Unable to Log-In to Windows

[OverMatt]

My system isn't "crashing" per se; but I'm having what might be an even more frustrating problem.

Somehow my Windows 7 user profile has become corrupted (I can't imagine how; it was working perfectly this morning). As the machine in question is a laptop, I have it set to require my password before opening the desktop. On system startup, it still boots to the login screen and still requests my password; but when I enter the password it says that it is unable to load the profile, automatically logs out, and takes me back to the login screen where I can repeat the cycle endlessly.

I should be able to simply wipe the harddrive and return to an earlier backup state; but there are some files I want to copy before doing so. However, because I can't access the desktop, I can't access the files.

Is there a way of reaching the desktop, if only to back up some files before wiping the system, without passing through the apparently impassable login screen?

 

[richc46]

Welcome

See what happens in safe mode.

 

[Carusus]

One possibility (this happened to me after I added a KB combo) is that the keyboard is no longer the one in the system for some reason. At top left there's a dropdown button if you have more than one KB/language installed. Try changing (this didn't work for me). If this doesn't work, just imagine you are using a default US keyboard and see if that works (Y, Z, Q, M etc. move around in other KBs). Alternatively again, try the alternative input methods from the bottom left dropdown...
Afterwards, when you're in, make sure you create a new Administrator user with a password that does not involve keys that change places. Numbers are probably safest.