Temporary User issue

[[windows]]

Works for Windows 8+.

User being signed into temporary account, when trying to sign into their own account.

REGISTRY FIX

1. While signed in to the account with the temporary profile, open a command prompt.

2. Enter "whoami /user" command to get SID (Security Identifier, a SID is a string value that is used to uniquely identify users.)

   SID eg.: S-1-5-21-2171760768-3957144033-4256508931-1001

3. Open ‘Registry Editor’ (type ‘regedit’ in Run) 

4. Navigate to the ProfileList key:

   >HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

5. In the left pane under the expanded ProfileList key, look to see if the SID key from step 2 above is listed with .bak (eg: S-1-5-21-....-1001.bak) and/or without .bak (eg: S-1-5-21-....-1001) at the end. (see screenshot above)

   1. If the SID key is without .bak:
      1. In the right panel of the SID key (eg: S-1-5-21-....-1001), double click on the ProfileImagePath value name to modify it.
      2. Enter the correct path (eg: C:\Users\) of the user's profile folder, and click OK.
      3. Verify that the State DWORD is set with a value data of 0 (number zero).
   2. If the SID key is with .bak:
      1. Right click on the SID key (eg: S-1-5-21-....-1001.bak), click on Rename, and rename the SID key to only remove ".bak" (eg: S-1-5-21-....-1001) at the end of the key's name.
      2. In the right panel of the SID key (eg: S-1-5-21-....-1001) now without .bak at the end, double click on the ProfileImagePath value name to modify it.
      3. Enter the correct path (eg: C:\Users\) of the user's profile folder, and click OK.
      4. Verify that the State DWORD is set with a value data of 0 (number zero).
   3. If the SID key is without and with .bak:
      1. Right click on the SID key without .bak (eg: S-1-5-21-....-1001), and click on Delete.
      2. Right click on the SID key with .bak (eg: S-1-5-21-....-1001.bak), click on Rename, and rename the SID key to only remove ".bak" (eg: S-1-5-21-....-1001) at the end of the key's name.
      3. In the right panel of the SID key (eg: S-1-5-21-....-1001) now without .bak at the end, double click on the ProfileImagePath value name to modify it.
      4. Enter the correct path (eg: C:\Users\) of the user's profile folder, and click OK.
      5. Verify that the State DWORD is set with a value data of 0 (number zero).

6. Exit Registry Editor & Restart the computer, and sign in to the account that got the temporary profile error to see if it’s fixed.

7. If the account's profile is still not fixed, then you can create a new user profile for the account, and copy over any files you want from the old profile folder to the new one afterwards.