Cannot Delete "Account Unknown" account in Windows XP SP3

Question

If I Right click on My Computer, Select Properties, then click on Advanced->User Profiles->Settings, I get a list of user accounts on my machine and I see a few that are "Account Unknown" in there with large profiles and I want my space back. I am assuming this is because these users are long gone and AD no longer recognizes their SIDs.

The problem is that the Delete button is grayed out, but only for the accounts, the ones that are recognized, I can delete jsut fine.

These accounts do not show up in Computer Management at all, and I am an administrator on my machine - any ideas on how to delete them?

Answer 1

AFAIK, the "User profiles" window only lists user profiles, not accounts -- so you should check C:\Documents and Settings\ for the leftover profile directories.

Answer 2

I have encounted this. In my case re-starting the PC then allowed me to delete the orphaned profiles.

@grawity - you are correct, the list is the list of profiles on this PC, not the list of accounts. However there is information maintained in the registry about which profiles exist on the PC. Mearly deleting the folders from C:\Documents and settings would not remove the profiles from the list.