Fix Corrupt Windows 7 Temporary Profile

While working with Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system over the past few months I have noticed that sometimes when working with multiple profiles that they can sometimes get corrupted. The error I would receive says that “You are logged into a Temporary Profile.” This means that anything that user would do under that profile would get wiped immediately upon logging off. This problem seems to happen more frequently when it is a member of a domain. This will show you how to fix the profile error in Windows 7 without having to simply wipe the profile. This can come in very handy sometimes and has saved me hours of backing up and transferring profile data.

Note – I highly recommend creating a boot or rescue disk before starting any windows 7 technical projects. There are many tools in the market and I use Spotmau BootSuite rescue software and boot disk utility because of it’s versatile features and top notch performance.

Windows 7 – Temporary Profile

Step 1

Restart your PC to release the locks on your profiles.

Step 2

Log on with another administrative account.

Step 3

Delete the following folder: (you could also follow the steps below by simply renaming the bad profile to .bak)

C:\Users\%username%

Step 4

Delete the following folder:

C:\Users\TEMP

Step 5

Browse to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

Find the registry key that has the “ProfileImagePath” entry that matches the username of the account.
Make a note of the GUID entry a few lines above, you will need this later. Now delete the entire registry key from the “ProfileList” folder.

Step 6

Now in the registry, browse one folder above to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\ProfileGuid

Delete the registry key (that matches the GUID you made note of in Step 5) from the folder.

Step 7

Restart once again and then you’re done!