Default Profiles in Windows 7

You should be able to copy every file/folder out of the profile you created into C:\Users\Default, and any newly created profiles will be a copy of this one.

In XP and also in Vista, you can open Computer (My Computer) -> Properties -> Advanced and click on User Profiles. From there, copy the user to the default profile and give Everyone permission. You need to be Administrator to do this. Also, if you just changed "user" you may have to cold boot the machine for this to work (I have had to do that). This is for XP and for Vista. I don't know Windows 7 but it seems reasonable it might work. ... Thinkpads_User

Windows 7 seems to 'blank' out the 'copy to' option under advanced properties... aka Win XP days..

Reading up and it seems we can no longer do this with Windows 7 but in fact have to use unattended installation files to create default user profiles!

This cant be right surely?

Something I thought would take me a few mins has so far taken me all afternoon.

You can copy the files manually from C:\Users\WhateverUserProfileYouCreated to C:\Users\Default, they should inherit the necessary permissions from C:\Users\Default.  Important to modify only the contents of \Users\Default, not the folder itself.

You need to make sure "user" (The ID called user in your example above) is not the administrator. That is so you can log in as admin and do the work. Did you do a cold  boot?  ... Thinkpads_User

Ok will have another go and report back in the morning :)

Ok that doesnt work... started again.

Created new User and gave them local admin rights.
Created new profile setup
Cold booted
Logged in as Administrator
Tried to copy profile via advanced options - blanked out
Tried to copy profile folder into c:\users\default - do not have access rights.

What next? - This is driving me barmy!

Hmm, worked for me on my home PC and my domain-joined work PC.

Create new user, "bob" (he doesn't need local admin rights)
Logon as "bob"
Reboot
Logon as a local administrator
Make sure hidden files are visible in Explorer
open C:\Users\Bob, press CTRL-A, then CTRL-C
Go to C:\Users\Default, press CTRL-V
Let the copy overwrite any files in the destination

...although I think I have UAC *Off* on both my systems.

UAC is off.

I've tried again but this time doing some renaming of the profiles and this works except I get a black screen desktop display when login as new user?

What do you mean by "some renaming of the profiles?"

I couldnt copy the profile created folder contents into the default contents so renamed the default profile to default_old and renamed the created profikle to default.

This works perfectly except I now have a black desktop screen... obviously far from an ideal solution.

I need a work around that allows me to select the 'copy to' box... I cannot believe this is so difficult to do in Windows 7.

Tried creating the answer file using Windows AIK then running sysprep resulted in the machine crashing and now will no longer boot up properly asking to restart due to unexpected error.

Hmm, like I said, worked fine for me in two cases, so I wouldn't say it's difficult at all. ;)

Probably NTFS permissions on the folder that are causing you grief (since you renamed the folders instead of copying contents); Administrators and SYSTEM should have full access, Users and Everyone should have Read, and the owner is Administrators.

I think your headache was reading from the profile you created, not writing into \Users\Default, try taking ownership of \Users\Bob.

I'm wiping the machine and starting again... made too many changes to be able to use this as a default profile for imaging.

I will try again tommorrow.

Any idea why the 'Copy to' boxes are greyed out under advanced properties?

The correct and ONLY supported procedure in Windows 7 for creating default user profile:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=973289

Now I'm trying to get this to work!