Error message when you use a migrated user account to log on to a migrated computer that is running Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, or Windows XP: "Windows cannot find the local profile and is logging you on with a temporary profile"

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SYMPTOMS

In a Windows Server 2003 Active Directory directory service domain environment, you use a migrated user account to log on to a migrated computer that is running Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, or Windows XP. In this case, you may receive the following error message:

Windows cannot find the local profile and is logging you on with a temporary profile. Changes to this profile will be lost when you logoff.

After you log on to the migrated computer, Windows creates a temporary profile for the migrated user account. Additionally, error messages that resemble the following may be logged in the Application log:

Message 1

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Userenv
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1511
Date: Date
Time: Time
User: User_Name
Computer: Computer_Name
Description: Windows cannot find the local profile and is logging you on with a temporary profile. Changes you make to this profile will be lost when you log off.

Message 2

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Userenv
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1512
Date: Date
Time: Time
User: User_Name
Computer: Computer_Name
Description: Windows cannot load the locally stored profile. Possible causes of this error include insufficient security rights or a corrupt local profile. If this problem persists, contact your network administrator.
DETAIL - The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.

Message 3

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Userenv
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1518
Date: Date
Time: Time
User: User_Name
Computer: Computer_Name
Description: Windows was unable to load the registry. This is often caused by insufficient memory or insufficient security rights.
DETAIL - The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.

This issue occurs if the following conditions are true:

You use a third-party migration tool to perform an intraforest migration of the user account and of the computer. After the migration, the source user account still exists.
You have included the security identifier (SID) history in the migration.
You have performed a translation for the cached profile on the migrated computer during the migration.

Note The translation of the cached profile enables the migrated user account to access the profile of the source user account after migration.

Notes

This issue also occurs in a Microsoft Windows 2000 Active Directory domain environment.
This issue occurs if the migrated computer is running Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, or Windows XP.

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CAUSE

This issue occurs because the NTUser.dat file is not released successfully after the file is loaded under the HKEY_USERS\<SID> registry key.

For example, when a Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) query is run on the computer, all the cached NTUser.dat files are loaded under the HKEY_USERS\<SID> registry key. After the query has finished running, you expect the NTUser.dat files to be released. However, some files remain loaded. This behavior occurs because WMI is unable to resolve the SIDs of these NTUser.dat files to the corresponding user names.

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WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, use one of the following methods.

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Method 1

Delete the source user account.

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Method 2

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

Delete the SID entries for the source user account from the following registry subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

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STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

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MORE INFORMATION

During the intraforest migration, some third-party migration tools perform a copy operation of the source user account instead of a move operation. Additionally, these tools create the destination user account by using the SID in the SIDHistory attribute of the source user account. In this case, the duplication of the SID occurs in the forest.

Migration tools that are used for intraforest migrations of the user account have to delete the source user account. After that, these tools have to create the destination user account by using the SIDHistory attribute that contains the SID of the source user account.

For more information about domain migration, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/Bb727125.aspx (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/Bb727125.aspx)

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