Login Completely Blocked w/User Profile Service Failed the Login

My wife and I have been unable to Login & repeatedly get the above message.

I have looked on all the relevant threads noting the above and can't find a
solution because each solution requires 1) accessing "Start", 2) accessing
msconfig, 3) setting up a second administrator.

I can't fathom how to do any of the above solutions if I can't even logon to
go to them. Please help me get out of this loop and it will be much
appreciated.

This is getting to be quite a problem with many people now. Your going to
have to find a program you can burn to a disk from another computer(if you
have one). Otherwise, theyre are limited options.
Try googling "reset windows vista password"
There should be a iso somewhere.
when you do get it reset, you may want to enable the administrator account
and write down the password somewhere
OR
create a password reset disc

I can use a thumb drive if I know 1) what program to
download from my toshiba with windows & 2) how to get it onto my locked dell
if I can't get passed the Password prompt. I can't access start,
accessories, command prompt........nothing. Any ideas how/what to do from here?

Do you have at least one other User Account you can sign into? I assume you have Windows Vista, and if so; hopefully, you did setup at least one other user account, or maybe you can sign in on you Guest Account. If you can sign in using a Guest Account or another User Account, then follow the directions below. This will most likely solve your problem. I was lucky when this happened to me, as I had setup several User Accounts and I just signed in on any one of them and did the following. It worked like a charm and I was back to my main User Account; thank Heavens, because the business files I would have lost had me in such a fright! Please let me know if you are able to use the advice due to having a second User Account, or whether you did not have another account to sign in with, and therefore are completely just blacked out with nowhere to go. I was afraid this was going to be my situation.. then I remembered the other accounts. I hope I can help; my email address is shown below and I will be glad to try and assist. It is so easy to fix, IF and hopefully so, you only have another account you can sign into.

[color="Blue"][b][color="DarkSlateBlue"]The Problem: User Profile Services failed the logon. What causes the problem? The problem was probably caused by having your computer set to do Automatic Updates. Something that Windows updated and installed while you were sleeping, has messed up your registry. In my case, it was Shock Player or something of the sort. Let Windows fix the problem for you. System Restore is the answer.

The Solution: SYSTEM RESTORE to just restore the system to any date prior to when the problem started and to when the system was working right; which can be done by going to \"Control Panel\", \"Help and Support\", then \"Security and Maintenance\", and there you will see \"Backup and Restore\", which will take you to System Restore. Here, you just restore your system to an earlier date or restore point, any point when the system was working right is sufficient.

[b][size="2"]Great Links below, thank you Mr. Murphy for sharing those. I saved every one of them in My Favorites just for future reference.

But to Melle, your instructions regarding the hard drives are surely not friendly for someone who isn't a whiz at computers. I have taught myself a lot, but I cannot follow going to a hard drive, signing in, then going to my problem computer and double clicking.... double click what? If one is locked out and has nothing but a black screen saying "User Profile Service failed the Logon", then what do you click onto? I don't know... probably a stupid question, but I just can't follow your directions. Can you elaborate any more at all? Thank you.

For me, the only thing that worked, and I was lucky that I had set up other User Accounts, was to sign into another account; and there I went to my System Restore and restored my system to a date prior to when the problem started. It works like a charm. SYSTEM RESTORE. It is the best thing Windows ever did for us! I can send directions for how to use this if anyone is interested.

Here's another that will make access to it faster after the first
time:

Click the Start orb
All Programs
Accessories
System Tools
Find System Restore
Right-click it and PIN TO THE START MENU

You missed the point as well.
HOW do you log in to do it, lol.

You run System Restore from the Vista DVD!

[TAB42]

my friend has this problem too she cant login her user name and password has changed since 10 july 2008 . all we get now is error message saying user name and password not recognized. last thing i saw was window updates ready for install. computer will start but cant pass login
dell win xp pro sp2

[nfsjr]

Figured out a solution. Restart computer. While windows is booting hit the F8 key repeatedly. This will bring you to advanced boot options. Select Last known good configuration and you should be good to go. At least it worked for me. Good luck!

[scrumpy]

Originally Posted by nfsjr

Figured out a solution. Restart computer. While windows is booting hit the F8 key repeatedly. This will bring you to advanced boot options. Select Last known good configuration and you should be good to go. At least it worked for me. Good luck!

Did you find a solution as I have tried this and it just brings me back to password not recognized each time i try hitting F8 option.

[Elijah]

If you are facing the problem like this then you can try to do the System restore to your computer and see if that is able to solve the problem for you. If you do not wish to repair the user profile then you can also try to delete the account and create a new user account. If none of the above is able to solve the problem then the only thing that is left for you is to do the clean install of the operating system and this will surely solve the problem for you. Thank you.