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

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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
    2013-02-26T20:01:36+00:00

    When I follow the directions I get 'Run" is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. I don't know what to do now.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-02-21T17:51:14+00:00

    Is it possible that our email accounts are causing this issue? I have two computers, one with windows 7 and the new one with windows 8. I was setting up the new windows 8 and I set up a local account with a password. Everything was fine until I set up my @live email account and received my mail but then turned on the old computer with windows 7 to check some of my contacts. After that when ever I attempted to log on to the new computer with Windows 8 my profile was loaded and and I would be loaded as a temporary profile.

    Today I turned on the old computer (windows 7) and logged out of the @live email account and then turned on the new computer with windows 8 and I finally have my profile back!

    Could it be just that simple? Don't run your @live account on two different operating systems?

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-02-11T12:26:39+00:00

    Actually, I JUST had this issue myself. I had to clone my partition to a new hard drive and this first messed up my c <-> d drive lettering. After a few hours to fix this, I started to have this same issue with the TEMP profile. I searched around within the Registry and found an entry here;

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

    If you look within one of the sub-keys within that (on mine it was called 5-1-5-21-557812858-3650550099-3850275229-1001), you will find a key called 'ProfileImagePath'. Ensure that key is pointing to the right directory. Once I pointed it to the right hdd, my TEMP profile issue was fixed.

    Hope this helps you out.

    I went to the same path and found my profile looked something like this:

    5-1-5-21-557812858-3650550099-3850275229-1001.bak

    I removed the .bak and logged in my user account,no problem!

    Hope this helps someone

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