Recover a damaged Windows XP user profile

A user profile on a Microsoft Windows XP system contains all the files and settings needed to configure your work environment. If the user profile becomes damaged, Windows XP will display one of two error messages when you to log on to the system: Windows cannot load your profile because it may be corrupted. You may be logged in using a temporary User Profile.
OR: The system has recovered from a serious error. The operating s ystem will then automatically create a new user profile and log you into this new profile. When this occurs, you’ll immediately discover that all of your personalized settings -- such as color scheme, wallpaper, and icons -- are gone. Even more disturbing is that the My Documents folder doesn’t show any of your documents. You’ll also dis cover that Outlook Expres s and Internet Explorer will be void of any of your personal settings and data. When this happens, it’s very easy to quickly go into panic mode and think that you’ve lost everything. However, in most cases, all you’ve actually lost is the user profile and most, if not all, of your data is safe and sound.

Must be an administrator

Keep in mind that in order to perform the recovery operations discussed in this article, you must be working from an account with Computer Administrator privileges. If the temporary account that Windows XP creates for you when your original becomes damaged has Computer Administrator privileges, you can use it as a staging area for the recovery operation. If it’s not, you’ll need to log off, then log on to the default Administrator account or to another account that has Computer Administrator privileges. I’ll refer to this as the working account throughout this article.

Backing up your data

The first thing that you’ll want to do is make sure that the data in your original account is safe and then back it up.

To begin the back up operation, launch Windows Explorer and navigate to the C:\Documents and Settings folder.

Then, locate and open your original account folder. At this point, you should see all the files and folders in your

original user profile, as shown in Figure A.

Figure A

You can open your original account folder and back up all the files and folders containing crucial data.

You’ll then want to copy your crucial data files to another location. For example, you’ll definitely want to copy the contents of your My Documents folder, which will appear as UserName’sDocuments. (On my example system, it’s called Greg Shultz’s Documents.) You may als o want copy the contents of the Favorites folder. If you’re using Outlook Express, you can find the files that make up your e-mail messages stored in the Local settings\Application Data\Identities\{#####}\Microsoft\Outlook Express folder. You’ll find your Address Book file in the Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book folder. If you’re using Outlook 2000/XP, you’ll find the PST file in the Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook folder.

Once you’ve backed up your crucial data files, you can proceed with the recovery operation knowing that your

data is indeed safe and sound.

Using System Restore

The first thing to try when attempting to recover a damaged user profile is a System Restore operation. As you know, the System Restore utility is designed to allow you to return your computer to the state it was in at an earlier time period. In this case, the goal is to return your system to the state it was in before the user profile was damaged. Before you attempt this operation, there are two things you need to be aware of. First, if there are multiple user accounts on the system, performing a System Restore operation will return all user profiles to the state they were in at that earlier time. Second, depending on the severity of the damage to the user profile, performing a System Restore operation may not be able to rectify the problem.

You’ll find the System Restore utility on the All Programs | Accessories | System Tools menu. Once you launch

System Restore, you’ll see the Welcome To System Restore page and will simply click Next. On the Select A

Restore Point page, select the last restore point created before the damage to the user profile became apparent,

then click Next. When you’re prompted to confirm the operation, click Next and the restore operation will begin. Once System Restore finishes, it will restart the system. When it does , you can attempt to log on using your original user account. If System Restore was able to successfully recover the user profile, everything should be the way it was. If you’re still unable to log on to your original account, it’s time to escalate your user profile recovery operation to the next level. However, you may first want to undo the System Restore operation.

To undo the System Restore operation, log on to the working account and launch System Restore. When you see the Welcome To System Restore page, you’ll discover a new option titled Undo My Last Restoration. Just select that option, click Next, and follow the onscreen instructions.

Copying your user profile

In this user profile recovery technique, you’ll attempt to revive the user profile by creating a new account and, subsequently, a new user profile. You’ll then copy your old user profile in its entirety to the new account. While this may sound like an operation that will simply replicate the problem over to the new account, it does indeed revive the user profile on occasion. Again, keep in mind that the success of this attempt depends on the severity of the damage to the user profile. However, since it’s a relatively painless operation, it’s worth a shot.

