Desktop Management - Ambiguous "to migrate" in Wizard and User's Manual

Ambiguous "to migrate" in Wizard and User's Manual

Printed From: ForensiT
Category: ForensiT Support
Forum Name: Desktop Management
Forum Description: User Profile Manager questions, suggestions, comments and bug reports
URL: https://forum.ForensiT.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=483
Printed Date: 27 Mar 2026 at 2:13am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.03 - http://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: Ambiguous "to migrate" in Wizard and User's Manual

Posted By: abello
Subject: Ambiguous "to migrate" in Wizard and User's Manual
Date Posted: 16 May 2012 at 10:34am

Hello everybody!

It took me a whole afternoon to reinstall Windows 7 on my desktop PC and set the email, smartphone sync, keyboard settings, documents backups, the works. All in a workgroup environment because the domain admin was out for the day. This morning I joined my PC to a local domain controller and read about this piece of software that would save from setting up everything again. Just as I feared after reading the ambiguous wizard instructions, I downloaded the Profile Wizard, logged in the workgroup profile, ran the wizard it and it did the exact same opposite: It "migrated" the just-new, blank domain user profile into my already configured workgroup profile. That "to migrate" did the trick of screwing up my setup. This mistake could had been easily avoided if the wizard and User's Manual would had resort to a clearer "FROM/TO" or à la Microsoft "old/new machine" migration paradigm that people are accustomed since the dawn of personal computing.

Think about it! "select the domain and account name for the user you would like to use the profile". Can anybody guess if that whole sentence is in reference to the "old" or "new" profile? "use the profile". What profile, dare I ask? The one in moving from or the one I'm moving into? It's totally ambiguous, since the whole sentence could apply to either case!

A simpler "select the profile you're migrating FROM" or "select the profile you're migrating INTO" would be a much more intuitive and crystal clear guide. The mess extends to the User's Manual which I read in advance and provided absolutely no clues as to which thing it referred in the first and foremost place.

Now I have two blank profiles, and a third "orphaned" profile, that's just the one I want to use both in local and domain profiles. I want my old local profile back. Please help me restore this mess.

Thank you in advance.

Replies:

Posted By: Support
Date Posted: 16 May 2012 at 11:56am

You need to be clear about the difference between a user account and a user profile. A user account is represented by the username and password you use to access a computer; a profile is the set of files and settings associated with that account, usually stored under C:\Users\username on Windows 7.

User Profile Wizard does not move, copy or delete any data. Instead it configures the profile “in place" so that it can be used by the user’s new domain account.

Can anybody guess if that whole sentence is in reference to the "old" or "new" profile? Well, there isn't an "old" or a "new" profile, there is just the profile - the set of data and settings that you want to assign to a user account.

To resolve your problem you need to run User Profile Wizard again. Enter the details of the user account you want to use the profile on the "User Account Information" page, and select the profile you want to assign to theat account on the "Select a User Profile" page. Make sure you reboot the machine before logging on.

Posted By: abello
Date Posted: 16 May 2012 at 12:58pm

UPDATE! (SOLVED)

Finally, I noted that the User Profile Wizard tool works in this manner:
1. The first time it ask for some "to migrate" is the migrate TO [destination] profile.
2. Then it ask WHAT profile is supposed to emigrate (the FROM profile).

Since the migration duplicated "OEM" profiles, they remained in the USERS folder along with the desired (properly configured and customized) profile. The latter could be "restored" by selecting the check box "Show Unassigned Profiles", and there it was. Sort of an orphaned but compete profile waiting for a home. Nice.

Can't document more thoroughly, since the profwiz.exe utility keeps hanging and refuses to kill its processes even with Task Manager. Probably the ownership permissions are to be blamed. Wil post later after rebooting Windows 7.

UPDATE AFTER REBOOTING: Make sure to add your new domain user to the LOCAL machine administrator's list.

Kudos to ForensiT!

The Wizard works as intended, didn't lost a single file and kept ALL configurations and user customizations. Finally, Windows user migration works as Microsoft always bragged in their brochures, but never delivered as smoothly as this mighty little app.