Getting rid of multiple users

Do update you're emergency disk first and read through the instructions first.

The Start menu, desktop, etc. for the "default user" or when not using "user profiles" are stored in directories off the Windows directory.  Windows\desktop, windows\Start Menu, etc.  When using User profiles, every time a new user logs in, they get the default settings, which are stored in the above directories.  It stores this information in a sub directory of the Windows\profiles directory, named after the user.  For example, a new user - John - logs in, the existing settings found in c:\windows\desktop, c:\windows\start menu, etc. are copied into a newly created sub directory of c:\windows\profiles.  So John's desktop and startmenu would be stored in c:\windows\profiles\john\desktop and c:\windows\profiles\john\start menu.

Now what you want to do is copy the settings for the user you want and put them in the default areas.  Then go to the Passwords control panel and tell it to stop using user profiles.  Reboot.  
Log in as a new user by just entering any new user name and confirming the password.  This is to verify your desktop and related settings are as they should be.

Go to the profiles sub directory and make sure there is isn't a sub directory for the new user you just created.

Now, if all is well, you may want to copy your user.dat (which is the user specific part of the registry).

Do the following steps form a DOS prompt (you may have to reboot to DOS mode to do this)
attrib c:\windows\user.dat -r -s -h
copy c:\windows\user.dat c:\windows\user.bak
     this creates a backup copy of you're original user settings.
attrib c:\windows\profiles\<username>\user.dat -r -s -h
copy c:\windows\profiles\<username>\user.dat c:\windows
<<Be careful with this... the user settings include desktop information, such as background picture, screen saver, and other cosmetic things... if you're not comfortable playing around with the registry like this then Don't - just reset things.>>

Well, we're almost done.

Ideally, before deleting anything you should make a backup first.

Now you're ready to delete the profiles directory.  Confirm that you want to delete everything, including sub directories, when prompted.

You can do a find for *.pwl (these are the last remnants of the setup you originally created, they are the saved password lists for each user.  Delete all except the one(s) which may be named "share.pwl" or "share000.pwl" or similar).

Now reboot.  Log in with any user name but just press enter for the password.  If you read the login screen it should tell you that by pressing enter you won't see that screen again.

(By the way, I'm assuming you're not on a network.  And if you keep gettings the profiles created it may be that someone has fiddled with the System Policies and set profiles to be required.)

copying the profiles\<username> directorys to c:\windows saved the icons I had on the desktop and start menu, but copying the user.dat file did nothing, and I lost my background, sound associations, mouse setting and some startup programs.  I had to undo the changes I made to get these back?  The user.dat file is an important regestry file, right?  Where else might these things be stored and how do I change without losing these things?

If you do not want to have to see login screen, type any username and empty password, confirm it and windows will never ask for it again.