Windows NT Administrator Cannot Delete Win95 User.dat

If a Windows 95 user has a profile on a Windows NT server, an associated file called User.dat is created on the server. Occasionally, it is necessary for an administrator to delete this file. However, the administrator cannot delete this file, even if the administrator owns the file, the file is closed, and the administrator has complete access to it at both the NTFS and the share levels. Only the user who used the profile and who therefore wrote the User.dat file to the Windows NT server can delete it.

Here is a possible scenario:

• Windows 95 is set up with User Profiles (for roving features).
• John, a domain user, logs on and writes User.dat on the computer running Windows NT Server.
• John logs out and shuts down the computer running Windows 95.
• Sheryl, the Windows NT Server administrator, tries to delete User.dat using File Manager.
• Access is denied. Sheryl can take ownership of the file, has full NTFS access, full share access, and the file is not open.
• John is given sufficient rights to delete the file. John can now log on to the computer running Windows NT Server and delete User.dat.

Currently, the only resolution is for the user who uses the profile to delete User.dat.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 3.51. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.