I've just finished restoring a massively corrupt XP Home installation (SP1;
will download SP2 right away) on a three-year-old Compaq Presario 2.4 GHz
desktop using the OEM restore partition. (Yes, I prefer a restore CD but do
not have one for this machine.)

I recalled reading about a procedure some time ago for copying settings
between user profiles, and located Article ID 811151, "How to copy data from
a corrupted user profile to a new profile," on the Knowledgebase. I followed
each step in the article, using a test profile just to be sure the procedure
worked before using it to create eight additional profiles for family members.

I do a lot of customization to the Desktop such as, for instance, pulling
the Taskbar up to double height (which has the convenient effect of showing
the day and date along with the time) and adding the Address toolbar to the
Taskbar; removing all icons from the background and putting shortcuts to
several Windows applets(Recycle Bin, My Computer, System Properties, Windows
Explorer), as well as frequently used apps like Winamp and the so-called
"alternate" browsers, in the Quick Launch toolbar; changing the time setting
to 24-hour; using the TweakUI Powertoy to stop those incessant "balloon"
messages in the Notification Area, and so on.

Anyway, I first modified an existing proflie with my preferences as outlined
above, then created a new profile, "Test," as the destination. After
following the steps given in the article, I logged off my own administrator
profile, which is neither the source nor the destination, and then logged
into the new profile. Unfortunately, none of the setting customizations were
present; the "Test" profile instead displayed the appearance of a default new
profile, without any of my desired mods.

All three profiles involved have administrator credentials so I'm sure
that's not the problem. I don't believe I misread any of the steps in the
article -- tried the whole thing twice -- so I'm stumped. Who has actually
used this procedure successfully with XP Home and can tell me what might be
causing the issue?

I must say I'm curious as to why the article does not mention the need to
resolve the several "Confirm Folder/File Replace" dialogs that present during
the "paste" process, generated because all folders and files being brought
over from the source profile are already present in the destination profile.
As thorough as the steps seem otherwise, I'm surprised the author skipped
right over this.

Like most of you, I stay away from XP Home as much as possible, using Pro on
all my own machines. The computer I'm rescuing belongs to relatives and I'm
not about to spend the time and money to bump it up to Pro, much as I'd like
to. In any event, I don't suppose the issue is caused by XP Home itself.

So then, a penny for your thoughts?

Paul,

The NTUSER.DAT stores the user profile settings (Desktop customizations, Quick Launch settings and so forth). KB811151 tells how to extract the *data* from a corrupted profile, but not the user settings from that profile.

Perhaps this is what you're looking for.

How to create a custom default user profile:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=319974

-or-

"Copy a user profile"
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/d...file_copy.mspx

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


"Paul" <jazzveggies@juno.com.(donotspam)> wrote in message news:18CEA4A0-0E91-47F1-BF68-C1D4CAA76AB9@microsoft.com...
I've just finished restoring a massively corrupt XP Home installation (SP1;
will download SP2 right away) on a three-year-old Compaq Presario 2.4 GHz
desktop using the OEM restore partition. (Yes, I prefer a restore CD but do
not have one for this machine.)

I recalled reading about a procedure some time ago for copying settings
between user profiles, and located Article ID 811151, "How to copy data from
a corrupted user profile to a new profile," on the Knowledgebase. I followed
each step in the article, using a test profile just to be sure the procedure
worked before using it to create eight additional profiles for family members.

I do a lot of customization to the Desktop such as, for instance, pulling
the Taskbar up to double height (which has the convenient effect of showing
the day and date along with the time) and adding the Address toolbar to the
Taskbar; removing all icons from the background and putting shortcuts to
several Windows applets(Recycle Bin, My Computer, System Properties, Windows
Explorer), as well as frequently used apps like Winamp and the so-called
"alternate" browsers, in the Quick Launch toolbar; changing the time setting
to 24-hour; using the TweakUI Powertoy to stop those incessant "balloon"
messages in the Notification Area, and so on.

Anyway, I first modified an existing proflie with my preferences as outlined
above, then created a new profile, "Test," as the destination. After
following the steps given in the article, I logged off my own administrator
profile, which is neither the source nor the destination, and then logged
into the new profile. Unfortunately, none of the setting customizations were
present; the "Test" profile instead displayed the appearance of a default new
profile, without any of my desired mods.

All three profiles involved have administrator credentials so I'm sure
that's not the problem. I don't believe I misread any of the steps in the
article -- tried the whole thing twice -- so I'm stumped. Who has actually
used this procedure successfully with XP Home and can tell me what might be
causing the issue?

