Vista - what exactly is Ntuser?

what exactly is ntuser...it popped up out of nowhere about 3 days ago..and its kind of annoyin me..from what i heard is that it is a very important file for your computer..my question is why would it pop up in my user profile randomly...i got no rights to move it or rename it...even as an admin acc, its now on both my comps...

NTUser.dat is the file containing the Hkey_Current_User hive of the Registry and contains all your user settings, desktop customizations, etc. Consequently Windows will hold the file open all the time you're logged in. If you fool with it it will go BANG!

heh like your enthusiastic answer...anyways..why would it be where it is now? it was never there before..maybe hidden somewhere..? oh well thanks

Yes it's usually hidden. Did you change the View settings to show hidden or system files? If it gets on your nerves press Alt in Explorer, Tools, Folder Options, View, Do Not Show Hidden Files And Folders and it should disappear quick-smart

actually it's on do not show hidden files...but its still there...

OK I did a search from the root using dir ntuser.dat /s and got File Not Found, which is what you would expect. I then did dir ntuser.dat /s /ash (search for files with the Hidden and System attributes set) and found it it in my profile directory, which is where it should be and where your version is. If you have not set Explorer to show hidden files, which you obviously haven't, it should be invisible. You could try and disappear it with attrib +h as a last resort...

Sorry that seems a bit offhand: right-click your user folder with Shift held down and the context menu will contain the extra item Open Command Window Here. When you have the console up, use the command Attrib +h NTUser.dat which should make the offending file disappear.

yay it worked!

I'm having the same problem. In my folder options i have Do not show hidden files and folders checked and Hide important system files check but the NTUsers.dat file is still apearing... I tried your solution with the attrib +h NTUser.dat but it says file not found any help would be great thanks~

The only other thing that springs to mind is starting the prompt as Administrator (click on the orb, type cmd, then pess Ctrl-Shift-Enter) and then navigate to the relevant folder and do the attrib +h thing