To begin, acces s the Control Panel and launch the User Accounts tool. Next, select the Create A New Account link. Then, give the account a name and click Next. When prompted to pick an account type, make sure the Computer Administrator option button is selected, and then click the Create Ac count button. Once you create the new account, close the User Accounts tool. Then, click Start | Log Off. When you see the Log Off Windows dialog box , click the Log Off button. When you see either the Welcome Screen or the Log On To Windows dialog box, select or type the name you used for the new account. As soon as you do, Windows XP will create a user profile for the new account. When the user profile creation procedure is complete and the system starts up, immediately click Log Off. Then, log back on to the working account.

Now, open the Start menu, right-click My Computer, and select Properties. When you see the System Properties

dialog box, select the Advanc ed tab. Then, locate and click the Settings button in the User Profiles s ection. You’ll

now see a User Profiles dialog box that looks lik e the one shown in

Figure B.

You’ll use the User Profiles tool to copy your old user profile to the new account.

In this example, I’ll be copying the user profile from the Greg Shultz account to the Greg Shultz2 account. I’ll begin by selecting the Greg Shultz user profile and clicking the Copy To button. When the Copy To dialog box appears, click the Browse button and then use the resulting Browse For Folder dialog box to locate the Documents and Settings folder and select the new account. At this point, the Copy To dialog box will look lik e the one shown in Figure C. To continue, just click OK. You’ll then see a confirmation dialog box that informs you that the original files will be deleted and prompts you to confirm the copy operation. Just click Yes.

Figure C

At this point, you’ll see the path to your new acc ount in the Copy To d ialog box.

Once the copy operation finishes, close the User Profiles dialog box and the System Properties dialog box, then log off. At this point, you can attempt to log on to the new account. If this technique was able to successfully recover the user profile, everything should be the way it was. If you’re still unable to log on to your account, it’s time to move to the next level. However, you’ll first need to completely remove the new user account and user profile. To do so, log on to the working account, access the User Profiles dialog box again, selec t the profile, and click the Delete button. Then, access the User Accounts tool and delete the new account and its files.

Moving to a new user profile

In this user profile recovery technique, you’ll move to a new user profile by creating a new account and, subsequently, a new user profile. You’ll then copy your data files and other portions of the user profile from your original to the new one. Keep in mind that when you move to a new user profile in this manner, you will loose all of your personalized settings, such as color scheme, wallpaper, and icons. You’ll follow the instructions I presented earlier for creating a new account and a new user profile. In short, you’ll access the User Accounts tool to create a new account. Then, log on to the new account to create a default new user profile. Finally, log off and then log back on to the working account.

To begin this operation, launch Windows Explorer and navigate to the C:\Documents and Settings folder. Then, locate and open your original acc ount folder. At this point, you should see all the files and folders in your original user profile, as shown earlier in Figure A. Copy the contents of the folders containing the data that you want to move to your new user profile.

In the case of my example system, I’d begin by copying the contents of the C:\Documents and Settings\Greg Shultz\Greg

Shultz’s Documents folder to the C: \Documents and Settings\Greg Shultz2\Greg Shultz2’s folder.

In addition, you’ll want to copy the contents of the Favorites, Outlook Express, and Address Book folders if you’re

using that e-mail program, or the Outlook folder. You may also want to copy the contents of Cookies, Templates, and any other folders that contain critical data files.

Be careful not to copy any files that are spec ifically related to the operating system, as any one of those files

could be the culprit in the case of the corrupted user profile. For example, you definitely won’t want to copy

Ntus er.dat, Ntuser.pol, or Ntuser.ini from your old user profile to your new one.

When you’re finished copying files, log out of the working profile, and then log on to your new user profile. When you do, you should be able to access all of your data files and most of your applications, just as you did with your old profile. However, keep in mind that you may have to reinstall or at least reconfigure some of your applications. And, of course, you’ll need to recreate all your personalized settings.

Cleaning out your old profile

Once you’ve totally moved into your new user profile, you’ll want to permanently delete your old, corrupted us er profile. While you may be tempted to do so from within Windows Explorer, you shouldn’t because it won’t completely remove all the settings associated with your old user profile. To do it the right way, access the User Profiles tool from the Advanced tab of the System Properties dialog box. Once you do, select the old user profile from the list and click the Delete button.

