Windows 8 keeps loading with temporary profile

Anonymous
2012-11-22T02:28:10+00:00

I upgraded my Windows 7 to Win 8 Pro. Today my power cable got unplugged and the computer restarted but cannot open my default profile. It keeps logging me to a temporary profile and states that the default profile could not be loaded. I check through the error logs and it states that the Registry may have gotten corrupted. How would a restart of the computer corrupt my registry. The problem is that everytime I restart it keeps taking me to the temporary profile which is new everytime I log in. None of the settings are saved. How do I get back to my original profile. I tried Refreshing the PC and it failed. Is this fixable?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2012-11-22T16:59:04+00:00

Hi

We are glad to get your query on Windows Community.

As far as your query is concerned, It seem that you are having a tough time logging to your default account.

I will surely help you with issue. But I still require certain information to get the right resolution:

May I know whether the default account is an Admin account or a standard user account?

I would recommend you to follow the methods below to resolve the issue:

Method 1:

Enable Built Admin account.

a) Press Windows and x key together on your desktop screen.

b) Click on Command Prompt (admin).

c) Type: net user administrator /active: yes

Note: Please follow the same steps and type net user administrator /active: no to disable admin account after the troubleshooting is done

After enabling Built-in admin, please try with the steps below:

Step 1:

Perform SFC Scan

Please follow the steps to perform SFC Scan:

a. Press “Windows Key + Q” to open Charms Bar.

b. Type “cmd” without quotes in the search box.

c. On the left pane, right click on the “cmd” option and select “Run as Administrator”.

d. Type ‘sfc /scannow’ without quotes and hit enter.

Note: It may ask for windows installation DVD to fix and to enable SFC to make more than minor repairs. Some files saved on your computer might get deleted when fixing corrupted files.

Step 2:

Please perform Microsoft Safety Scanner to scan your computer for infections.

To download and run the Microsoft Safety Scanner, follow these steps:

a) Go to the Microsoft Safety Scanner site at: Microsoft Safety Scanner

(http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx)

b) Click Download Now.

c) If prompted, click Run. Follow the on-screen instructions to download and install the Microsoft Safety Scanner. When prompted, add a shortcut to the Microsoft Safety Scanner to your desktop.

d) From your desktop, double click the Microsoft Safety Scanner icon. When the Microsoft Safety Scanner program launches, click Scan Type, then click Full Scan, then click Next.

e) After the scan is complete, remove all detected malware entries

Note: Any data files that are infected may only be cleaned by deleting the file entirely, which means there is a potential for data loss.

For more information refer:

Microsoft resources and guidance for removal of malware and viruses (Microsoft Safety Scanner).

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2671662

Step 3:

Please restart your PC and check if you are able to log in to your Default Profile.

Method 2:

From Built in administrator account create a new user account and transfer the profile data.

Please follow the steps below to do that:

a) Press Windows and x together and select Windows Explorer.

b) Click on View tab and Click on Options at the top right corner.

c) Click the View tab, and then click Show hidden files, folders, and drives.

d) Uncheck the box which states **Hide protected operating system files.**e) Click Yes to confirm, and then click OK.

f) Locate the C:\Users\Old_Username folder, where C is the drive that Windows is installed on, and Old Username is the name of the profile you want to copy files from.

g) Select all of the files and folders in this folder, except the following files:

•Ntuser.dat•Ntuser.dat.log•Ntuser.ini

h) Right click and Select Copy.

i) Locate the C:\Users\New_Username folder, where C is the drive that Windows is installed on, and New Username is the name of the new user profile you created.

j) Right click inside the folder and select Paste.

k) Restart your PC and check if you are able to log in to default profile.

Please reply us back if the issue still persists.

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-12-11T16:29:39+00:00

    You need to do the following:

    Run command prompt as admin, then run sfc /scannow


    After running this it tells you that it found corrupted files but Windows was unable to fix them, you need to run the following command if you can't access CBS.log

    findstr /c:"[SR] Cannot" %windir%\logs\CBS.CBS.log |more


    If you want to copy this to your clipboard, you run the following command

    findstr /c:"[SR] Cannot" %windir%\logs\CBS.CBS.log |clip

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-12-09T17:40:46+00:00

    Hello

    Need some help with this. I am at Step 3 Method 2, I have done all of the above and am now on the last step. i am using windows 8, and my question is. Do i need to make a new profile? if so, there is isnt really any steps on how to clearly do that. I have been able to locate all my old files, but I am not sure where I transfer them to. Could someone pls explain further on the step to create a new user profile

    Thanks

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-12-07T09:58:24+00:00

    Hi everyone. I have encountered this problem and its pretty messed up. My PC was working perfectly fine and suddenly after a shutdown it started showing this error. Actually I guess that Microsoft didn’t notice this problem because I didn't find a standard solution for this anywhere in the internet. I found that 2 of the methods given here are pretty much not working. 

    > As far as method 2 is considered it states to copy all the files from your existing account to a new one. Well the problem is that my user account folder is there with nothing in it. So what do I copy?  I know that nothing is lost because the disk storage is as it was.

    > Now consider method 1. I ran a SFC scan and suddenly the disk cleared a 10 GB storage area and it ended with an error message that the scan found an error and cannot fix it. I restarted my system and found that my account is now locked although I clearly remember my password. So now I am forced to reinstall the OS.

    > I found one more method, changing the registry thing. Well I tried that too but not worked.  

    I tried to recover the system but it also ended with an error message.

    > Many of the people found methods 1 and 2 helpful. But if they didn’t work for me I pretty sure that there will be many users for which this will not work.

    > So what I would suggest is that copy all the things while you still can. Even when you are logged in a temporary profile you can see the partition drives and contents in it, though you can’t access any of the things previously stored in your account library. So make a backup while you still can before the PC gets locked. Now take your PC to a professional who had already encountered such a problem and knows how to fix it. I will highly recommend not messing up things further as you may get a locked PC in front of you while you still know the password. And in that case you will have to re install the OS if you don’t have a password recovery disk.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-11-30T20:11:43+00:00

    Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! I had this problem and method 1 solved it perfectly. Didn't even have to do step 2.

    Your help is very much appreciated!

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