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Profile Cleanup Needed

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User001 View Drop Down
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    Posted: 02 Jun 2020 at 9:08pm
I used the User Profile Wizard on a Windows 10 pro computer to migrate the user's domain profile to a new local admin profile I created on their computer. 

Afterwards, I correctly removed their PC from the domain and took down their personal file server (which was only hosting documents they wanted transferred to their cloud account). 

Note: The default Windows 10 computer admin account was left unchanged in the disabled state.
 
Now they have two user profiles showing under C:\Users.  They have their old domain user ("Jsmith") and their new local admin user ("John").

They log in as the user "John" but I see that the "John" user profile is working with the "Jsmith" user profile as when I save a .txt file to their desktop, for example, it's showing up in the desktop folder of "Jsmith" not "John". 

There are some issues occurring with this and I want to clean it up by using the User Profile Wizard to migrate to a new local admin user profile "JohnS" and then delete both "John" and "Jsmith" user profiles. 

Note: Of course I always image the drive and ensure a working rescue disc before proceeding to do any serious work such as this.

Is this the way to end up with one clean user profile "JohnS" that results in the desktop, documents, applications, etc... not having to be recreated, moved over, reinstalled, etc... for the Windows 10 pro computer?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Support Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Jun 2020 at 3:00am
User Profile Wizard does not move, copy or delete any data. Instead it configures the existing profile “in place” so that it can be used by the user’s new account. So if you migrate the C:\Users\JSmith user profile (the data) to the John user account, John will use the C:\Users\JSmith profile.

If you are using the Professional or Corporate Editions, User Profile Wizard will rename the profile to match the user’s new account name: so C:\Users\JSmith to C:\Users\John in this case. The Freeware Edition does not.

Generally, if you are migrating a profile to a new user account, do not sign-in with that user account first: if you do you will get an “orphan” profile, which is what you have ended up with.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote User001 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Jun 2020 at 11:37am
Thank you for the informative reply.  That explains it.  Star

I think I can create another local admin user profile and NOT log into it, then migrate the existing user profile to the new one.  Then, delete the old orphaned profiles. 

1. Would this work using the free version?

2.  If not, would this work using the professional version?

Thank you.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote User001 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Jun 2020 at 8:38pm
Can I create another local admin user profile and NOT log into it, then migrate the existing user profile to the new one.  Afterwards, delete the old orphaned profiles? 


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Support Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Jun 2020 at 8:24am
Yes, you could do that.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote User001 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Jun 2020 at 6:17pm
Again, thank you for responding. 

On another note, I've read the downloadable user manual and the corporate product looks very powerful with respect to what the product is designed to accomplish.  We're a very small business; however, I can see that the networking department of a materially larger organization could benefit greatly from the corporate edition after reading the corporate user manual. 


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote User001 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Jun 2020 at 11:32am
Running the user profile wizard, making sure all the boxes were unchecked as I was simply migrating the orphaned local user profile to a new local new user profile I created (but took care NOT to log into the new local user profile I created), went well.  I deleted the old orphaned local profile after making sure the new one was working properly.

I had to rearrange the desktop icons (which all migrated to the new profile) where I had them before and re-sign into various things but I didn't need to reactivate any software. 

A couple of other things someone might find useful are:

1. I ran Manage Windows Credentials from the run window and removed the old server credentials (no longer needed as the server is gone and these computers have been converted off the domain into a work group). 

2. I cleaned out the unused and conflicting mappings by opening the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MountPoints2 and CAREFULLY removing only those network mappings no longer used taking care to know exactly what I was doing and then closed the registry (everyone should AVOID the registry unless you know EXACTLY how it works and what to do in it). 

Note that before mapping a drive, list all the letters currently assigned.  Make sure any external drives are plugged in, then go to computer management/disk management and without making any changes whatsoever simply write down the letters used and close the window.  Letters not being used are available to map drives with.  Lots of time people unplug an external USB DVD/CD device and then map a drive using the letter the computer has assigned to that and have nothing but trouble afterwards with that drive mapping.  This is easily avoided. 

Also, be sure to understand file locking on work group shared folders and the file path limitations in Office now that data has been moved from a file server to a local computer (I downloaded the 2003 version of robocopy from the resource kit and used the nomenclature robocopy.exe <source> <destination> /COPYALL /MIR to mirror what was on the file server to the work group computer hosting the data for the work group). 

Also, when using the CMD dos window take care to note that if you run it as administrator any changes you make regarding "net use" drive mapping will affect the local administrator NOT the user you're logged in as.  So if you're going to use "net use" in a CMD dos window instead of file explorer to map drives for that user then do NOT run CMD as administrator before mapping drives with the "net use" command.

Well, I guess that's it.  My experience is that the user profile wizard is a Godsend when one understands what it does and uses it correctly.  Be blessed and thank you for it.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote User001 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Jun 2020 at 11:35am
One last thing.  When migrating from a local user profile, use the computer name as it is shown in properties by right clicking This PC rather than the all caps version presented with in the user profile wizard.  Also, leave the set as default box checked for the new user profile if you're going to log in to it after the user profile wizard finishes and reboots which normally is what you do.


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