I must say I'm curious as to why the article does not mention the need to
resolve the several "Confirm Folder/File Replace" dialogs that present during
the "paste" process, generated because all folders and files being brought
over from the source profile are already present in the destination profile.
As thorough as the steps seem otherwise, I'm surprised the author skipped
right over this.

Like most of you, I stay away from XP Home as much as possible, using Pro on
all my own machines. The computer I'm rescuing belongs to relatives and I'm
not about to spend the time and money to bump it up to Pro, much as I'd like
to. In any event, I don't suppose the issue is caused by XP Home itself.

So then, a penny for your thoughts?

Hi, Ramesh:

Yes, looking at those two article titles, I think the first one is just what
I'm looking for. Thanks very much for your kind assistance!

Best regards,

Paul :^)

"Ramesh, MS-MVP" wrote:

> Paul,
>
> The NTUSER.DAT stores the user profile settings (Desktop customizations, Quick Launch settings and so forth). KB811151 tells how to extract the *data* from a corrupted profile, but not the user settings from that profile.
>
> Perhaps this is what you're looking for.
>
> How to create a custom default user profile:
> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=319974
>
> -or-
>
> "Copy a user profile"
> http://www.microsoft.com/resources/d...file_copy.mspx
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
> Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com
>
>
> "Paul" <jazzveggies@juno.com.(donotspam)> wrote in message news:18CEA4A0-0E91-47F1-BF68-C1D4CAA76AB9@microsoft.com...
> I've just finished restoring a massively corrupt XP Home installation (SP1;
> will download SP2 right away) on a three-year-old Compaq Presario 2.4 GHz
> desktop using the OEM restore partition. (Yes, I prefer a restore CD but do
> not have one for this machine.)
>
> I recalled reading about a procedure some time ago for copying settings
> between user profiles, and located Article ID 811151, "How to copy data from
> a corrupted user profile to a new profile," on the Knowledgebase. I followed
> each step in the article, using a test profile just to be sure the procedure
> worked before using it to create eight additional profiles for family members.
>
> I do a lot of customization to the Desktop such as, for instance, pulling
> the Taskbar up to double height (which has the convenient effect of showing
> the day and date along with the time) and adding the Address toolbar to the
> Taskbar; removing all icons from the background and putting shortcuts to
> several Windows applets(Recycle Bin, My Computer, System Properties, Windows
> Explorer), as well as frequently used apps like Winamp and the so-called
> "alternate" browsers, in the Quick Launch toolbar; changing the time setting
> to 24-hour; using the TweakUI Powertoy to stop those incessant "balloon"
> messages in the Notification Area, and so on.
>
> Anyway, I first modified an existing proflie with my preferences as outlined
> above, then created a new profile, "Test," as the destination. After
> following the steps given in the article, I logged off my own administrator
> profile, which is neither the source nor the destination, and then logged
> into the new profile. Unfortunately, none of the setting customizations were
> present; the "Test" profile instead displayed the appearance of a default new
> profile, without any of my desired mods.
>
> All three profiles involved have administrator credentials so I'm sure
> that's not the problem. I don't believe I misread any of the steps in the
> article -- tried the whole thing twice -- so I'm stumped. Who has actually
> used this procedure successfully with XP Home and can tell me what might be
> causing the issue?
>
> I must say I'm curious as to why the article does not mention the need to
> resolve the several "Confirm Folder/File Replace" dialogs that present during
> the "paste" process, generated because all folders and files being brought
> over from the source profile are already present in the destination profile.
> As thorough as the steps seem otherwise, I'm surprised the author skipped
> right over this.
>
> Like most of you, I stay away from XP Home as much as possible, using Pro on
> all my own machines. The computer I'm rescuing belongs to relatives and I'm
> not about to spend the time and money to bump it up to Pro, much as I'd like
> to. In any event, I don't suppose the issue is caused by XP Home itself.
>
> So then, a penny for your thoughts?
>

You're welcome :-)

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


"Paul" <jazzveggies@juno.com.(donotspam)> wrote in message news:B34B3DCD-D7A4-4A77-B43C-333E8A90DC94@microsoft.com...
Hi, Ramesh:

Yes, looking at those two article titles, I think the first one is just what
I'm looking for. Thanks very much for your kind assistance!

Best regards,

Paul :^)

"Ramesh, MS-MVP" wrote