Vista - The User Profile Service service failed the logon. User Profile cannot be loaded

melisahe8778 wrote:
Restart the computer and as it is starting up repeatedly tap the F8 key.
This will get you to the correct menu to choose Safe Mode. Use your arrow
key to select Safe Mode and hit the Enter key. This will take you to the
Welcome Screen. If you see an icon for Administrator, click on it. The
default password is a blank. If you can get into the system, go to Control
Panel>User Accounts and make new user accounts, etc.

If there is no Administrator icon on the Welcome Screen, since the only
administrative account on the system has been corrupted and the built-in
administrator account is disabled by default in Vista, you will need to use
third-party software to enable the built-in Administrator account, log in,
create an administrative user account for emergencies/elevations, a new
Standard user account for yourself, and copy your data from your old
corrupted account to the new one.

I'll give you instructions to do all of this but they do require a certain
level of computer skills. Only you know whether a better course of action
for you will be to take the machine to a local computer technician. If you
go this latter route, I don't recommend using a BigComputerStore/GeekSquad
type of place.

*****
1. In Vista, if you neglected to create an extra emergency user account that
has administrative privileges (and now you see why doing this is A Good
Thing), you will need to use NTpasswd to enable the built-in Administrator
account (disabled by default) and set a null (blank) password. Enabling
this account will put an icon for it on the logon screen so you can then
log on.

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Download the CD image (.iso) and burn as an image, not as data. You will
need third-party burning software. Then boot with the CD you created and
follow the directions. After you've finished with NTpasswd, remove the CD
and reboot the computer. Log into the Administrator account you enabled.

2. Once you have logged into the built-in Administrator account, go to
Control Panel>User Accounts and create:

a. An administrative user account - call it "CompAdmin" or "Tech" or the
like. This account will only be used for emergencies and elevation.
b. A Standard user account for your daily work.

3. Log out of the built-in Administrator account and into your new Standard
user account so the profile folders/files are created. Do nothing else here
right now.

4. Log out of your new Standard user account and log into CompAdmin. While
in CompAdmin, disable the built-in Administrator account for security
purposes:

Start Orb>Search box>type: cmd
When cmd appears in Results above, right-click it and choose "Run as
administrator" [OK]. Now you will get the command prompt. At the command
prompt type:

net user administrator /active:no [enter]

Exit the command prompt.

5. Still in CompAdmin, copy the data from your old corrupted user account to
your new Standard user account. OK any UAC prompts you receive while
navigating the other user directories.

6. Log out of CompAdmin and into your new Standard User Account. After you
are sure all your stuff is there, you can delete the corrupted user account
from the User Accounts applet in Control Panel.
*****

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

I tried the tutorial and the system restore. They both do not work for me. Is there anything else I can do?

Hello Jiig,

Usually when both of these options fail, your installation may be beyond repairing. If you have not already, you can try older restore point dates to see if one may work instead. If you have, then it looks like you may need to do a clean reinstall.

Shawn

Hi, I'll be the first to admit I'm not at all tech savy so that warning put on the table, here goes.

This message suddenly appeared on my one month old Dell laptop. I've tried hitting the F8 key with no results. I put the system OS dvd in the drive and restarted the laptop with again no results.

Other than the shut down option button and the Ease of access button and the laptop's name and password box the screen is completely blank?

Any other suggestions?

Bonnie2288 wrote:
This error can usually be fixed by following the steps below. Doing all this
requires a certain level of computer skills. You know yourself best and
whether taking the machine to a competent local computer tech (not a
BigComputerStore/GeekSquad type of place) is the better solution for you.

1. Log into another user account with administrative privileges. If you
neglected to make an extra administrative account do Steps 2-3. Otherwise
continue at Step 4. Also see the general information about setting up user
accounts in Vista at the end of this post.

2. Boot into Safe Mode. Do this by repeatedly tapping the F8 key as the
computer is starting up. This will get you to the right menu where you can
use your arrow key to select Safe Mode [enter]. The built-in Administrator
account is disabled by default in Vista. However, if no other
administrative accounts exist on the system it may be enabled. If it is,
you will see an icon for Administrator on the Welcome Screen in Safe Mode.
Log into Administrator.

3. If If you don't see the icon for the Administrator account in Safe Mode,
then the built-in Administrator account is still disabled. You will need to
use NTpasswd to enable the built-in Administrator account (disabled by
default) and set a null (blank) password. Enabling this account will put an
icon for it on the logon screen so you can then log on.

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Download the CD image (.iso) and burn as an image, not as data. You will
need third-party burning software. Then boot with the CD you created and
follow the directions. After you've finished with NTpasswd, remove the CD
and reboot the computer. Log into the Administrator account you enabled.

