Problem w/User Accounts in Vista

[Tom11]

I recently purchased a used Vista Home Premium Laptop which runs fine but I have a problem creating user accounts. There is one account on the machine which is called 'Admin' and is an administrator account. In Explorer the account shows as 'user'.( C:\Users\user) and in the Registry there is one active account ( HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\S-1-5-21-long number, no .bak) There are 3 other S-1-5 entries (-18,-19, & -20) but no other entries followed by a long number. I turned UAC off and created a user account, also an Administrator. I can log onto the machine using this account, but there is a message to the effect that the profile could not be loaded so it copied the default user profile. It does this with every start up. There is still no entry in C:\Users\ nor any other entry in the ProfileList. I checked the Event Viewer Log and found 2 errors (1505 and 1511). After multiple searches on these errors, I cannot find a solution which fits the scenario I'm dealing with. Can anyone tell me how to get the system to recognize the new user and create the correct entries in the Registry and under C:\Users\ ?
Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[BadBigBen]

Once logged into Vista, check the permissions on the USER folder, alternatively takeover ownership of the whole drive...
as it seems that the user (or System) can create any folders in the USER folder...

and if I happen to purchase a used laptop/PC, the first thing I always do: reformat and do a fresh install of the OS, that way I wont have to deal with stuff like the above...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[Tom11]

Thank you for your reply.
I did as you suggested and reset the permissions on this folder, i.e. I gave Administrators and users Full Control. I then created another account, a standard account, with UAC still off, and restarted the machine. The new account appeared on the login page but an attempt to use this account failed with the message about the User Profile service failed the login, the profile could not be created, etc. It did not offer to copy the Default Profile as it does with the other account.
At this point I guess there are at least a few things I don't understand... When a new user is created, is the directory entry under C:\Users\'new user' then created? If not, when is it created? Next, as I understand it, any changes to the registry are made to the registry in memory and then written to the drive on shutdown, but the user profile is not created until the first logon of that user. Is this correct? Next, if the system won't create the sub-directory entry under C:\Users\ for the new user, can it be created manually, using the user name just created in Control Panel>User Accounts, and entries from one of the other users copied to that sub-directory? I realize that this is a 'back door' way of doing things, but the primary task is to create user accounts. I'd also like to understand the reason they can't be created in the correct way, and fix the problem if I can.

Thanks again.

 

[BadBigBen]

>> I gave Administrators and users Full Control.
what about the SYSTEM? I think this is where the problem lies, but then again I've had nothing like this happen to me before...

>> When a new user is created, is the directory entry under C:\Users\'new user' then created?
No. It is created when the user logs onto the machine for the first time.

>> Next, as I understand it, any changes to the registry are made to the registry in memory and then written to the drive on shutdown, but the user profile is not created until the first logon of that user. Is this correct?
only partially correct, changes to the registry are saved in the registry upon exiting regedit...

>> Next, if the system won't create the sub-directory entry under C:\Users\ for the new user, can it be created manually, using the user name just created in Control Panel>User Accounts, and entries from one of the other users copied to that sub-directory?
you can copy the DEFAULT user account and then rename it to said user...



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[Tom11]

Thanks for your suggestions and my apologies for the delay in responding. I had a family member in the hospital and had to let everything else slide.
As it turns out, SYSTEM did have full control, but I added 'Everyone' and was able to create the new directories and copy the 'Default' profile. Unfortunately, the newly created account doesn't work, i.e. I can use the account, but I still have the message that the profile could not be loaded and system is still using the 'Default' account. Also, I still have the 1505 & 1511 error codes in Event Viewer. I also have errors 4101 & 9003. Sadly, the information in Event Viewer is very sparse. The only information in the event report is that "The system cannot find the file specified." It doesn't say which file it couldn't find.

 

[BadBigBen]

Sorry to hear about the family member, hope everything is fine there...

OK, take a look on the C drive if the Default User account exists at all... you may also have to log into the machine using SafeMode, then search for the following file UsrClass.dat and rename it to UsrClass.old then reboot and log in with the newly created account...
see:

https://www.eventid.net/display.asp?eventid=1505&eventno=2504&source=Userenv&phase=1

now Event ID 1511, usually only happens when the machine is in a domain...
see:
A temporary user profile is created every time that you log on to a Windows Vista-based computer that is connected to a domain

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940453/en-us

Event ID 4101 - is usually a graphic driver issue, reinstall or upgrade the driver... this is where the missing file error might be coming from, though that may not be the issue...

Event ID 9003 - this is an information only event, it is not an error...

I would really consider at this stage to go ahead and do a complete fresh install of the OS... then set it up the way you want it, once done create an image and store it on an external drive, in case you have to redo the laptop at a later time, and periodically do backups for just the same reason or to keep personal data from being destroyed once you have it set up and been running for a while...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"