Strange user profile path change to C:\Documents and Settings\TEMP

I have a laptop user who has lost their desktop items and My Documents
contents etc as well as access to Outlook data files.

When I look in the Registry at
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders, I
find that most of the string values in this key point to C:\Documents and
Settings\TEMP path instead of C:\Documents and Settings\<user name> which is
the default that this user was set up with when they were set up on the
laptop.

The laptops are set up so that the main user has a local profile. Everyone
else who logs on gets a roaming profile from the server.

Folder redirection is applied by GPO. The GPO setting for the group they are
a member of explicitly redirects their folder My Documents and Desktop to
%USERPROFILE%\Desktop and My Documents meaning that these should be set to
wherever the user's profile comes from. Ordinary this is not this TEMP
folder. I do not know why this would have been changed to C:\Documents and
Settings\Temp for this user. It is a very strange situation.

What other steps can I take to try to determine why the user's profile path
has changed? I haven't yet looked in User Shell Folders but I expect it will
probably contain the expected Expandable String values loaded with variants
of %USERPROFILE% as normal.

There is definitely no user called TEMP and no idea why this path would have
been created to be used for a userprofile.

I remember another user was having problems one day because an application
had altered one of the environment strings causing their path to be wrong.
This meant Windows could not load a DLL it needed because of the path
change. Is it possible that an application has somehow changed the
environment variable %USERPROFILE% ? How would I be able to determine what
is causing this to happen?

NZSchoolTech <nzschooltech@school.nz> wrote:
> I have a laptop user who has lost their desktop items and My Documents
> contents etc as well as access to Outlook data files.
>
> When I look in the Registry at
> HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell
> Folders, I find that most of the string values in this key point to
> C:\Documents and Settings\TEMP path instead of C:\Documents and
> Settings\<user name> which is the default that this user was set up
> with when they were set up on the laptop.

In a command prompt, type
set
and look for the %userprofile% path. ....

>
> The laptops are set up so that the main user has a local profile.

Meaning, your domain user logs in, the roaming profile is downloaded once,
and then you change the type from roaming to local? That's what I often do
if I've got a user who has a laptop & a desktop - you know you've got at
least some backup of their profile settings. If they don't use both a laptop
and a desktop, just leave it roaming (why not)?


> Everyone else who logs on gets a roaming profile from the server.
>
> Folder redirection is applied by GPO. The GPO setting for the group
> they are a member of explicitly redirects their folder My Documents
> and Desktop to %USERPROFILE%\Desktop and My Documents

Ah. Do not use folder redirection to send anything over to the user's
roaming profile folder- it kinda defeats the purpose of having folder
redirection at all. By default, those folders *would* roam as part of the
profile - and you don't want that, as you want your profiles to stay *tiny*.

Instead, redirect them elsewhere....I usually use the users' home
directories (& appropriate subfolders therein).


> meaning that
> these should be set to wherever the user's profile comes from.
> Ordinary this is not this TEMP folder. I do not know why this would
> have been changed to C:\Documents and Settings\Temp for this user. It
> is a very strange situation.

Check the event logs, and I'll bet you the domain profile got corrupted and
a temporary one was loaded. I'd delete the cached local profile and log in
again as the user (see note above about roaming profile/change to local).

Download & install the latest version of the User Profile Hive Cleanup
Service on all computers.

>
> What other steps can I take to try to determine why the user's
> profile path has changed? I haven't yet looked in User Shell Folders
> but I expect it will probably contain the expected Expandable String
> values loaded with variants of %USERPROFILE% as normal.
>
> There is definitely no user called TEMP and no idea why this path
> would have been created to be used for a userprofile.
>
> I remember another user was having problems one day because an
> application had altered one of the environment strings causing their
> path to be wrong. This meant Windows could not load a DLL it needed
> because of the path change. Is it possible that an application has
> somehow changed the environment variable %USERPROFILE% ? How would I
> be able to determine what is causing this to happen?

See above (event logs are where you ought to start). I'm presuming you've
got backups of the data (My Docs & Desktop), right? That they were
redirected & are available on the server?