4. The critical files are under %systemdrive%\users\user-account\ntuser. The
ntuser.dat file is actually a registry hive. Run Regedit elevated and
select HKEY_USERS and "load hive" from the menu. Now navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

There is one line for each profile. If a profile is bad, check:

a) That the key name doesn't end in ".bak" (remove .bak if there)
b) That the RefCount value is 0 (change it if different)
c) That the State value is 0 (change if different)

Make any necessary changes, close Regedit and try to log in as that user.

5. If that doesn't fix your profile, it is corrupted. At that point you can
either make a new user account and copy your data to it or simply make a
new user account and delete the old corrupted one. Do not delete the old
account until you have retrieved data you need! Post back if you need help
in creating a new user account and copying data to it.

General information about setting up users in Vista - You absolutely do not
want to have only one user account. Like XP and all other modern operating
systems, Vista is a multi-user operating system with built-in system
accounts such as Administrator, Default, All Users, and Guest. These
accounts should be left alone as they are part of the operating system
structure.

You particularly don't want only one user account with administrative
privileges on Vista because the built-in Administrator account (normally
only used in emergencies) is disabled by default. If you're running as
Administrator for your daily work and that account gets corrupted, things
will be Difficult. It isn't impossible to activate the built-in
Administrator to rescue things, but it will require third-party tools and
working outside the operating system.

The user account that is for your daily work should be a Standard user, with
the extra administrative user (call it something like "CompAdmin" or "Tech"
or the like) only there for elevation purposes. After you create
"CompAdmin", log into it and change your regular user account to Standard.
Then log back into your regular account.

If you want to go directly to the Desktop and skip the Welcome Screen with
the icons of user accounts, you can do this:

Start Orb>Search box>type: netplwiz [enter]
Click on Continue (or supply an administrator's password) when prompted by
UAC

Uncheck the option "Users must enter a user name and password to use this
computer". Select a user account to automatically log on by clicking on the
desired account to highlight it and then hit OK. Enter the correct password
for that user account (if there is one) when prompted. Leave it blank if
there is no password (null).

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

Malke wrote:

Addedum:

After you have logged into an Administrator account (after Step 1 or
possibly Steps 2-3), try a System Restore first. This may fix the issue and
you will be able to log into your user account without going through the
rest of Steps 4-5.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

Malke;4416943 Wrote:I tried the System Restore yesterday and it worked perfectly. This is
especially helpful if you only have made the mistake of having only 1
administrator account. As you can guess, I am not a very technical
person but the information I found here was so helpful that I wish to
add my 2 cents in hopes of helping someone else.

These are the steps I took:

1. I booted the computer in Safe Mode by clicking F8 at start. (thanks
Malke)

2. Clicked on the icon for my Administrator. I was actually able to
log on to the Administrator account in Safe Mode.

3. Entered control panel and selected System and Maintenance. I then
followed the instructions for a System Restore. This System Restore
function enables you to restore your computer to the way it was on any
date in the past (cool eh?). I followed the prompts to restore my
computer to the way it was 1 day before my Administrator Account Profile
Service failed the logon.

4. The operating system took me back in time to the day before I first
started having problems. I am now able to log on to my Administrator
account.

5. I immediately went to Control Panel and created 2 new users. I
assigned each new user Administrator status. I also copied all my old
documents, bookmarks, music and photos to the Public folder so they can
be shared with the new users I created.

I wish to thank everyone for the tips.


--
tshakaworld
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tshakaworld wrote:
I'm very glad that worked for you. The only thing I would take issue with is
your Step 5. The user accounts for daily work should be Standard users, not
administrative. This will help protect you from malware. Make sure you have
created an administrative account - I suggest something like CompAdmin or
Tech. Then log into that account and make your daily accounts Standard from
the Users applet in Control Panel.

Also, don't forget to back up regularly.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

Hi, tshakaworld.

Congratulations!

I have one little quibble with your advice. In your Step 3 you said:Yes, that's cool. But not quite that cool. We can restore to the way it
was on SOME date in the past. But not just ANY date.

The System Restore service automatically creates restore points at certain
times, such as just before we install an application. And we can manually
create restore points at other times. But storage space on our hard drive
is not unlimited, so saved restore points get deleted when necessary to make
room for new ones. And some actions can cause us to lose saved restored
points.

System Restore can seem like "cool" magic when it works, but use it with
discretion. And don't rely on it to solve ALL problems.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 RC 7100


"tshakaworld" <tshakaworld.3sh1bb@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:tshakaworld.3sh1bb@xxxxxx

I get the same message. I tried the steps in the Tutorial "How to fix the error 'The user Profile service fail...'". The problem that I have is that the account that gets the error message does not exist in the registry nor does it exist in the user accounts list. It is a domain account and all other domain accounts can log into the computer. The domain account is able to log into different computer. The domain account only receives this error message on this one computer. Any suggestions?