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Error: The Credentials Supplied Conflict with an Existing Set of Credentials

Article ID: 197987 - View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q197987

SYMPTOMS

When you log on to a domain using mandatory profiles and mapped network drives through a logon script, you may receive the following error message:

The credentials supplied conflict with an existing set of credentials.

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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

To resolve this problem, blank out the Username key in the registry for HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Network:

Log on as an administrator at any workstation.
Click Start, click Run, type regedt32, and then click OK.
Select HKEY_USERS, but do not open.
From the Registry menu, click Load Hive.
This will bring up a Load Hive dialog box. Locate the Ntuser.dat file for the user with the errors. Select the Ntuser.dat and click Open. You may enter any string for the Key Name. Use TEST for ease of use pertaining to the remainder of this article.
Locate the Username value under the following key in the registry:
HKEY_USERS\TEST\Network\Username
Delete the string for Username (leaving it blank is sufficient).
Select the TEST hive that you previously loaded, click the Registry menu, and then click Unload Hive.
Quit Registry Editor.

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MORE INFORMATION

The following is an excerpt from page 32 of the "Guide to Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Profiles and Policies" white paper:

   Creating Profiles Without User-Specific Connections
   ---------------------------------------------------

   In some cases, you may want to create profiles that include
   preconfigured persistent connections. However, if you need to supply
   alternate credentials when you create the template profile, this can
   cause problems for users later when the profile is used. Information
   about persistent connections is stored in the registry location
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Network. This key has subkeys that list the persistent
   drive connections by drive letter. For each of these subkeys, there is a
   value of UserName. If alternate credentials must be supplied to make the
   connection, those credentials are also stored here. Note that this
   includes only the domain and user account name; the password is not
   included. When the user receives this profile and logs on, WindowsNT
   attempts to reconnect the drive, but the alternate credentials are sent
   rather than those of the logged on user. Note that if the UserName value
   contains a blank string, the credentials of the logged on user are sent
   (which is the desired behavior in this case).

   To avoid inadequate credentials or wrong credentials being sent, use one
   of the following approaches: Avoid having to supply alternate
   credentials when you create the Connections to network resources in the
   shared profile by granting the user creating the template profile
   sufficient permissions in advance. Before modifying the profile to be a
   mandatory profile, run a REGINI script that removes the credentials from
   the UserName value. Do not delete the value, only the string data.

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