Unable to delete User Account

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Guest

I had to reinstall Windows XP Home. My old profile was "Joe Blow" When I
reinstalled Windows XP, I asked the user to be "Joe X. Blow". The install
went fine. Everything is up and running just fine.....but....

There is still a sub-folder in my documents and settings folder called Joe
Blow. The computer will not allow me to delete it. Not sure if there are any
files in it, but I don't think so, but the computer will not allow me to
explore it! It does not show up in the user accounts either.

How do I delete this "rogue" user profile. I am not sure why, but stupid
little things like this drive me nuts! I even tried to create a user file
named "Joe Blow" but it created something like Joe Blow(2), and I just
deleted this after I created it, but it did not affect "Joe Blow"

Thanks for any help!
 
Thanks, but I have tried this method as well. "Joe W. Blow" has
administrative rights as well. When I login to either account ("Joe W. Blow"
or "Administator"), I cannot delete or get to this folder to delete! HELP!!!
 
Boot into Safe Mode and delete the account.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect Your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.aspx

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| Thanks, but I have tried this method as well. "Joe W. Blow" has
| administrative rights as well. When I login to either account ("Joe W. Blow"
| or "Administator"), I cannot delete or get to this folder to delete! HELP!!!
|
|
|
| "Rafael" wrote:
|
| > Login with the Administrator account and see if you can delete it that way.
| >
| > Rafael
| >
| > | > >I had to reinstall Windows XP Home. My old profile was "Joe Blow" When I
| > > reinstalled Windows XP, I asked the user to be "Joe X. Blow". The install
| > > went fine. Everything is up and running just fine.....but....
| > >
| > > There is still a sub-folder in my documents and settings folder called Joe
| > > Blow. The computer will not allow me to delete it. Not sure if there are
| > > any
| > > files in it, but I don't think so, but the computer will not allow me to
| > > explore it! It does not show up in the user accounts either.
| > >
| > > How do I delete this "rogue" user profile. I am not sure why, but stupid
| > > little things like this drive me nuts! I even tried to create a user file
| > > named "Joe Blow" but it created something like Joe Blow(2), and I just
| > > deleted this after I created it, but it did not affect "Joe Blow"
| > >
| > > Thanks for any help!
| >
| >
| >
 
Take ownership of the directory, give yourself permission to access it, and
delete it (most likely after inspecting its contents).

You need to do this because you elected to make the tiles private for the
previous user.

To see how to take ownership of the tiles, see Help and Support, and use
the search tern "taking ownership"
 
It is very likely that you are running into a permissions problem.
The reinstall created new user accounts, identifying your new accounts
(including Administrator) as belonging to the newly created workgroup.
AFA the system is concerned, your old Joe account belongs to a different
workgroup and hence your administrator account SID does not match and has no
access to the folder structure for delete, basically you get an Access
Denied.
What you should do is 'take ownership' of the folder structure of old Joe
and therby regain full access permissions to the structure. Then you can
delete it.
Not familiar with the GUI exposures in Home edition, I'm not sure if there
is a Security tab (Advanced button) exposed when rightclicking the Joe
folder and looking at Properties, because that is where you would exercise
the Take Ownership.
If it does not, the I'd suggest getting a copy of Hyena
(www.systemtools.com) and do the Take Ownership through that tool.
(Interface should be intuitive enough to get you through this).
Once 'owner' of the Joe structure you should be able to delete it.

hth

george
 
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