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User settings messed up

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7 replies

by mark

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I have a client with an XP Home PC that has 5 users setup. All but 1 user has nothing showing in the start menu on the left except "All Programs". If I goto Control Panel, it won't let me select "Classic View". Nothing happens, click ignored. Also it doesn't save any changes. Try to customize desktop and put My Computer Icon or others on, acts like it does, but they don't show up and when you go back in, they aren't checked anymore. I can create a new user and things look good, but I was wondering if there is a simpler fix. I tried renaming the NTUSER.DAT file and a new one was created, but the symptoms are still there. Is there a simpler fix than creating new users, copy the favorites, desktop, etc.?

7 replies

by mainprized

It sounds like you have got your permissions tangled. Go into Computer Management and check what groupe the account is in it could be that it has no rights at all.

by mark

With the old accounts, I can't get to Computer Management cause I can't switch to Classic View. With the new Account, Computer Management doesn't show any "Local Users and Groups" item at all. The "User Accounts" Icon in Control Panel shows everyone is an administrator.

by jschein

go in as an administrator... right click my computer... goto user profiles... copy a known good profile over the existing bad profile. change permissions so that user is authorized to use that profile... hit ok... log off, log on as previously bad user... His / her windows will look exactly as the one you just copied

by mark

I don't want to loose the bad profile documents and settings. I just want to copy good permissions over. Perhaps it's permissions to use the profile. Where is that change made? I may be missing something, but I don't even see a local security policy icon. Isn't there a RUN MMC something that will load it?

by jschein

Ok look,.... We've been doing this kind of stuff for a long time... Data and information is not just pick and choose what YOU want, it's what works with the pc. If you want to save some of the data from that user (i.e. favorites, shortcuts, data files), THEN COPY THEM SOMEWHERE. There is no save all documents and use a new profile option. You must backup your data, copy new profile over old one or delete old profile, create new one and THEN copy your data back. This is how it works.

Quote..."Comment from Mark@primocomputers.com on 10/23/03:
I don't want to loose the bad profile documents and settings. I just want to copy good permissions over. Perhaps it's permissions to use the profile. Where is that change made? I may be missing something, but I don't even see a local security policy icon. Isn't there a RUN MMC something that will load it?"

by mark

I disagree. There is always more than one way to skin a cat. This was a permissions problem and someone knowledgable in correcting it would have helped make things easier. It didn't help that XP home gives you no access to permissions, but they are obiously hidden there. I found them in the registry and was going to try copying secedit and a template from XP pro to see if it would work on XP Home, but I decided on another route. I used FAST (file and settings transfer wizard) to backup each user's profile. Then I created new users and restored from the file created by FAST. In hind site, I might could have installed NTBackup from the CDROM and used it to backup and restore the user settings and files. FAST seemed to backup alot of system and application files which made it somewhat slow and it required over 2.5G of HD space. But it was easy and it worked and all the users have their email, favorites, documents, etc.

BTW, trying to copy the profiles did not work. I was always met with an access denied message, probably due to the security issue problem.

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