Appears while attempting to
logon in Windows Vista, 2008,
2008 R2 and 7. Exact cause is unknown, but
this issue may occur if the user
profile was manually deleted
by using the command prompt
or Windows Explorer by a user
or by some program. A profile that is manually deleted does
not remove the security
identifier (SID) from the user
profile list in the registry. Since
the SID is still present,
Windows will still try to load the profile by using the
ProfileImagePath that points
to a nonexistent path.
Therefore, the profile cannot
be loaded. This can also be a issue with
the user profile entering into a
backup state, or if the C:\Users
\(User Name) user profile
folder is manually renamed. 1. Log on to the Computer Log on to the computer using
the Administrator (or an
Administrator-level) account. 2. Trawl through the Registry Open the Start menu. In the
Start Search area, type regedit
and press Enter (if prompted
by UAC, click Continue/Yes). In
regedit, go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE\Microsoft
\Windows NT\CurrentVersion
\ProfileList Expand the ProfileList key and
look for the SID key (named
"S-1-5"...) with a long number
that ends in ".bak". Click it, and
look at the ProfileImagePath
value in the right pane to verify that this is the user
account profile that has the
error. a) If you have two SID keys
with the same number (with
one ending in ".bak" and one
showing the affected user
account in the
ProfileImagePath value), continue to Step 3;
b) If you have just one SID key
with the ProfileImagePath
value showing the affected
user account, proceed to Step
4. 3. Two SID keys with the same
number a) Of the two SID keys that
corresponds to the affected
user account, right-click the
SID key that does NOT end in
".bak" and click Rename.
b) Add .bk to the end of the numbers and press Enter.
c) Right-click the other SID key
that DOES end in ".bak" and
click Rename.
d) Remove only .bak from the
end of the numbers (so that it has the same name as the
other SID key did before you
renamed it) and press Enter.
e) Now go back and Rename
the first one with .bk to .bak
now at the end of the numbers and press Enter. Proceed to Step 5... 4. Only one SID key ending in
".bak" a) Right-click the SID key that
corresponds to the affected
user account and click Rename.
b) Remove only .bak from the
end of the numbers, and press
Enter. c) In the right pane, right-click
the RefCount value (if none
exists, right-click the right
pane and click New and
DWORD (32 bit) Value, then
type RefCount and press Enter), and click Modify.
d) Type 0 into the Value Data
textbox and click OK.
e) In the right pane, right-click
the State value and click
Modify. f) Type 0 into the Value Data
textbox and click OK. 5. Try logging on again! Close regedit and restart the
computer. You should be able
to logon now...