Here's how to create a Default Profile without using SysPrep

Working on it Now! Let you know how it works!

Thanks so much for this nice work.

Swapping steps 16 and 17 help a lot in the clean up process. Also searching just for "44BBA840" found the other items that needed be changed.

This process works sweet. Thanks for sharing it.

I know this is a super old thread but I was testing this out since some of the guys at work was trying to implement it. Works alright but I think I may be missing something. When you bulk find and replace all instances of c:\\users\\{username} with the %userprofile% variable and then try to install any apps that would normally drop a configuration/preference folder under the c:\users\{username} directory, it just creates a user folder named %userprofile% and drops the config folder in there.

I did a bunch of research and it appears the registry cannot expand the %userprofile% variable since it is a regular string type in the registry. Only way that seems to work is if you change it to a REG_EXPAND_SZ type but that's where it gets crazy. Did more research on this as well and seems the only way to change it to a REG_EXPAND_SZ type is to manually input the ASCII values as hex values.. so instead of using something like %USERPROFILE%\\appdata\\local\\Microsoft\\Windows Media\\{filename}, I would have to set the value as hex(2):{crazy long hex values}. I have not tested this fully since there are about 15-20 places where I would have to manually convert each string over to hexadecimal and copy it back into the reg file....

Like I said I know it's an old thread but does anyone know what I'm missing or what Im doing wrong? I can't use system/environment variables in the reg edits...

I have a few applications that need to write data to the "Users" profile and instead I am noticing that it's writing to c:\Users\Default\...

Is there a way around this?

I think it is important to re-read steps #16 and #17. The only thing I changed was under Step #17. It was indicated to use %USERPROFILE% but instead I used %USERNAME% and all new users logging in under that system with the updated "default" profile are having their information point to their folders now.

When using the %USERPROFILE% under Step 17, I noticed that new users would not have their username automatically populate with software that wanted to save settings to.

Under Step #16 it is important to remember to to change the Username of "to_be_default" to "Default" instead of the %USERPROFILE%.

Recap:

Step 16: Change the Username of "to_be_default" to "Default" under that one specific registry section

Step 17: Change all "to_be_default" to "%USERNAME%" for all remaining items

Step 19: After you have re-imported the updated registry information, remember to click File | select Unload Hive in the registry. That step was missing from the original steps listed above on Page 1.


Hope this helps. and a Big Thanks to badshah for posting this thread in the first place!

Does this help?
How to create a default user profile in Windows 7 - Answers That Work

Although I haven't tested the %username% theory yet, I can say that this method comes very close to actually working. The main issue I have discovered is that when attempting to run the windows 7 backup using a newly created user, the backup will fail. I suspect it has to do with the %userprofile% issue as mentioned above. I exported/edited/imported the entries in the registry: "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Sofware\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" I simply did a replace all on %userprofile% with the current user profile name eg. c:\\user, and the backup started working again. Problem is I don't want to edit 200 shell folders.. Hopefully the %username% fix above will fix this too. Cheers

So, it's an old thread, but I need to tell you something...

When we copy the to_be_default folder, we end up with a folder with lots of files and folders useless to default user. Sometimes, the new user don't 'get' all modifications: it misses some icons, some folders poits to 'to_be_default', and other things.

I think is because the NTFS permissions, or the junctions inside 'default' folder. Maybe the %userprofile% or %username% variable. Maybe all of this.

So, here is how I'm doing for now:

1. Activate the administrator account and create a new account for testing (let's call new_account);
2. Log with an existing account (let's call my_account), and make all modifications I need (desktop, icons, homepages, energy, etc);
3. Login as administrator, run command prompt, and type these commands:
   
   1. reg load hklm\default_account c:\users\default\ntuser.dat
   2. reg load hklm\my_account c:\users\my_account\ntuser.dat
   
   
4. Now we have both profiles loaded in the registry. Now, we will copy all keys and values we changed with my_account to default_account. Let's take 'folder options' as example:
   
   1. reg copy hklm\my_account\software\microsoft\widnows\currentversion\explorer\advanced hklm\default_account\software\microsoft\widnows\currentversion\explorer\advanced /f /s
   
   
5. Use the above command to all changes you made. Maybe you need to know wich keys was modified, but this forum have a lot of information about this;
6. A note: if a key or value uses spaces, type the key with ". For example: "hklm\default_account\software\microsoft\internet explorer";
7. When you finish copying, unload all hives with:
   
   1. reg unload hklm\default_account
   2. reg unload hklm\my_account
   
   

Thats it. When you log with new_account, it 'pushes' the newly modified NTUSER.DAT from c:\users\default. If you want, you only need to copy c:\users\default\ntuser.dat to another place, for backup or to use in another machine. Don't need to copy the entire Default or new_account folder.


For now, the only thing I can't do with this method is install Microsoft Update. Yes, there is a difference between Windows Update and Microsoft Update. Windows Update install updates for Windows itself, and Microsoft Update install updates to a lot of Microsoft programs, like Office, NET Framework, and others. If you know how install Microsoft Update, or the files and keys it uses, let me know.

I have been sitting on this article for about 2 years now and finally decided to implement it. Granted, I haven't seen all the updates everyone has been posting. I will implement them on my next test around. I will say that this method did work for my Windows 10 Pro default profile. Everything worked well. Only issue was Start Menu wouldn't come up. Did a restart, and bam, its working. Still testing it, but just want to let everyone know that this method will work on Win 10.

My next build I will do %username% as opposed to %userprofile%. I hadn't seen those posts yet.

Still testing and will let you all know if anything else is broken.

I tried to use the same procedure that I have been using Successfully with Windows 7 Pro with Windows 10 and I am getting strange issues the Default profile copy having AppData copies containing not all the files in them.

Normally under my "Original" default profile I have something called AppData and then another folder called Application Data

When I follow the process from before, the new "Default" gets AppData and then Appdata - Copy and AppData - Copy (2)

I am not sure what is causing this but I"m sure it has to do with some setting under Windows 10 that I cannot figure out how to change.

Has anyone else had similar issues following this Windows 7 process under a new Windows 10 system?