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[xwb]

I've been using a machine with XP Home for about a year. The machine is on SP3. Other than that, it hasn't had any updates. It is connected to a LAN and it is in a workgroup. I just use it for experimentation. It is not connected to the internet.

My wife uses it occasionally. About a week ago, when she logged in, her desktop had disappeared. I had a look in Documents and Settings and it was there but then I noticed a new account with <username>.<machine name>. It looks like windows has decided to create a new profile and switch to it instead of using the old one.

How do I get windows to revert back to <username> instead of <username>.<machine name>.

 

[BadBigBen]

are you sure it is just a WORKGROUP that you have set up? or did you have at one time setup a domain?

usually, when XP thinks it is in a DOMAIN, it will create a new profile in the format <username>.<domainname>...

you could try this, log on with: computername\username (in a domain this is how you would log on locally and one reason why I keep computernames short and simple ;-) ) and see which profile it takes...

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"

 

[xwb]

Can't have logged in as a domain because it is just clicking on a picture. I've never done the ctrl-alt-del bit on this machine to get a domain login.

The only thing I can think of is that I use my wife's account to access the server. Normally it uses username, which I assume is servername\username. Since it switched profiles, it has been using machinename\username.

Anyway, I found a fix. In the registry, HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList, there is a key with a .bak. The one without the .bak is for <username>.<machinename>. The one with .bak is for <username>. I just swapped the two round and it works as it used to.

 

[BadBigBen]

glad to hear that you have it sorted...

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"