How do you remove/delete a user profile that is not showing?

[Perrintook]

I have a Windows 7 computer that I was trying to remove a user profile, but it was interrupted in the middle of the process. I checked in the Control Panel, but it is not there anymore, but the folder itself is still in the Users folder. How do you completely remove the user profile? Any help would be appreciated.

p.s. I have three other profile accounts (two have Administrator privileges). The one I tried to remove also had Administrator privileges.

 

[iko22]

Hello Perrintook,
Welcome to Seven Forums.

If the user account that you tried to delete no longer appears in control panel > user accounts, then it has been successfully deleted, along with the removal of all privileges.
Deleting a User Account does not delete the former user's files and folders. Should you want to move/delete these items, then you can do that using another user account.

 

[Snick]

From NeoSmart technoligies,
Corrupt User Profile: Fix for Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10
5 Fix Corrupt User Profile in Windows 7
5.1 Fix #1: Create a new Windows 7 account
5.2 Fix #2: Registry Editor

Microsoft Fix-It tool has been discontinued

Bill

 

[EmeraldShard]

Related to that registry fix Snick mentioned:

If you're just trying to delete a profile (rather than fix a corrupt one), you can go into that same registry path, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\ and just scrutinize the list of keys there for the one that matches the profile you're trying to delete. Look in each of them for the "ProfileImagePath" value and see if one of them matches the path of the profile you're trying to remove (it'll probably be one of the ones with a long numerical name). If you find it in one of the keys, then delete that key - as long as it's there, the profile still exists and will result in Windows making a temporary profile if that person tries to login and the profile folder in C:\Users is missing or corrupt.

(Obviously, take care not to delete any other keys as they relate to profiles you want to keep... always a good idea to backup/export registry before making manual changes, of course)

If you don't see the profile you're looking for there, then it's gone and all that's left to do is straight up delete the folder in C:\Users (or if you care about keeping the data in it, you can rename it instead - call it Username.old or something). It should be noted that there was nothing stopping you from doing that in the first place, as long as you're on an administrator account, and you'd have to do it anyway to cleanly remove the profile. You just want to be sure to do the registry key portion as well to avoid creating temp profiles.

 

[Perrintook]

Thank you for the info. I noticed that in the registry, but I am having one problem with permissions with the folder mentioned. When I try to delete the profile folder in the Users folder, it says the following:

You need permission to perform this action

You require permission from S-1-5-21-183664231-2895315462-204726096-1001 to make changes to this folder

After this, it shows the folder name, date created, and gives the option to "Try Again" or "Cancel". I have Administrator privileges, so I am not sure why it is still asking for permission. Under the folder's properties, it shows SYSTEM and Administrators, but it also shows one with that long string in it. Is it possible it has to do with inheritance, or maybe something else?

 

[EmeraldShard]

Thank you for the info. I noticed that in the registry, but I am having one problem with permissions with the folder mentioned. When I try to delete the profile folder in the Users folder, it says the following:

You need permission to perform this action

You require permission from S-1-5-21-183664231-2895315462-204726096-1001 to make changes to this folder

After this, it shows the folder name, date created, and gives the option to "Try Again" or "Cancel". I have Administrator privileges, so I am not sure why it is still asking for permission. Under the folder's properties, it shows SYSTEM and Administrators, but it also shows one with that long string in it. Is it possible it has to do with inheritance, or maybe something else?

I'll unfortunately have to defer to someone more experienced with permissions issues on the local level. To be honest, I happened across your issue and thought I'd mention this solution, because it's something I've had occasion to do many times on the enterprise level where I work, but I have some fairly broad admin access in that context. I've never needed to delete or reset a profile on one of my home machines. So it's possible that my advice isn't 100% applicable to your situation, and if so, sorry for any confusion there.

 

[Perrintook]

I'll unfortunately have to defer to someone more experienced with permissions issues on the local level. To be honest, I happened across your issue and thought I'd mention this solution, because it's something I've had occasion to do many times on the enterprise level where I work, but I have some fairly broad admin access in that context. I've never needed to delete or reset a profile on one of my home machines. So it's possible that my advice isn't 100% applicable to your situation, and if so, sorry for any confusion there.

No problem, thank you for the response. Everything is good except for this permission issue.

 

[iko22]

Log on as an Administrator Account. Open Windows Explorer, navigate to the deleted user folder.

Right-mouse click on user's folder icon, to open context menu. Select Properties from list.

The Folder Properties window opens. Click on the Security Tab.

Click on each User name, and check permissions. Click on Edit, and select User Name with Admin Privileges, from the top pane. Then, in the bottom pane, check the box Allow Full Control, and click OK when done.

 

[Perrintook]

Log on as an Administrator Account. Open Windows Explorer, navigate to the deleted user folder.

Right-mouse click on user's folder icon, to open context menu. Select Properties from list.

The Folder Properties window opens. Click on the Security Tab.

Click on each User name, and check permissions. Click on Edit, and select User Name with Admin Privileges, from the top pane. Then, in the bottom pane, check the box Allow Full Control, and click OK when done.

Unfortunately, I already checked there, and it shows full control.

 

[EmeraldShard]

Unfortunately, I already checked there, and it shows full control.

Not sure if this matches what you're hoping to do, but it made me think of an issue I ran into last week when I was trying to share my old machine's HDD on the network so I could pull stuff off of it onto my new machine at leisure. I thought I had shared it with "Everyone," and on the "Sharing" tab it definitely said "Everyone" had full control. And yet, on the Security tab I found only Administrators, Authenticated Users, Users, and System.


I changed two things there: I enabled Full Control for "Authenticated Users." Then I went into Edit... and then Add. In the Object Names box I put "Everyone" (this is actually valid in place of a username there) and then gave the Everyone object Full Control as well. Next time I tried to access that network share, it was successful.


In your case, I figure it might help you in deleting the folder. Give it a try?