How can have multiple users get the same profile

[clivebuckwheat]

Hi

I am trying to do the following: setup the Administrator Profile with all the settings I need. I then log off and login with a different account with administrative privileges and I try to copy the Administrator Profile to the Default profile but the copy to is grayed out.

I been doing to following procedure under Windows XP for years without issue why doesn't this work under Windows 7 anymore is there a work around?

Edited April 21, 2010 by clivebuckwheat

[MrJinje]

Read this website, then use the tool.

Junction Box

An issue experienced by users of Windows Vista or Windows 7 is that the user-profiles (Which are now stored under "Users" instead of "Documents and Settings") cannot be copied, transferred or backed-up in any simple way. This is owing-to the presence of 'junctions' within the profile. JunctionBox offers a solution to this problem, by making it possible to backup and restore the junctions from a catalog. This catalog is a standard text file which can be backed-up in the normal way.

[cluberti]

You might also want to read the Microsoft KB article on the subject as well.

[MrJinje]

Here might be a method to test

The Steps: After setting up the profile for one user, lets call the account "adrian", do the following:

0. Login as an admin user, but NOT Adrian (you don't want the files in the profile to be locked).

1. Go to c: drive in Explorer (or whatever your system drive is), hit the ALT key, go to the Tools Menu-> Folder Options and start unchecking "Hides" so Explorer sees all files (system, hidden and what not).

2. Go to Users\ and rename "Default" to "Default Back" (we want to keep the old one around in case things go south and we need to but the original Default profile back).

3. Make a copy of "adrian", then rename the copy of "adrian" (not the original!!!) to "Default".

4. Right click on "Default" and set the permissions so that the "Everyone" and "Users" groups have "Read & Execute", "List Folder Content" and "Read" NTFS permissions (this was the default already when I tested). At this point, you can use the Right click Computer -> "Properties"-> "Advanced System Settings"->"User Profiles" tool to delete the Adrian profile if you like.

5. Try to login as an account that does not already have a profile. If the new user's profile looks like the setting you did for "adrian", all is good in the hood.

I have no idea what other problems may crop up later with this method, and keep in mind this is not the way Microsoft wants you to copy profiles. Use at your own risk, but so far these instructions have worked fine when I try to overwrite the Default user profile.

[clivebuckwheat]

I tried this way it doesn't keep background image, or the theme, or the default printers that I set.

Here might be a method to test

The Steps: After setting up the profile for one user, lets call the account "adrian", do the following:

0. Login as an admin user, but NOT Adrian (you don't want the files in the profile to be locked).

1. Go to c: drive in Explorer (or whatever your system drive is), hit the ALT key, go to the Tools Menu-> Folder Options and start unchecking "Hides" so Explorer sees all files (system, hidden and what not).

2. Go to Users\ and rename "Default" to "Default Back" (we want to keep the old one around in case things go south and we need to but the original Default profile back).

3. Make a copy of "adrian", then rename the copy of "adrian" (not the original!!!) to "Default".

4. Right click on "Default" and set the permissions so that the "Everyone" and "Users" groups have "Read & Execute", "List Folder Content" and "Read" NTFS permissions (this was the default already when I tested). At this point, you can use the Right click Computer -> "Properties"-> "Advanced System Settings"->"User Profiles" tool to delete the Adrian profile if you like.

5. Try to login as an account that does not already have a profile. If the new user's profile looks like the setting you did for "adrian", all is good in the hood.

I have no idea what other problems may crop up later with this method, and keep in mind this is not the way Microsoft wants you to copy profiles. Use at your own risk, but so far these instructions have worked fine when I try to overwrite the Default user profile.

[lwsswl]

Some setting keep in the reg