After Windows 7 upgrade, profile is in C:\Users\TEMP

Question

After upgrading Vista-64 to Win7-64, my profile is somehow mixed up in my actual C:\Users\[username]\ folder and also in C:\Users\TEMP\. It seems to mostly be in TEMP, including my registry data.

I find it very difficult to find useful information about resolving this issue, so I plan to try to merge the two folders and correct the registry manually.

If anyone has any information about this problem, or any advice on fixing the registry after effectively renaming a profile, I'd appreciate it. I still need to figure out if I should do this while logged into this account or switch to the other account that seems to be fine.

Thanks in advance.

Solution 1

Do this under the Windows 7 Administrator account or a new account with administrator privileges. Do not do it while logged to any of the affected accounts.

To enable the default Administrator account:

1. Execute secpol.msc in the Run... box.
2. Goto Local Policies -> Security Options.
3. Double-click on option Accounts: Administrator account status and enable it.

However, you may want to first try and have Windows 7 instruct you on all proceedings:

1. Start -> Control Panel
2. System Security -> Find and Fix Problems
3. Make sure Get the most up-to-date troubleshooters from the Windows Online troubleshooting service is enabled
4. Click Help & Support down the bottom of the left pane
5. Search for "Profile"
6. Select "Fix a corrupted user profile"

It will teach you on how to create a new profile and copy any necessary files from older profiles.

Solution 2

Go to Properties of My Computer, and then to User Profiles.

Copy the default profile to this location:

c:\users\<yourloginname> (e.g. c:\users\stephenh)

Do net forget to type "everyone" in the "Permitted to use" box.

You'll get a new profile as soon as you login, this time at the correct location. Since it's brand new, you're settings are all new.

Comments

[sqlHippo]

This sounds promising. I'll try it out tonight or tomorrow. Thank you.

[sqlHippo]

This didn't do it for me exactly, but after reading through it and playing around a bit, what I actually did was merge everything into C:\\Users\\Temp, then I renamed it to my username and created a junction called Temp that pointed to my folder. After that, I logged in and manually changed every instance of the wrong path to the right one in Regedit. I'd have killed for a Find/Replace feature!