The automatic user profile backup technique

So you won’t ever have to go through all these troubleshooting steps should the user profile ever get corrupted again, you can trick Windows XP into administering the local user profile as if it were a roaming user profile. When you do so, Windows XP will back up your user profile each time you log off. To use this trick, you have to log off your new account and log on to the working account. Then, access the User Profiles tool from the Advanced tab of the Sys tem Properties dialog box, select your user profile, click the Copy To button, and type the name of a folder on another drive in the Copy Profile To text box. Once you complete that part of the operation, launch the Computer Management console, which you can do by

pressing [Windows]-R and typing compmgmt.msc in the Open text box. Then, drill down to System Tools \Loc al

Users and Groups\Users folder. Next, double-click on your account name and select the Profile tab. Then, type

the path to the backup in the Profile Path text box, as shown in Figure D.

You can configure Windows XP to automatically back up the local user profile each time you log off.

How to Fix SVCHOST.EXE Application Error

How to Repair this SVCHOST.EXE error

After some investigating into the 0X745f2780 SVCHOST error, it became apparent the problem is a corrupted Windows Update in Windows XP. Follow the steps below to fix this error.

Verify Windows Update Service Settings

• Click on Start, Run and type the following command in the open box and click OK
  services.msc
  
• Find the Automatic Updates service and double-click on it.
• Click on the Log On Tab and make sure the "Local System Account" is selected as the logon account and the box for "allow service to interact with desktop" is UNCHECKED.
• Under the Hardware Profile section in the Log On Tab, make sure the service is enabled.
• On the General Tab, the Startup Type should be Automatic, if not, drop the box down and select Automatic.
• Under "Service Status" on the General tab, the service should be Started, click the Start button enable it.
• Repeat the steps above for the service "Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)"

Re-Register Windows Update DLLs

• Click on Start, Run, and type CMD and click ok
• In the black command window type the following command and press Enter
  
  REGSVR32 WUAPI.DLL
  
  
• Wait until you receive the "DllRegisterServer in WUAPI.DLL succeeded" message and click OK
• Repeat the last two steps above for each of the following commands:
  
  REGSVR32 WUAUENG.DLL
  REGSVR32 WUAUENG1.DLL
  REGSVR32 ATL.DLL
  REGSVR32 WUCLTUI.DLL
  REGSVR32 WUPS.DLL
  REGSVR32 WUPS2.DLL
  REGSVR32 WUWEB.DLL
  

Remove Corrupted Windows Update Files

• At the command prompt, type the following command and press Enter
  net stop WuAuServ
  
• Still at the command prompt,
  type cd %windir% and press Enter
  
• In the opened folder, type the following command and press Enter to rename the SoftwareDistribution Folder
  ren SoftwareDistribution SD_OLD
  
• Restart the Windows Update Service by typing the following at the command prompt
  net start WuAuServ
  
• type Exit and Press Enter to close the command prompt

Reboot Windows

• click on Start, Shut Down, and Restart to reboot Windows XP

Although this method may not solve all of the issues with a SVCHOST.EXE Application error, I have found it fixed the problem with the 0x745f2780 reference error.

Talk with other computers on your network

Firstly, open Notepad and enter:
@echo off
:A
Cls
echo MESSENGER
set /p n=User:
set /p m=Message:
net send %n% %m%
Pause
Goto A
Now save this as "Messenger.bat". Open the .bat file and in Command Prompt you should see:
MESSENGERUser:
After "User" type the IP address of the computer you want to contact. After this, you should see this:
Message:
Now type in the message you wish to send.Before you press "Enter" it should look like this:
MESSENGERUser: 56.108.104.107
Message: Hi
To work around this problem, change the Startup type of the Messenger service to Automatic, and then start the Messenger service. To do this, follow these steps:
Open Windows Explorer.
In the left pane, right-click My Computer, and then click Manage.
In the Computer Management window, expand Services and Applications in the left pane, and then click Services.
In the right pane, double-click Messenger.
In the Messenger Properties (Local Computer) dialog box, click the General tab.
On the General tab, select Automatic from the Startup type list, and then click Apply.
Under Service status, click Start, and then click OK.
now do the same on the remote computeruntil this service is activated on that pc, you won't be able to use thisnow click on that file you madetype the iptype the messageand enter

