URGENT - Personal preferences, settings, etc. all wiped out

Hello -

The last few or several times that I've logged off, restarted, or shut down and then turned back on my PC that's a Hewlett Packard Pavilion p7-1155 that runs on Windows 7, bought in late May 2012, it somehow apparently wipes out all my personal preferences and settings, etc.

One of the very worst things is that all the programs that I've personally added over the years to the Start Menu have been deleted from it, and I find that I even have to re-download and/or reinstall and/or restore a few of my most important programs - such as my Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox web browsers.

I'm not getting any error messages, but near the end of the startup process, I get a message saying "Preparing your desktop" (on the light blue screen, and lasts at least a few minutes), which I can't seem to remember having seen before, and then to my horror I can see that my desktop image has been replaced, along with the loss of my personalized Start Menu, etc.

PLEASE HELP, as it is rather URGENT for me - any attempts or efforts to help will be tremendously appreciated; thanks. How can I prevent these disasters from happening again, and how can I recover my personalized Start Menu?

Your description is not very clear. Does your programs are removed only from the Start Menu or they are removed from the system overall? Also, you don't explain which settings are wiped (system settings or personal user settings)?

For the account problem - many things can cause this (e.g. corrupted profile, programs, etc...), so try first to create a new user and see how things will go with the new user. If the problem doesn't happens with the new user, your old account is corrupted (probably).

MSClin said:

Your description is not very clear. Does your programs are removed only from the Start Menu or they are removed from the system overall? Also, you don't explain which settings are wiped (system settings or personal user settings)?

For the account problem - many things can cause this (e.g. corrupted profile, programs, etc...), so try first to create a new user and see how things will go with the new user. If the problem doesn't happens with the new user, your old account is corrupted (probably).

Mostly, apparently with the exception of a couple or few of my most important programs, such as my Google Chrome & Mozilla Firefox web browsers, which I mentioned in my original, previous post, the programs are removed only from my Start Menu. And I said that my personal user settings & preferences, etc. are wiped out each time I restart, log off, or shut down & then turn back on my PC - I never mentioned anything about system settings.

Any further attempts or efforts to help will be tremendously appreciated - thanks.

MSClin said:

Your description is not very clear. Does your programs are removed only from the Start Menu or they are removed from the system overall? Also, you don't explain which settings are wiped (system settings or personal user settings)?

For the account problem - many things can cause this (e.g. corrupted profile, programs, etc...), so try first to create a new user and see how things will go with the new user. If the problem doesn't happens with the new user, your old account is corrupted (probably).

Mostly, apparently with the exception of a couple or few of my most important programs, such as my Google Chrome & Mozilla Firefox web browsers, which I mentioned in my original, previous post, the programs are removed only from my Start Menu. And I said that my personal user settings & preferences, etc. are wiped out each time I restart, log off, or shut down & then turn back on my PC - I never mentioned anything about system settings.

Any further attempts or efforts to help will be tremendously appreciated - thanks.

Layback Bear said:

Welcome to our forum DLee12.

A new user account is worth a try. Read this tutorial by Brink.

User Account - Create - Windows 7 Help Forums

User Accounts - Add or Remove from Groups - Windows 7 Help Forums

Note: At the bottom of the tutorial their are other choices to change User Accounts.

Another option would be to use a Restore Point before this problem happened.

Another tutorial by Brink.

System Restore - Windows 7 Help Forums

Jack

Thanks very much, as I'll try the first option (creating a new user account), but using restore points is something I've already tried. It doesn't work for me in this particular case, esp. since my problem of all my personal user settings & preferences, etc. being wiped out occurs each & every time I have to restart, log off, or shut down & then turn back on my PC, and restoring my PC to a previous point requires a restart, when my problem is just about guaranteed to happen again.

[FIXED] You have been logged on with a temporary profile. Windows 7 - YouTube

Very unfortunately, creating a new user (adminstrator) account didn't work either, so anyone have any other ideas? Thanks for any attempts or efforts to help - it'll be greatly well-appreciated.

Thanks for coming back. Most of the times it's the account which makes Windows do this. So, before giving you any solutions, are you sure that you don't miss to tell us any error or "info" message at boot, startup, after logon, etc.?