How to Fix Corrupt Windows User Profile

In Windows, when a user is created, a profile is generated. This profile acts as an identity and placeholder where all information for the user can be stored and used to identify him or her again. Because of unusual events like Windows Crash, permission issues, Transfer of Windows Account, etc, the user profile gets corrupted, leaving the existing user account completely unusable. Windows sometimes creates a fresh account. The user will lose all its settings, like desktop backgrounds, screen savers, pointer preferences, sound settings, and other features.

Before we start learning how to fix any corrupt user profile, make sure you have an account that is either admin or admin-privileged. Here is how to rebuild Windows profile.

How to Fix Corrupt Windows User Profile

All the Windows User Profiles are under C:\Users\UserName, which contains all our settings. Now go to your account, unhide hidden folders, and uncheck Hide Protected operating system files. You would see three files NTUSER.DAT, NTUSER.dat.log and ntuser.ini which you will need to be careful about.

Find the NTUSER.DAT, NTUSER.dat.log and ntuser.ini files

• Login with your admin account and create a new account.
• Now identify which corrupt Windows profile which is corrupted and go to that folder, which will be like C:\Users\UserName
• Unhide Folders / Files and display system files
• Copy everything from this folder except the three files NTUSER.DAT, NTUSER.dat.log, and ntuser.ini. Sometimes, you may only see the NTUSER.DAT file.

• Go to the new account folder under C:\users and paste all the files you copied in the above step.
• Log off and login to the new account to confirm.
• Delete the old account.

This should fix your problems. Remember that many times, because of some bug, you might see Windows giving you a brand new profile, but if you log off and try logging in again, you will see the issues getting fixed.

Delete WPCacheLock & WPCache Files

You can also delete these files to fix the user profile issue on a Windows PC.

1. Log in as a local administrator.
2. Enable “Show hidden files” in File Explorer.
3. Navigate to the affected user’s profile folder and delete these items:
   • File: C:\Users\<affectedUserFolder>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WebCacheLock.dat
   • Folder: C:\Users\<affectedUserFolder>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WebCache

If this resolves the corrupted user profile issue, you may also need to delete the same items in the Default User profile to prevent the problem from affecting any new users who log in.

Reprofiler

Another alternative is Reprofiler, software that can help you fix these issues by remapping users to their profiles and fixing registry settings and permissions, which are required to fix any corrupt Windows account.

It displays all the user accounts above and all the Windows users’ folders below. To fix or map it to any other account, select a username above and a folder below and then hit Assign. This will ensure it copies and assigns proper settings. You can also remove/detach folders, which helps erase the data. Download Reprofiler from here.