sophie2000
asked on
Vista Users showing in Win. Explorer vs. Users showing under User Accounts
Hello!
I just did a total re-build of my machine. When I re-built the commands had me establish a user name. I chose 'wendy'. Fine so far.
After I restored all my data/settings etc, my "old" user name wendy cain-PC - and the computer name, by the way shows under Windows Explorer, but not in the User Accounts under the control panel.
All my documents etc. are under the "old" user name: wendy cain-PC AND I'd like to continue forward with this user name.
Q1: Why does the old user name show on Windows Explorer and not User Accounts?
Q2: What happens if I delete all the files associated with the "new" user account - "wendy"
Q3: How do I (or do I even need to) establish a new user account named "wendy cain-PC"
Thanks in advance for the help!
I just did a total re-build of my machine. When I re-built the commands had me establish a user name. I chose 'wendy'. Fine so far.
After I restored all my data/settings etc, my "old" user name wendy cain-PC - and the computer name, by the way shows under Windows Explorer, but not in the User Accounts under the control panel.
All my documents etc. are under the "old" user name: wendy cain-PC AND I'd like to continue forward with this user name.
Q1: Why does the old user name show on Windows Explorer and not User Accounts?
Q2: What happens if I delete all the files associated with the "new" user account - "wendy"
Q3: How do I (or do I even need to) establish a new user account named "wendy cain-PC"
Thanks in advance for the help!
ASKER
Let me try that - I'm at LEAST an intermediate user - but these Vista user accounts are driving me nuts! Stay tuned. BTW: I used Retrospect Express - but had a horrible experience....maybe you can recommend something that is TRULY compatible with Vista :-)
I'll be back
I'll be back
ASKER
Started the process, but because of the size of all my files, it's gonna take around an hour (I was doing copy/paste). Let's for giggles say I go ahead and do that.
Q: before I heard back on this forum I was "messing around" (a very dangerous thing!) and ended up with a couple of user accounts that show up under Windows Explorer but not on my sign-on page or on control panel>user accounts. These two pages only show the "Administrator" named user account the "Wendy Cain.Wendy-PC" account- the account I'm trying to get everything into.
How do I delete the unwanted user accounts since I can only see them under Explorer? I THOUGHT I had deleted them that way, but they "magically" popped back up.
Thanks in advance!
Q: before I heard back on this forum I was "messing around" (a very dangerous thing!) and ended up with a couple of user accounts that show up under Windows Explorer but not on my sign-on page or on control panel>user accounts. These two pages only show the "Administrator" named user account the "Wendy Cain.Wendy-PC" account- the account I'm trying to get everything into.
How do I delete the unwanted user accounts since I can only see them under Explorer? I THOUGHT I had deleted them that way, but they "magically" popped back up.
Thanks in advance!
In all honesty, to do what you wanted to to, windows vista's backup and restore is not too bad. how did you create the magical reappearing accounts? :-) have you restarted the computer since you've deleted them?
ASKER
Regarding backup/restore, I'll keep that in mind. Back to the subject at hand:
The first "magical reappearing account" was created when I did my rebuild - name: wendy. THEN I restored all files/folders etc and they were restored to Wendy Cain.Wendy-PC - although I did not see it under user accounts on control panel. SO, since I did not see that user account under the control panel, I went in and created the user - under the same name - thinking I would move everything to that account. NOW I have 5 user accounts listed on explorer:
wendy
Wendy Cain.Wendy-PC
Wendy Cain.Wendy-PC.wendy-PC
Administrator
Public
They keep multiplying like rabbits! Obviously, I don't have a good handle on this part of my systems!
The first "magical reappearing account" was created when I did my rebuild - name: wendy. THEN I restored all files/folders etc and they were restored to Wendy Cain.Wendy-PC - although I did not see it under user accounts on control panel. SO, since I did not see that user account under the control panel, I went in and created the user - under the same name - thinking I would move everything to that account. NOW I have 5 user accounts listed on explorer:
wendy
Wendy Cain.Wendy-PC
Wendy Cain.Wendy-PC.wendy-PC
Administrator
Public
They keep multiplying like rabbits! Obviously, I don't have a good handle on this part of my systems!
Ha ha, ok understood. You might have to delete them from Safe Mode. i wouldn't be too concerned about them but if you are anything like me... they are annoying to look at.
obviously don't try to delete Public or Administrator (you probably knew that but i don't like people hating me)
ASKER
lemme give safe mode a try
ASKER
Well, safe mode didn't ssem to work. The files still show on my explorer. I guess I could live with THAT, except after deleting from safe mode I now get the error message that my profile is not loading correctly and it's creating yet another user: TEMP. Any changes there are lost on restart.
Sooooooo - assuming I just leave the pesky little user accounts, how can I move all my stuff to even a NEWER user and be done with it? Is it as simple as creating a user/copy-pasting and the deleting the old user?
I really appreciate the help!
Sooooooo - assuming I just leave the pesky little user accounts, how can I move all my stuff to even a NEWER user and be done with it? Is it as simple as creating a user/copy-pasting and the deleting the old user?
I really appreciate the help!
ASKER
More info: After I got the initial error about the user profile, I inserted my recovery disk and did a system repair. no luck
i think you kinda deleted the wrong folder, oh boy. Just create one last user and you should be ok. :-) this is my first time answering questions. i'm used to having the problem at hand in front of me so please excuse me if i wasn't helpful
the temp folder is the result of windows not being able to find a user folder. a system repair unfortunately doesn't fix that. i'm not quite sure why your system is stock piling magical user folders but creating another user will correct the issue with the temp folder
ASKER
You have been great. You know what? My guess is that I'm going to have the problem again and will probably have to re-instally the whole os. Reason, is that one of the user accounts I created/deleted did not have my personal files in there, but did have some system files. When asked if I wanted to delete "anyway" I said yes, because I thought ALL the system files were on the c drive.
Oh well. I've re-built this thing close to 20 times in the past month. I can do it in my sleep now. I'll sign off for now, but thanks again :-)
Oh well. I've re-built this thing close to 20 times in the past month. I can do it in my sleep now. I'll sign off for now, but thanks again :-)
no problem :-) good practice on rebuilding, i guess? and when you restore your files, see if you can restore just the data (documents and such) to a specific location (this way you don't go through this again)
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its been buggin me, i had to do some research...
"The right way of deleting a user profile is to use the profile
applet, which is accessible from the Advanced tab of the System
applet in Control Panel. (User Profiles)."
http://www.winvistatips.com/remove-old-user-account-folders-users-folder-windows-t175214.html
( i know) i should quit while i'm ahead, but i usually don't give up too easy :-)
let me know how that works out
"The right way of deleting a user profile is to use the profile
applet, which is accessible from the Advanced tab of the System
applet in Control Panel. (User Profiles)."
http://www.winvistatips.com/remove-old-user-account-folders-users-folder-windows-t175214.html
( i know) i should quit while i'm ahead, but i usually don't give up too easy :-)
let me know how that works out
ASKER
Actually, the safe mode did not work AND even though I did not get the message when I added a new user, I was just paranoid enough to say "forget it" -- and re-ran the whole re-build. This time I'lll know what to do. I'm trying to get the cleanest machine I can for an initial restore point. I'll go to that link when I'm ready to delete a profile. Thank you!
Sorry for not answering your questions completely but i would need more information. what did you use to backup/restore your data?