Clear the Windows XP Run command's most recently used list

If you regularly use the Run command to launch applications, you know that Windows XP keeps a record in the registry, called the MRU (most recently used) list, of all the applications you recently launched. When you have the Run dialog box open, you can access the MRU list by clicking the drop-down arrow adjacent to the Open text box.
The MRU list is designed to make it easier for you to re-launch the same applications at a later date. However, this list can grow quite long, making it difficult to find what you want.
Fortunately, you can create a registry shortcut that clears the Run command's MRU list. To do so, follow these steps:
1. Launch the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU.
3. Right-click on the RunMRU key and select Export.
4. Name the REG file Clear Run MRU, click the Save button, and close the Registry Editor.
5. Open the Clear Run MRU.reg file in Notepad.
6. Add a minus sign to the beginning of the key name just inside the square brackets.
7. Delete all lines that follow the line containing the key path.
8. Save the file and close Notepad.
Reboot Windows (or at least log off and then log back on) to make this change effective. Now, any time you want to clear the Run command's MRU list, simply locate and double-click the Clear Run MRU.reg file.The Registry Editor will then display two dialog boxes: one that prompts you to confirm the operation and one that lets you know the operation was successful.

Speed up Windows XP's defrag operations

A simple way to speed up a defrag operation in Windows XP is to restart the system before you launch Defrag. This allows the operating system to clear out the swap/paging file and reset it to the default size. This lets Defrag focus strictly on the necessary data on the hard disk without having to stop and manage a huge swap file loaded with unneeded data.
Another approach to speeding up a defrag operation in Windows XP is to configure it to occur immediately upon startup. Fortunately, you can do so easily with this simple registry edit:
1. Launch the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce.
3. Right-click on the RunOnce subkey and select New String Value.
4. Name the value Defrag and press [Enter] twice.
5. Type Defrag.exe c: /f in the Value Data text box and click OK.
6. Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows.
The defrag operation will begin when you type in your password and press [Enter]. (Keep in mind that values added to the RunOnce key are removed immediately after the command has been run.)

Schedule a restart operation with Windows XP's Shutdown utility

Wouldn't it be nice if each morning your Windows XP machine restarted before you got to work so you had a fresh system to work on each day?
To help you automate this type of operation, Windows XP comes with a command-line utility called Shutdown.exe, which can restart your system. To make this happen automatically, you can configure it to run at a specified time with the Scheduled Tasks tool. Here's how:
1. Go to Control Panel Scheduled Tasks.
2. Double-click Add Scheduled Task to launch the Scheduled Task Wizard.
3. Click Next and then click the Browse button.
4. Access the Windows\System32 folder, select Shutdown.exe, and click Open.
5. Follow the wizard through the next two screens to give the task a name and choose a schedule.
6. Enter your user account name and password and click Next.
7. Select the Open Advanced Properties check box and click Finish.
8. In the task's Properties dialog box, add the /r parameter to the end of the command line in the Run text box and click OK. (Be sure to include a space between the last character in the command name and the first character in the parameter list.)
9. Enter your user account name and password and click OK.
When the Shutdown utility runs, you'll momentarily see a small dialog box on your screen before the system restarts.

Disable Windows Messenger on a Windows XP machine

If you're using MSN Messenger as your chat and videoconferencing tool, you may never use Windows Messenger anymore and have removed it from the startup group to keep it out of your way. However, you may have seen it pop up on occasion and had to struggle with closing it down. The reason that Windows Messenger makes these impromptu appearances is that Outlook, Outlook Express, and even some Microsoft Web pages can still make it load automatically. Fortunately, you can banish Windows Messenger from your desktop by making an alteration to the local group policy with the Group Policy Editor. Here's how:
1. Access the Run dialog box by pressing [Windows]R.
2. In the Open text box type Gpedit.msc and click OK to launch the Group Policy Editor.
3. Go to Computer Configuration Administrative Templates Windows Components Windows Messenger.
4. Double-click the Do Not Allow Windows Messenger To Be Run setting.
5. In the resulting dialog box, select the Enabled option and click OK.
6. Close the Group Policy Editor.