me on and everything is fine but I am wondering what's wrong.
Now, this morning I made a registry change to shut down and boot-up faster. I restarted and had no problems. I came back about an hour later and tried to log-on and got the above message.

Someone please help?
Thanks in advance.

 

[icehokplyr]

(Bump)

 

[rcolbert]

Sounds like simple file permissions on the user profile. This might happen if you've renamed or recreated your user account recently.

Assuming your account is a member of the local administrators group, go to your user profile stored under "Documents and Settings." Right-click your user folder, and select security. Choose advanced and then select the owner tab. Change owner to your account and replace owner on subcontainer and objects. At that point you can apply security permissions to the folder giving your user account full control. Replace permissions on subfolders as well and you should be good to go. Be sure to leave any default system permissions in place as well to ensure that your OS can also access your user profile when it needs to.

 

[Phoenix86]

Alternativly you can create a new profile and copy important data into that new profile (documents, favorites, etc.). You may lose some settings, but if you can't resolve it otherways, it's a way out...

 

[rcolbert]

Alternativly you can create a new profile and copy important data into that new profile (documents, favorites, etc.). You may lose some settings, but if you can't resolve it otherways, it's a way out...

In that spirit, there is a copy profile button when you right-click My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced Tab -> User Profiles Settings Button.

The caveat there is that you need to do a clean boot up and then log on as an administrative level user account that is neither the source nor the destination of the profile you're about to copy.

The distinction between the methods of copying profile information is that through explorer you won't get everything as Phoenix mentioned, but you can be selective and pick and choose what you want for the most part. With the copy method using the profile settings interface it's all or nothing, but you will get everything.

The thing to be mindful of is that if it is permissions that are messed up, then there is always some risk of simply moving the problem around as you move the files around.

 

[icehokplyr]

Alternativly you can create a new profile and copy important data into that new profile (documents, favorites, etc.). You may lose some settings, but if you can't resolve it otherways, it's a way out...

Thanks Bro. I tried that and it worked but then I could not log onto my old profile at all afterwards. I made a backup of my registry files but couldn't access that either. I figured out what I did. While I was in my registry I made some changes under permissions and denied access to everyone including me. I logged on under "Administrator" and still could not fix it.
I re-formated last night and now everything is back to normal. It sucks when your technical support is yourself. Know what I mean? Anyways, I got it back now. Thanks for the advice anyway.

 

[icehokplyr]

Sounds like simple file permissions on the user profile. This might happen if you've renamed or recreated your user account recently.

Assuming your account is a member of the local administrators group, go to your user profile stored under "Documents and Settings." Right-click your user folder, and select security. Choose advanced and then select the owner tab. Change owner to your account and replace owner on subcontainer and objects. At that point you can apply security permissions to the folder giving your user account full control. Replace permissions on subfolders as well and you should be good to go. Be sure to leave any default system permissions in place as well to ensure that your OS can also access your user profile when it needs to.

I wish I read your post before last night. I re-formated and I'm back to normal now.
It was just what you said. I made some changes under permissions and messed everything up. Look at my previouse post and it'll explain more. Thanks Bro.

 

[icehokplyr]

In that spirit, there is a copy profile button when you right-click My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced Tab -> User Profiles Settings Button.

The caveat there is that you need to do a clean boot up and then log on as an administrative level user account that is neither the source nor the destination of the profile you're about to copy.

The distinction between the methods of copying profile information is that through explorer you won't get everything as Phoenix mentioned, but you can be selective and pick and choose what you want for the most part. With the copy method using the profile settings interface it's all or nothing, but you will get everything.

The thing to be mindful of is that if it is permissions that are messed up, then there is always some risk of simply moving the problem around as you move the files around.

Thanks for the help. I would really like to learn more about registry and edits. The registry is so sensitive, I'm afraid to touch it. I can build a computer with my eyes closed and install programs, etc. But the registry is what gets me all the time.

 

[Phoenix86]

In that spirit, there is a copy profile button when you right-click My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced Tab -> User Profiles Settings Button.

The caveat there is that you need to do a clean boot up and then log on as an administrative level user account that is neither the source nor the destination of the profile you're about to copy.

The distinction between the methods of copying profile information is that through explorer you won't get everything as Phoenix mentioned, but you can be selective and pick and choose what you want for the most part. With the copy method using the profile settings interface it's all or nothing, but you will get everything.

The thing to be mindful of is that if it is permissions that are messed up, then there is always some risk of simply moving the problem around as you move the files around.

The reason I don't "get everything" is that I assume the profile is corrupt. Yes, it's an assumption, and if it's just a permissions issue, copying should fix it. However if it's not, and say it's a corruption in the registry, copying the profile should copy the corruption.

The reason I pick and choose is to only copy the known-good stuff like favorites, docs, etc. and leave the unknown behind.

rcolbert, I don't really every copy the profile, do you find that works often for fixing odd profile issues? My SOP for re-doing a profile is to rename the profile directory, log on as that user to recreate it, then copy what I need out of the old one. Works 99% of the time where the profile, but I obviously lose some settings doing this (user prefs.).

 

[rcolbert]

rcolbert, I don't really every copy the profile, do you find that works often for fixing odd profile issues?

I've had a few cases where it's helped out. Most recently there was a guy posting on these forums that had gone through a series of account admin steps that left him with a username and profile name that didn't quite match.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=883605&page=1&pp=20

There are also cases where a user in one domain might get migrated to another, and they'd like to retain their profile settings on a member server where they provide some form of application support.

You're correct though that it doesn't solve many problems due to things like corruption. Copying profiles only addresses things like user account association and naming. My assumption at the start of this thread was that it was a permissions related issue. In that case, it would be interesting to see if copying the profile did any good. My first advice which was to take ownership and reapply permissions was my best advice. I was just adding and extending your comments about profile copying in order to provide a method that seems to work for certain situations, and *might* handle certain issues more completely than using Explorer.

The Explorer method you mention is certainly the best for selectively moving non-registry based settings that you want while leaving corruption behind.