Windows 7 profile loads without user desktop and applications

Answers

Go to regedit
Go to and expand the following Key: `HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
Look down the list of keys that are longer than S-1-5-xx
If any of the keys are DUPLICATED (but one will have a .bak extension) then you should click the key to highlight it (the one WITHOUT .bak) and read the information from the right panel.
The information displayed in the right panel should say your user profile
IF the key shows your username then you will need to rename the one that DOESN'T have .bak at the end to .bak2 -> this will be the temporary profile created.
Rename the one that DOES have .bak to simply remove the .bak -> this will be your original profile
Restart your computer and log in as your account to see if your profile returns as normal.

If this doesn't work then, as said, backup the profile (always the first thing to do), rename it (as per CharlesH comment) and then log back in as your account ( a new, clean profile should be created). I would do this as a last attempt as it'll then take you ages to copy files and settings over)

Kinnectus

Posted 2014-06-16T09:08:45.727

Reputation: 9 411

Sounds like the account is being logged in with a Temp profile of some sorts. If you log on to the Windows 7 machine as local administrator (or another account with Admin rights) are you able to rename the users profile folder under C:\users... and also delete a registry entry as this link explains: http://www.sysprobs.com/fix-temporary-profile-windows-7

– CharlesH – 2014-06-16T09:12:39.280

After this if the user logs in correctly you will need to log back in to the machine as local admin and copy the data back to their new profile folder from the old one (My Documents, etc.) – CharlesH – 2014-06-16T09:13:25.373