"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"
<lanwench@heybuddy.donotsendme.unsolicitedmail.atyahoo.com> wrote in message
news:uZ8GndQqHHA.4104@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> NZSchoolTech <nzschooltech@school.nz> wrote:
>> I have a laptop user who has lost their desktop items and My Documents
>> contents etc as well as access to Outlook data files.
>>
>> When I look in the Registry at
>> HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell
>> Folders, I find that most of the string values in this key point to
>> C:\Documents and Settings\TEMP path instead of C:\Documents and
>> Settings\<user name> which is the default that this user was set up
>> with when they were set up on the laptop.
>
> In a command prompt, type
> set
> and look for the %userprofile% path. ....
>
>>
>> The laptops are set up so that the main user has a local profile.
>
> Meaning, your domain user logs in, the roaming profile is downloaded once,
> and then you change the type from roaming to local? That's what I often do
> if I've got a user who has a laptop & a desktop - you know you've got at
> least some backup of their profile settings. If they don't use both a
> laptop and a desktop, just leave it roaming (why not)?
>
>
>> Everyone else who logs on gets a roaming profile from the server.
>>
>> Folder redirection is applied by GPO. The GPO setting for the group
>> they are a member of explicitly redirects their folder My Documents
>> and Desktop to %USERPROFILE%\Desktop and My Documents
>
> Ah. Do not use folder redirection to send anything over to the user's
> roaming profile folder- it kinda defeats the purpose of having folder
> redirection at all. By default, those folders *would* roam as part of the
> profile - and you don't want that, as you want your profiles to stay
> *tiny*.

Doesn't matter at all on a local profile - it doesn't roam. On a laptop,
they expect their files to be on the local hard drive - not on the network.

>
> Instead, redirect them elsewhere....I usually use the users' home
> directories (& appropriate subfolders therein).



>
>
>> meaning that
>> these should be set to wherever the user's profile comes from.
>> Ordinary this is not this TEMP folder. I do not know why this would
>> have been changed to C:\Documents and Settings\Temp for this user. It
>> is a very strange situation.
>
> Check the event logs, and I'll bet you the domain profile got corrupted
> and a temporary one was loaded. I'd delete the cached local profile and
> log in again as the user (see note above about roaming profile/change to
> local).
>
> Download & install the latest version of the User Profile Hive Cleanup
> Service on all computers.
>
>>
>> What other steps can I take to try to determine why the user's
>> profile path has changed? I haven't yet looked in User Shell Folders
>> but I expect it will probably contain the expected Expandable String
>> values loaded with variants of %USERPROFILE% as normal.
>>
>> There is definitely no user called TEMP and no idea why this path
>> would have been created to be used for a userprofile.
>>
>> I remember another user was having problems one day because an
>> application had altered one of the environment strings causing their
>> path to be wrong. This meant Windows could not load a DLL it needed
>> because of the path change. Is it possible that an application has
>> somehow changed the environment variable %USERPROFILE% ? How would I
>> be able to determine what is causing this to happen?
>
> See above (event logs are where you ought to start). I'm presuming you've
> got backups of the data (My Docs & Desktop), right? That they were
> redirected & are available on the server?
>
>
>

I am NOT a developer - just a user. I booted my computer this morning to discover that all of my user profile settings were apparently deleted and XP said it had to create a new (default) user profile. I wasted two hours trying to get reconnected to my Outlook email accounts, reconstructing my desktop, etc. I started poking around and discovered a "TEMP" file in C:\Documents and Settings that apparently is the repository for this default user profile. I still have a number of folders under my username (Charles) under C:\Documents and Settings but I don't know how to redirect XP to this user folder on start-up and I can't seem to delete the C:\Documents and Settings\Temp folder either. Other folders in C:\Documents and Setting include: \Administrator \All Users \Charles \Default User It would also be useful to me if I understood under what conditions XP uses each of these folders for user settings/profiles - I have had no luck trying to find this myself on the internet.
Please help!!

I had the same problem. Try this:
- Download and install UPHClean Service by miscosoft
- Log off damage profile and reboot
- Log in again and all the information about the paths will be fixed.

See ya!