Determine contents of user's Windows XP profile

[Guest]

How can I determine what exactly is in a user's Windows XP profile file?

The user profile file for one of my colleagues on his laptop -- which only
he uses -- has ballooned to over 2 GB in size, and we can't figure out how
it's gotten so large. Thus, we'd like to track down what exactly is in the
profile, and make adjustments as necessary based on what we find.

I realize that the user profile usually includes the contents of the user's
desktop and the contents of the user's "user settings" directory, as well as
files from the user's temporary directories. Email files, as I understand
it, also often are included.

In this case, however, we're looking for guidance on finding out exactly
what is in this particular user's user profile, since the "usual suspects"
just can't account for the profile being so large.

This problem surfaced suddenly after the user had tried out (installed) a
number of different shareware html editors, but decided against keeping them
and uninstalled them. Afterwards, the user's login process became *very*
long, and we figured out that it was due (we believe) to the oversize profile.

Thanks -- in advance -- for any suggestions you may have.

 

[DP]

I realize that the user profile usually includes the contents of the
user's
desktop and the contents of the user's "user settings" directory, as well
as
files from the user's temporary directories. Email files, as I understand
it, also often are included.

Yes, keep in mind that anything stored ON his desktop is part of his
profile. So if he has a 1 MB jpg, a 3 mb database, etc etc, it's ALL going
to be part of his profile.
Now, if he only had shortcuts to that jpg and database on his desktop, his
profile would be considerably smaller.

 

[Guest]

Thanks, DP, for the comments.

Interestingly, the user's desktop is very clean -- only a few shortcuts and
a couple of smallish files.

There's no question that the user has some big files in some of the
directories that are likely to be included in his profile. However, they're
not likely to be responsible for the overall size of the profile. And -- as
I mentioned in my original post -- the profile seemed to balloon in size
suddenly after the user tried out several different programs. That's why
we're really keen on finding out exactly what is in this specific user's
profile.