Vista - Duplicate user accounts after Vista SP1 installed

I just installed the Vista SP1 and the first noticeable effect is that I
now have duplicate user accounts. For example, on my login in screen, I
have two icons and password entry boxes for my administrator account,
either of which I can use.

There is some discussion of this type of problem here and across
different forums. However, the two usual suggested solutions don't seem
to apply.

(1) Look for a windows.old directory in C:\ and delete it.

This suggestion seems to apply to upgrades from XP to Vista or from one
flavour of Vista to another. Anyway, I couldn't find a windows.old
directory.

(2) If you have a fingerprint reader, uninstall and reinstall the
Omnipass software (or go to the Omnipass website and download a patch).

I do have an integrated fingerprint reader -but- it is a TouchChip
Fingerprint device with UPEK software.

Nevertheless, I tried uninstalling the software and the device. This
does not solve the problem and leaves me still with duplicate user
accounts.

So, I'd appreciate any suggestions.

wohz

(I have a Dell XPS M1530 running Vista Ultimate)


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wohz
Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com

Hi wohz, my name is John, and I work at Dell headquarters. I ran across your post, and saw you didn't have an answer yet, and decided I'd try and help.

Uninstalling the fingerprint reader software isn't necessarily going to fix your user profile corruption, and unfortunately, the only way I can think of to fix it for sure would be to reformat the drive and reinstall Windows. I would guess that the service pack installation couldn't access the user accounts due to the fingerprint reader software and instead just recreated them for some reason.

I would recommend reinstalling Windows and all device drivers except your fingerprint reader software, then install SP1, and save installing the biometric software for last. In theory, this should fix your problem.

Let me know how this goes.

John
Dell Customer Advocate

John,

Thanks, that sounds like a plausible explanation and the appropriate
response. I don't quite have the time for the next couple of days to do
a full windows reinstall, but I'll post what happened when I do.

wohz


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wohz
Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com

In case anyone else is having this problem I'd thought I'd add this
info.

Not having time to follow John's reinstall Windows suggestion just now
I tried to delete the duplicated user account.

The problem had been that on the Welcome screen I now see two versions
of the same log in, although in the control panel I do not see two
actual identical users.

So for the delete I first backed up files of course (it's a pretty new
computer so there wasn't so much to back up) and then created a new
administrator account, intending to log into it and delete the old user
account.

However, on restart, both these accounts now appeared duplicated on the
Welcome Screen, so I stopped this tactic.


--
wohz
Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com