Completely deleting a roaming user profile off of a PC?

Aaaaargh!

I'm having a hell of a time with a problem on one of our computers at work. Long story short, we're trying to do something with it via Citrix, and things keep locking up. After days of testing, we've narrowed it down to a configuration issue on one of the profile's printers. Our solution is to completely blow away the user's current roaming profile on the desktop, and let it recreate a new one.

I attempted to delete the profile through System Properties / Advanced Properties / User Profiles. Unfortunately, even after blowing it away, the profile still seems to be there somewhere, because the next time the user logs in, items in their recycling bin are still there, and all of their printers are still there. I need to have the profile completely destroyed, deleted, and completely recreated the next time they log in.

Is there something I"m missing when attempting to delete the profile? I thought the whole thing should get blown away when I delete the profile. However, it doesn't seem to be doing so.

My last thought is that I'm going to have to completely uninstall / reinstall Windows, so that the next time the user is logged in, their profile will be (obviously) completely brand new. But that'll end up taking me most of the day, and I'd prefer not to have to do that if I didn't need to!

Thanks!

You need to rename/delete the user profile folder and then delete the registry key associated with it. Then when they log in again they will get a new SSID.

Edit:

Heres more specifically:
rename or delete the old profile in c:\users\username

delete the bad sid from [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

you will know which key is correct because of the profile path.

Double edit:
you need to make these changes while logged in as a different user than the one you are removing (i know it might seem obvious but I just thought id mention it)

Quote from nizzy1115 : You need to rename/delete the user profile folder and then delete the registry key associated with it. Then when they log in again they will get a new SSID. Edit: Heres more specifically: rename or delete the old profile in c:\users\username delete the bad sid from [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList you will know which key is correct because of the profile path. Double edit: you need to make these changes while logged in as a different user than the one you are removing (i know it might seem obvious but I just thought id mention it)

I swore that's what I was doing. Well, I wasn't deleting the registry key. Instead, I went to:

Right Click Computer -> Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> User Profiles (Settings)

I then selected the user's domain profile and clicked "Delete". I went into the registry to the Profile List, and saw that hers was no longer listed on there anymore. I then restarted the computer, and had her log in again. And once again, the printers were still there, and her recycling bin was still full of stuff.

So, it seems to me that the profile still never got fully deleted. Oh well, I'm about ready just to wipe and reinstall the whole danged thing again.....

Right, you need to manually do it. I've done this a number of times with our terminal server for profiles that get corrupted.

Edit:

On the flip side you can also use this method to associate an old profile (past employee, female that got married/name change etc) with a new username.

Quote from nizzy1115 : Right, you need to manually do it. I've done this a number of times with our terminal server for profiles that get corrupted. Edit: On the flip side you can also use this method to associate an old profile (past employee, female that got married/name change etc) with a new username.

So, by doing it manually, instead of using the built-in tool, it should work differently? I'll give it a shot!

Edit - Just to clarify, do you want me to delete the entire user's registry folder under ProfileList, or JUST the "Sid" key?

Quote from ElectroWolf : So, by doing it manually, instead of using the built-in tool, it should work differently? I'll give it a shot!

From my experience yes! I had tried with it the automated way and never got it to work. I think the SSID is still associated with the username...Deleting the key clears the SSID relationship to the username

Quote from nizzy1115 : From my experience yes! I had tried with it the automated way and never got it to work. I think the SSID is still associated with the username...Deleting the key clears the SSID relationship to the username

Gar, stupid Windows!

Lol, I think I edited my post at the same time you responded to it. So I'll repost it, just so it alerts you that I posted something different:

Quote : Edit - Just to clarify, do you want me to delete the entire user's registry folder under ProfileList, or JUST the "Sid" key?

Thanks again for your help!

Also does "clearing" the user name in the control panel deleate the users files in c:/users/ ?

Quote from mrbobhcrhs : Also does "clearing" the user name in the control panel deleate the users files in c:/users/ ?

It *tries* to. What it does is it throws up an error complaining about the user profile directory not being empty. I then can go to C:/Users/<Profile Name>, and see it's still there. Inside of it appears to be an AppData folder, normally empty. From that point, I would just force delete the rest of the profile directory.

Quote from ElectroWolf : It *tries* to. What it does is it throws up an error complaining about the user profile directory not being empty. I then can go to C:/Users/<Profile Name>, and see it's still there. Inside of it appears to be an AppData folder, normally empty. From that point, I would just force delete the rest of the profile directory.

Ok i figured as much when you said there was items in the users trash.

I went ahead and just deleted the entire folder under ProfileList associated to that user. Restarted the computer, and had the same damn result. It still found the same printers, and still had files in the recycling bin. :sadwalk;

I'm about to the point of just blowing everything away and reinstalling Windows.

Based on the information from this site:

http://www.grouppolicy.biz/2011/0...windows-7/

Did you follow step 7? Did you go back into AD and delete/rename the profile there?

Quote from ElectroWolf : I went ahead and just deleted the entire folder under ProfileList associated to that user. Restarted the computer, and had the same damn result. It still found the same printers, and still had files in the recycling bin. :sadwalk; I'm about to the point of just blowing everything away and reinstalling Windows.

is an AD rule pushing the printers to the users profile?

Quote from menace33 : Based on the information from this site: http://www.grouppolicy.biz/2011/0...windows-7/ Did you follow step 7? Did you go back into AD and delete/rename the profile there?

Actually, ours is a local profile on the computer, rather than a roaming profile. You log in with our AD username and password, but the profile is local to the PC.

Quote from mrbobhcrhs : is an AD rule pushing the printers to the users profile?

Negative.

I discovered something interesting though. I logged in with a completely different user this time, and noticed that the printer got added to this new profile as well! So I think somehow the corrupt printer got configured as a default user profile printer, so it gets preconfigured whenever a new user profile gets created. So, I'm definitely to the point of blowing away and reinstalling now!