Copying user profiles

[Rod]

Does anyone know how I can copy one user's profile
(desktop settings, etc.) to another, and/or create a new
user by copying the settings of an existing one?

 

[R. McCarty]

Profiles can be copied with one qualifier. You cannot copy the
currently open/in-use profile. Also, if you copy a profile it will
also copy all of the content of My Documents, which is not
desirable.

The profile that will be overwritten must be created prior to the
profile copy.
**If you wish to install a profile that will be applied to any future
users on the PC. Copy the Master Profile to "Default User".

Right Click My Computer
Left Click Properties
Click Advanced Tab
Click Settings
Highlight Existing Profile to clone
Browse to C:\Documents and Settings
Click on the Username to receive the Profile Overwrite
A warning message will appear that all existing data will be
overwritten.

 

[rod]

Thanks - this worked fine. However I've now tried to do
the same thing on my Home PC, recently upgraded from ME to
XP Home. This time I got an error message saying
(something like) "Failed to set security on destination
profile. Error - Access Denied".

I have tried doing it in Safe Mode as Administrator but
this didn't work. I've also tried entering the user's path
in the 'Permitted to Use / Change' between 4) and 5) above
(although this wasn't necessary on the Office machine) but
still no luck.

Am I doing something wrong, is there a setting I need to
change, or is this functionality just not available in XP
Home (and if not, why not)?