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Outlook crashes when a user's profile is restored

One of my remote sites lost their DC such that none of the AD information in AD was able to be saved.
I re-built the server and entered in all the logon info so the users could log on to the server with the same user names and passwords. No problem so far.
Now...
because the SIDs of the new server are different, windows created a new user profile. I want them to be using the old profile which contains all their documents, outlook.pst files etc. for the sake of discussion, the old profile is c:/documents and settings/user.domain and the new one is c:/documents and settings/user.domain.000
I performed the procedure described in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 314045. Basically, you give the proper user full permission in the user.domain profile, then open regedit and alter HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList ProfileImagePath value from user.domain.000 to user.domain.
As far as I can tell, this worked as far as the documents are concerned, but when I tried to open outlook the windows installer opened (as if it was a new user) and outlook crashed.

I tried moving the .pst files to a new location; outlook crashed

I tried changing HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList ProfileImagePath value from user.domain back to user.domain.000, logging on, opening outlook, letting the installer run, logging off, changing the reg key back, and logging in again; outlook crashed.

Basically, no matter what I do, if I change the reg key, outlook crashes.

The desire to change the user settings HAS to be a common task for network admins; is there some kind of tool for managing user profiles and profile settings?

I know I could create a new profile, move the My Documents files, re-set the permissions, create an outlook account, import the old *.pst file, but the time that takes adds up when you have 50+ computers to do. There MUST be a better way!

The DC is a windows 2003 server, the workstation I'm using for testing is XP Pro, but 1/2 of the workstations are running W2K Pro.

thanks in advance!!

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pjcrooks2000

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starmonkey

ASKER

I can't add the user in outlook, because I can't open outlook. Outlook crashes every time I try to open it.
I'm not trying to create new user accounts, I'm trying to get windows to use the old domain account.

I'll try to clarify the question:
You have a user who has accounts with the same username and passwords on 2 separate domains in two different buildings. Thier computer is joined to domain1, so when they log on to thier computer, thier profile settings (including thier outlook.pst, and My Documents folder) are stored on the hard drive at
C:\Documents and Settings\user.domain1\
Now you have to move the user to the second building, which is the location of domain2. You dis-join the computer from domain 1 and join it to domain2. When they log on to the new domain, windows creates the profile folder
C:\Documents and Settings\user.domain2\
The problem is that I don't want to change the user profile, I want it to stay the same. The user has the same job, need the same documents, and has the same email address.

Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 314045 deals with this. Their are basicly 2 steps:
1) Add full control security privilages for user\domain2 to the C:\Documents and Settings\user.domain1\ profile
2) Use Regedit to change the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList ProfileImagePath key from "C:\Documents and Settings\user.domain2" to "C:\Documents and Settings\user.domain1"
The next time user logs on to domain2, Windows loads the C:\Documents and Settings\user.domain1 profile.
The problem is that when you do this, it causes outlook to crash every time you try to open it. You never even see the splash screen.

pjcrooks2000

starmonkey thanks for accepting

good luck to you for the future

pjcrooks2000