Window View setting won't stick

Probably.

 

Bill: I thought I'd get back to you to let you know I went ahead with Method #2 and set up a new user account as per your instructions. It went reasonably well although a lot of configuration details didn't make the transfer. Only about half the icons on my Desktop made it, and the Display had to be done all over, so I've been busy taking care of that. The biggest job is getting Netscape (my browser and e-mail prog) squared away. The original toolbar problem seems to be a thing of the past now, so I thank you for your assistance with that. If I need help with any of the wrinkles that remain, I'll open new threads in the appropriate forums. Thanks again.

 

Arie: There are 4 of them. Two are 32 MB each, the old main one is 960 MB, and the new one is 635 MB.

 

Your new one should be fairly close to the old one in size, if all things were copied as suggested in the Microsoft KB article.

• Ntuser.dat
• Ntuser.dat.log
• Ntuser.ini

Are the only things not copied from old to new, and I find it hard to imagine they constitute 325mb of space.

 

Bill: Those 3 files were the only ones I did not copy over. I just checked the Profile folders inside the respective Mozilla folders, and their sizes are much closer there. The old one is 629 MB and the new one is 601 MB. So apparently the major discrepancy isn't inside Netscape. Ideas?

 

When you copied the old profile to the new profile space, were there any errors?

 

Bill:

Not that I was aware of. Unless you count that strangeness I told you about earlier, with the reg fix command window immediately closing and reopening with just a C:\> prompt.

 

That is pretty much normal, as the process it is going to run is fairly short.

How big is NTUSER.DAT in your original profile?

 

It's 256 KB.

EDIT: Good heavens! I just did a Search and there are 25 of the things, NTUSER.DAT and NTUSER.DAT added together. They range from 256 KB in C:\ and C:\I386 up to 5.12 MB in Documents and Settings.

 

Ever since I set up a new user profile, when I switch to it a Desktop - Notepad window opens:

[.ShellClassInfo]
LocalizedResourceName=%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32dll,-21787

I don't get that when I open the old user profile. Why am I getting it with the new one, and how do I keep it from appearing each time?

Edit: It just occurred to me that I also recently put a Notepad.exe shortcut on my Desktop. Is that why the window is opening when I boot up in that profile?

 

PeteC: That did the trick. Actually, it didn't at first. In addition to deleting the file from the C:\*\All Users\ folder, I wound up having to find and delete it in my old user account and new user account folders. So I have 7 of them in the Recycle Bin now. But I no longer have it opening when I boot up, and that's what's important. Thanks for the help.

 

Your system keeps responding oddly to the new user profile operation. I would not have recommended the MS KB profile copy if I felt there were deeper registry issues. You have now convinced me there are.

The process described in the MS KB article for a profile copy certainly resolved the original issue. The subsequent use of SUBINACL should have been definitive at least for permission issues.

I am disturbed about your continued profile issues. I believe it would be best at this point to do a repair/In-place Upgrade process. You should not have these many problems, you should not have seen such a disparity in profile sizes pre and post the copy, and you most certainly should have seen nearly all of your former desktop icons and settings restored.

Time for a new level of fix. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315341

Be sure to spend some time at the Windows/Microsoft Update site after this process has completed.

 

Bill:

You may well be right. Before I leap into such a heavy-duty fix, I have to do a mental balancing act. Some issues complicate the decision.

(1) The new user profile is almost all OK. The only major remaining difficulty is setting up a new Netscape mail account, which may or may not be easy to do. I'm still using the old profile except when sorting out something in the new one.

(2) Between my original WinXP account and the new one, and also my old Netscape account and the new one, my C:\ partition is so close to being full that I can't defrag and I'm not sure if this In-place Upgrade operation would be able to work.

(3) I could probably solve that C:\ space problem by moving all my Netscape browser and e-mail stuff from the C:\ to the E:\ partition.

(4) Netscape itself may need to be replaced. I'm used to it, but more and more often lately I encounter Web sites that don't like it. Your MS KB link, for example, opened in a window that wouldn't let me scroll down to see the remainder of the page and print out a copy of the complete message. Had to open IE 7, which let me see the whole thing. I'm thinking of switching from NS to the SeaMonkey suite.

All those matters dovetail with each other, so I'm figuring out which ones to do and what sequence to do them in. (And they say that computers have made our lives easier. Yeah, right.)

 

An in-place Upgrade/Repair sounds and seems harder than in fact it is.

I am a Fred Langa fan, but his illustrated tutorial how to do the in-place upgrade is a classic.

Please read, as I think it will re-assure you that this is a safe thing to do in your circumstance: http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=189400897

Please let the Forum know of any issues.

Regards,
Bill