Yet another Windows problem

[Colin Brett]

This time it's at start up. I'm getting a screen that presents me with a button "other user", I don't have "other user". I have to start in last known configuration to get the damn thing working.

 

Win7 64bit with SP1 installed.

 

HELP

[Phone]

Colin,

 

I cannot cpell computer. However I often turn my computer off by going to the ball in the extreme lower left corner - then in the extreme lower right corner is a little ">" - in that menu I usually click "shut down" but there is an option "switch user". I've not a clue what that means.

 

Phone

[kirisute]

This time it's at start up. I'm getting a screen that presents me with a button "other user", I don't have "other user". I have to start in last known configuration to get the damn thing working.

 

Win7 64bit with SP1 installed.

 

HELP

sounds like your user profile registry entry is corrupted.

best thing to do is start in safe mode.

open control panel then users and create a new user as an administrator

restart and log onto the new user account.

once your on the new log in account you can either locate all your "old" user files and copy them to the new location. they will be stored under c:\users\<username>

you can literally copy and paste everything from your old account to the new one. things like iTunes and contacts etc will be moved across with the user files.

 

if you don't fancy doing all that then just use the new account to perform clean up and scan routines on your drive and hope they resolve the issue.

[mono]

Hi Colin.

 

Give this a try as i have had this myself.

 

Restart PC in safe mode

Then navigate to C:\Users and rename don't delete your user profile. Rename it to something like ZZZ

 

Then click start, run, and type regedit

 

Navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList”

(Look through each Profile key under this reg key and view the “ProfileImagePath” to find which key is related to which user so you should see something like this

 

ProfileImagePath Reg_Expand_SZ C:\Users\ your username.

 

Once you find your user profile. Delete that key from the registry

 

Restart PC and Login using your username and current password.

 

Pc should then log back in with a default profile and you can then copy all the data into the new profile from the old one you renamed.

 

All the best.

 

MoNo.

 

[Newt]

I usually click "shut down" but there is an option "switch user". I've not a clue what that means.

Phone, you can set up accounts for more than one user on a PC and each user can set things up to suit themselves then when they log on they will see "their computer". For instance, a grandson used to spend summers with us and used a spare PC we kept for emergencies and for his use - mostly games, email, and a few other things. He used his name for a login and could do the things he enjoyed but with no access to change any system things or install any new programs. I had an account for me set up on there as well that could do all of those things.

 

If he was logged on, I could do the "switch user" thing and it would bring up my logon. I could log on and work while his account simply slept in the background but was still running. At any time, he could switch to his account by doing a switch user and logging back in - faster than doing it from scratch since his stuff was all loaded but just not active.

 

Some work PCs that are used on all shifts by different people can also be set up that way since My Documents and other personal files are only available to the logged on user and to an administrator.

 

Its alway good to have at least one user account with admin rights that you don't normally use just so you can recover from a situation like Colin almost got in where the damaged account can't even be used since even then the personal stuff from the damaged account is still on the PC and can be copied to any new account you have to create.