Desktop blank and apps deleted.

Anonymous
2013-04-02T03:19:12+00:00

After I log in this morning in my account, the computerct act like it was for the first time started and after that I discover that all the apps and my desktop was deleted.  When I try to pop up my desktop i got erorr.  "C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\Desktop refers to a location that is unavailable. It could be on a hard drive on this computer, or on a network. Check to make sure that the disk is properly inserted, or that you are connected to the Internet or your network, then try again. If it still cannot be located, the information might have been moved to a different location.."

Please help me.

Thank you

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Windows for home | Windows 10 | Performance and system failures

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Anonymous
2013-04-02T19:07:35+00:00

Hi Marius,

  • Were there any recent changes made on the computer prior to the issue?

Here are few methods that you may follow to fix this issue.

Method 1:

a. Open "C:\users[your user account]" folder. If you see two Desktop folders with one blank and the other with your Desktop items you need to delete the blank one.

b. Copy the desktop folder with your desktop items from “C:\Users[your user account]\” folder to “C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\”

c. Restart the computer.

Method 2: Create a new user account and check.

Create a user account

If the issue does not persists in new user account then, try to fix the corrupted profile.

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 computer and check.

Method 3: Restore your PC to an earlier point in time and check.

http://windows.microsoft.com/is-is/windows-8/restore-refresh-reset-pc

Note:  Do not Reset or Refresh the PC.

Please post back with the results and we will be happy to assist you further.

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-05-13T16:51:55+00:00

    Hi Sharief,

    i'm going to try these solutions on an other person's computer so i would like to clarify something before I make a mistake. Concerning Method 2 (new profile):

    To fix the corrupted profile, you propose to copy the files from the old profile to the new profile.

    Shouldn't it be the opposite ? As it is the old profile that we want to repair ? Otherwise we may copy the corrupted files from the old to the new profile, no ?

    Is your method applied in order to use the new profile afterwards or to keep the old one ?

    I hope i'm clear,

    Thank you,

    Adrien

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-03-13T12:31:05+00:00

    Hi Gary,

    Please post your query in the following forums for better assistance on this issue.

    https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/home?category=windowsserver&filter=alltypes&sort=lastpostdesc

    Thank you.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-03-10T03:25:07+00:00

    Hi, I had same issue and then I created a new VM 2008 and start working on it and few days later I got the same error message on the new box, not sure why it happened on the new box. The new computer was in the computer OU, I have asked the team to move to server OU, but now sure what causing  the issue on new VM.

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