Same User, Same Machine, but Multiple Profiles??

[Guest]

We have a problem in our enterprise that is very confusing to us. At least a
few times each week, a user will call our help desk and say that they are
missing all of their desktop items and shortcuts and printers, etc. It is
rarely the same user and hapens at all of our 12 locations without bias. The
issue ends up being that when the user logs in, for some reason, Windows will
see them as a new user ont hat machine, even if they have logged into that
machine a million and one times before without fail, and will make a new
local profile for them. This new profile is of course, alcking all of their
shortcuts and printers, etc., because it's brand new. It is NOT a copy of
their regular profile.

The profiles take on this naming conventionas they reproduce:

<username>
<username>.<domain>
<username>.<domain>[2]
etc.

Anyway, the only way I have found to fix it, is to log in as an admin, make
a backup folder on the network somewhere or on the admin desktop and backup
the user's stuff from their old profile (desktop items, shortcuts, favorites,
etc). Then I delete both the new and the old profiles. I restart the
machine and have the user log in again. This recreates a single profile for
them. I then log back in as the admin and restore their items to them. I
have them log in again so I can re-establish connections to their printers,
etc. And then I'm done.

I would really like to find out what is causing this problem so we no longer
have to perform this tedious task. It's hard for our users and annoying to
us. Has anyone else experienced this? Because I have searched the Web far
and wide under all known combinations of words and I just can't seem to find
anyone else experiencing this problem. Any advice or ideas about this issue
would be much appreciated and considered quite helpful. I am going to start
speaking in languages that are unknown to me unless I can figure this thing
out. ;O)

TIA!

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

We have a problem in our enterprise that is very confusing to us. At
least a few times each week, a user will call our help desk and say
that they are missing all of their desktop items and shortcuts and
printers, etc. It is rarely the same user and hapens at all of our
12 locations without bias. The issue ends up being that when the
user logs in, for some reason, Windows will see them as a new user
ont hat machine, even if they have logged into that machine a million
and one times before without fail, and will make a new local profile
for them. This new profile is of course, alcking all of their
shortcuts and printers, etc., because it's brand new. It is NOT a
copy of their regular profile.

The profiles take on this naming conventionas they reproduce:

<username>
<username>.<domain>
<username>.<domain>[2]
etc.

Anyway, the only way I have found to fix it, is to log in as an
admin, make a backup folder on the network somewhere or on the admin
desktop and backup the user's stuff from their old profile (desktop
items, shortcuts, favorites, etc). Then I delete both the new and
the old profiles. I restart the machine and have the user log in
again. This recreates a single profile for them. I then log back in
as the admin and restore their items to them. I have them log in
again so I can re-establish connections to their printers, etc. And
then I'm done.

I would really like to find out what is causing this problem so we no
longer have to perform this tedious task. It's hard for our users
and annoying to us. Has anyone else experienced this? Because I
have searched the Web far and wide under all known combinations of
words and I just can't seem to find anyone else experiencing this
problem. Any advice or ideas about this issue would be much
appreciated and considered quite helpful. I am going to start
speaking in languages that are unknown to me unless I can figure this
thing out. ;O)

TIA!

What do you see in the event logs?
Are you using roaming profiles?
Have you installed the User Profile Hive Cleanup Utility? Get it from the MS
download side.

 

[Mungo Bulge]

OK, we know why, WinXP can't find the profile. But why can't XP find
the profile? Where is it normally? local, or on a remote? Is the User
Profile being un-loaded properly or is the hive growing with each slow
lingering logoff until it is too large/corrupt. One way to tell is to
ask if logoffs were getting slower (2-5 min.). Install UPHCleanup
service and see if the event log starts to indicate larger than would
be expected numbers of off loads handled by the UPHCleanup service. If
there is, this problem of new profiles showing up should go away and
you will have new problems to cleanup, ill mannered services running
under user credentials.
Maybe...

