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How to Disable and Delete User Profiles

Article ID: 156826 - View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q156826

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SUMMARY

This article describes how to disable and remove user profiles.

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MORE INFORMATION

NOTE: Following the steps in this article disables and removes all user profiles. All users of the Windows-based computer will see the same desktop and menus.

To Disable User Profiles

Restart the computer. At the Windows logon screen, click Cancel.
Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Passwords.
On the User Profiles tab, click All users of this PC use the same preferences and desktop, and then click OK.
When you are prompted to restart the computer, do so.

To Remove Existing User Profiles

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

322756

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756/ )

How to back up and restore the registry in Windows

Use Registry Editor to remove the appropriate User name keys from the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
To remove all profiles, remove the ProfileList key.
When you are done, quit Registry Editor.
Use My Computer or Windows Explorer to remove the appropriate Windows\Profiles\User name folders. To remove all profiles, remove the Windows\Profiles folder.

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