Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of knfitz
knfitzFlag for United States of America

asked on

unable to delete user profile

I have a user profile on my server 2008 terminal server that i need to delete. when I go into user profile settings in the my computer properties and select the user name the delete button becomes greyed out. I've rebooted the server and it's still greyed out. in the past I would install the user profile hive cleanup from microsoft and it worked really well, but the install fails when i try to install it on server 2008. What can i do to delete the profile on server 2008?
Avatar of kaskhedikar_tushar
kaskhedikar_tushar
Flag of India image

Avatar of knfitz

ASKER

I downloaded it, but I'm not finding the instructions to know what to type in my command prompt to delete the user profile. I did read that it says it can delete from a remote pc, so i installed it on my windows xp workstation. What do i type in my command prompt to delete the profile on my server?
Avatar of knfitz

ASKER

OK, I found the instructions and got it to run, but somethignweird happened. when it was going through the list of profiles to delete, the one I want to delete did not come up? what could cause this?
Avatar of dblaylock0315
dblaylock0315

Have you tried just going into c:\users and manually deleting the profile folder?
have you tried the good old unlocker from c columb? its a great tool - but the original author site is no longer available on the web for some reason.
Avatar of knfitz

ASKER

I haven't tried the unlocker, is their a way for me to get a copy? also deleting the profile folder doesn't completely delete the profile.
You can get unlocker from the link below.

http://download.cnet.com/Unlocker/3000-2248_4-10493998.html

Also, if the folder under the users directory is completely gone then the important(read as screwed up) parts of the profile are gone.  You should then be able to remove the entry from the profiles section under the advanced tab.
Avatar of knfitz

ASKER

I tried to manually delete most of the files in that profile and now I can't log on. is there a service or something that can be restarted so that I don't have to reboot my whole terminal server to allow people to logon again?
You can't log on as that user?  What error are you getting when you try?
Avatar of knfitz

ASKER

I can't logon as any user now, it goes to the welcome with a spinning circle and stays there. there's no error message. it's server 2008.
So you never even get to the login prompt?
Avatar of knfitz

ASKER

No, I enter my username and password and then it starts logging in but gets stuck at the welcome and just spins a little circle.
Are you on the server's desktop or remoting in?
Avatar of knfitz

ASKER

I was remoting in but now I'm at the console and it's stuck on waiting for user profile service. I tried to restart that service but it wouldn't stop, it timed out trying to stop. I'm able to connect to the sevices.msc from a different server so I can see the services.
Oops.  Forgot about that one.  Thanks for the reminder.  Maybe EE should consider some sort of mechanism for easier communication.  It does become cumbersome on occasion to go back and forth through the email notifications.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Justin Owens
Justin Owens
Flag of United States of America image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial