Vista - User Profile Error - Logged on with a Temporary Profile

Information

When you log on to Vista using a temporary profile (user account), and you receive this error message: For more information, see: Microsoft Help and Support: KB947242 Your user profile was not loaded correctly! You have been logged on with a temporary profile. Changes you make to this profile will be lost when you log off. Please see the event log for details or contact your administrator.

Tip

This problem usually occurs if the current user's profile was accidentally deleted from the system or got corrupted.

WARNING

If you have this error message below instead, then see: How to Fix the Error "The User Profile Service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded." The User Profile Service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded.

• How To Perform a Repair Installation For Vista
• How to Do a System Restore in Vista
• How to Do a Startup Repair in Vista
• How to Do a Clean Install of Vista with a Upgrade Version
• How to Do a Clean Install with a Full Version of Vista
• How to Fix the Error "The User Profile Service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded."

NOTE

Go down the list here until you find a option that will work for you.

1. Logon to another Administrator account.
NOTE: If you do not have another Administrator account, then proceed to step 2.

A) Go to the STEP TWO section below.

2. Boot into Safe Mode.
NOTE: You may not need to enable the built-in Administrator account. If this was the only normal administrator account you had, then Safe Mode should automatically boot into the built-in Administrator account. See: How to Start Vista in Safe Mode

A) If Safe Mode did not, then enable the Built-in Administrator account. If it did , then go to step 2C.
NOTE: See: How to Enable or Disable the Real Built-in Administrator Account in Vista

B) Logoff, and logon to the Built-in Administrator account.

C) Go to the STEP TWO section below.

1. Delete the User account profile that this error is for.
WARNING: You should backup anything you do not want to lose in this user account personal folders first. (See note in step 10) They will be located at: C:\Users\(username)

2. Open the Start menu.

3. In the white line (Start Search) area, type regedit and press Enter.

4. If prompted, click on Continue in the UAC prompt.

5. In regedit, go to: (See screenshot below step 7)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

6. In the left pane, click on one of the S-1-5..... folders (SID key) with the long number in it. (See screenshot below step 7)
NOTE: It should have .bak at the end of it.

A) In the right pane, look at the ProfileImagePath to see if this is the same user account that you deleted in step 1 above.

B) Repeat step 6 until you find the one that you deleted in step 1 above.

7. To Backup the Registry SID Key -
WARNING: You should backup this SID key to be safe in case you delete the wrong one in step 8 below.

A) Right click on the SID key, and click on Export.

B) Type in a name and save the REG file to a safe location.
NOTE: This is your backup. To Restore the Backup, right click on the REG backup file and click on Merge.

C) Continue on to step 8.

8. To Delete the Registry SID Key -

A) Right click on the SID key, from step 6 with bak at the end, and click on Delete. (See screenshot above)

B) Click on Yes to confirm deletion. (See screenshot below)

9. Close regedit.

10. Logoff and logon.
NOTE: After you logon to the computer, the profile folder you are having problems with is re-created. If not, then try a System Restore using a restore point dated before you got this error. If this still dows not help, then you will need to create a new account and restore the user folder files afterwards from the warning in step 1. See: How to Create a New User Account in Vista