| We have a problem in our enterprise that is very confusing to us.
At least a
| few times each week, a user will call our help desk and say that
they are
| missing all of their desktop items and shortcuts and printers, etc.
It is
| rarely the same user and hapens at all of our 12 locations without
bias. The
| issue ends up being that when the user logs in, for some reason,
Windows will
| see them as a new user ont hat machine, even if they have logged
into that
| machine a million and one times before without fail, and will make a
new
| local profile for them. This new profile is of course, alcking all
of their
| shortcuts and printers, etc., because it's brand new. It is NOT a
copy of
| their regular profile.
|
| The profiles take on this naming conventionas they reproduce:
|
| <username>
| <username>.<domain>
| <username>.<domain>[2]
| etc.
|
| Anyway, the only way I have found to fix it, is to log in as an
admin, make
| a backup folder on the network somewhere or on the admin desktop and
backup
| the user's stuff from their old profile (desktop items, shortcuts,
favorites,
| etc). Then I delete both the new and the old profiles. I restart
the
| machine and have the user log in again. This recreates a single
profile for
| them. I then log back in as the admin and restore their items to
them. I
| have them log in again so I can re-establish connections to their
printers,
| etc. And then I'm done.
|
| I would really like to find out what is causing this problem so we
no longer
| have to perform this tedious task. It's hard for our users and
annoying to
| us. Has anyone else experienced this? Because I have searched the
Web far
| and wide under all known combinations of words and I just can't seem
to find
| anyone else experiencing this problem. Any advice or ideas about
this issue
| would be much appreciated and considered quite helpful. I am going
to start
| speaking in languages that are unknown to me unless I can figure
this thing
| out. ;O)
|
| TIA!

 

[Guest]

Yea. at the school i go to we can log onto tablets, laptops, and desktops and
get all our files but all the computers are programmed to delete any thing we
save or download. The network administrators do that so the computer dont get
filled with kids junk. So we have are own Drive that we can acces any where
in the district. even at home.

OK, we know why, WinXP can't find the profile. But why can't XP find
the profile? Where is it normally? local, or on a remote? Is the User
Profile being un-loaded properly or is the hive growing with each slow
lingering logoff until it is too large/corrupt. One way to tell is to
ask if logoffs were getting slower (2-5 min.). Install UPHCleanup
service and see if the event log starts to indicate larger than would
be expected numbers of off loads handled by the UPHCleanup service. If
there is, this problem of new profiles showing up should go away and
you will have new problems to cleanup, ill mannered services running
under user credentials.
Maybe...

| We have a problem in our enterprise that is very confusing to us.
At least a
| few times each week, a user will call our help desk and say that
they are
| missing all of their desktop items and shortcuts and printers, etc.
It is
| rarely the same user and hapens at all of our 12 locations without
bias. The
| issue ends up being that when the user logs in, for some reason,
Windows will
| see them as a new user ont hat machine, even if they have logged
into that
| machine a million and one times before without fail, and will make a
new
| local profile for them. This new profile is of course, alcking all
of their
| shortcuts and printers, etc., because it's brand new. It is NOT a
copy of
| their regular profile.
|
| The profiles take on this naming conventionas they reproduce:
|
| <username>
| <username>.<domain>
| <username>.<domain>[2]
| etc.
|
| Anyway, the only way I have found to fix it, is to log in as an
admin, make
| a backup folder on the network somewhere or on the admin desktop and
backup
| the user's stuff from their old profile (desktop items, shortcuts,
favorites,
| etc). Then I delete both the new and the old profiles. I restart
the
| machine and have the user log in again. This recreates a single
profile for
| them. I then log back in as the admin and restore their items to
them. I
| have them log in again so I can re-establish connections to their
printers,
| etc. And then I'm done.
|
| I would really like to find out what is causing this problem so we
no longer
| have to perform this tedious task. It's hard for our users and
annoying to
| us. Has anyone else experienced this? Because I have searched the
Web far
| and wide under all known combinations of words and I just can't seem
to find
| anyone else experiencing this problem. Any advice or ideas about
this issue
| would be much appreciated and considered quite helpful. I am going
to start
| speaking in languages that are unknown to me unless I can figure
this thing
| out. ;O)
|
| TIA!