I had a user with a corrupted profile so I wanted to delete the account and sign back in with fresh settings.
I originally did it the wrong way so the profile registry entry was left behind causing the above issue.

Correct Way:

  • On Windows 10 open settings
  • Click Other settings and select the user
  • Click Remove

Read below for the wrong way because the registry entry is left behind and for help on how to resolve

Lets say I have an account called Bob Ross and I go to C:\Users\Bob Ross and delete that Bob Ross folder.
If I try to login as Bob Ross a TEMP folder will be created. This means anything I do on that account will be deleted on log off.
To resolve this issue you need to remove the profile key in the registry like so:

  • Login as Administrator or an account that is NOT the user you are trying to remove
  • Open Regedit
  • Navigate to the following registry key :“HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList”
  • Under ProfileList navigate to binary key’s like this: S-1-5-21-3656904587-1668747452-4095529-500
  • On the right side under ProfileImagePath you’ll see the username and profile path. So in this example I would look for C:\User\Bob Ross
  • Right click the key that has your user in it and go to export and save a backup somewhere
  • Next delete the key and the next time you login as Bob Ross a new profile folder will be created