User Profiles - Windows XP

[taj]

Hi everyone,

The size of my user profile is constantly changing, seemingly without me doing anything too drastic. For example, one day the size of my user profile is 3.27 GB, and then I reboot, login and it is down to 67.0 MB! What is causing these changes? I am not really in need of free hard drive space [250 GB drive], but I would like to know what is behind this. Also, I would be interested to know what XP determines as the user profile / how it determines the size of the profile. I am quite puzzled by this situation as I thought the user profile was everything in your User directory in Documents and Settings - however, I have over 25 GB in My Documents, so I presume this isn't included in the size of the user profile?

[i am checking my user profile size using the following: System Properties > Advanced > User Profiels / Settings].

My account is part of the Administrators group, does this have any effect on the user profile size?

Is anyone else having similar issues?

I apologise for the long [first!] post with loads of questions, but I would be grateful if you could provide the answers / a solution.

Thanks

Taj

[rendrag]

There are temp files located in your user profile directory, so that would play a part as to why there's a lot of flux in the size of the profile.

Is it the only reason, probably not. Hopefully some of our other members will chime in.

[janus zeal]

everything in your %userprofile% directory is counted, including temp files, stuff on your desktop, my docs, etc...

if all your stuff (my docs or whatever) is stored on a network share then it may not be counting that all of the time. are you a member of a domain?

edit... also, being a member of the administrators group wont make a diffrence.

Edited July 7, 2006 by janus zeal

[taj]

everything in your %userprofile% directory is counted, including temp files, stuff on your desktop, my docs, etc...

if all your stuff (my docs or whatever) is stored on a network share then it may not be counting that all of the time. are you a member of a domain?

edit... also, being a member of the administrators group wont make a diffrence.

I'm not a member of a domain. My Documents are not stored on a network share. This is the biggest confusion ;is the My Documents folder included in the user profile or not?

I only keep shortcuts on my desktop.

- Taj

[pmshah]

Absolutely, unless you moved your My Documents folder to a different drive as also your temp file folder.

[ricktendo]

Kinda Off Topic User Profile Hive Cleanup Service

[taj]

The whole Documents and Settings directory is on a separate partition (D:); XP is installed on the C: partition

(this was done using the unattended setup option 'ProfilesDir').

pmshah, please clarify the default location of the 'temp' folder you are referring to... is it 'C:\WINDOWS\Temp' or 'D:\Documents and Settings\Taj\Local Settings\Temp'?

Thanks for all your replies / help!

Taj

[tain]

Do you use any software that might make gross usage of your profile space? Perhaps a game or a multimedia suite?

A good way to find the culprit would be to wait until your folder is at the large size again and then do a search on it for all files over, say, 10MB. Then sort them by file size (in the DETAILS view) and you should see which files are taking up so much space.

[taj]

@ ricktendo64

I've got the User Hive Profile Service installed - does this make any difference in profile sizes - I thought it was to do with profiles unloading hives in the registry...please correct me if I'm wrong.

@ TAiN

I very occassionally use Adobe Photoshop CS2. I use lots of other programs but most of them are relatively small. The only major programs apart from Photoshop are Office 2003 Pro, Acronis True Image 9 and Acronis Disk Director 10. I use NOD32 [antivirus] and Zone Alarm Firewall. Other apps I use: Firefox, Nero 6 Ultra, Diskeeper 10.

I use Outlook 2003, but my Personal Folder /.pst file is only 2.5 Mb so I can't see this making much of a difference.

Thanks for all your help.

Edited July 7, 2006 by taj

[ricktendo]

@ ricktendo64

I've got the User Hive Profile Service installed - does this make any difference in profile sizes - I thought it was to do with profiles unloading hives in the registry...please correct me if I'm wrong.

Makes no dif in the size just shuts down Windows Faster, thats why i said off topic kinda

I dunno id turn off System Restore, use CCleaner to get rid of temp files.

Edited July 7, 2006 by ricktendo64

[taj]

System Restore has been turned off for ages [only use Acronis True Image for backups] and i use CCleaner more than once daily.

[ricktendo]

Good time for a Reformat, Reinstall.

Sorry

Do you know anything bout Slipsteaming Service packs and hotfixes? (Seamlessly Integrating updates into XP CD)

If u dont go here RyanVM.net/msfn and download the Post SP2 hotfixes addon, if u dont have SP2 integrated get it HERE

Now Download nLite.

Simply copy ur XP Disk tho the hard drive to a folder (name it xpcd) and slipstream the updates, both SP2 and RVM UpdatePack 2.x.x with nLite or the RVM Integrator. Instructions

Edited July 7, 2006 by ricktendo64

[taj]

Thanks Ricktendo64!

I've got a slipstreamed XP Pro SP2 disc.

Think I might slipstream the latest updates / hotfixes now - thanks for the advice!

I just did an XP Pro re-install yesterday for one of my family members, which went well. I do a re-install usually every 2 or 3 months, whenever I get the time. Yesterday I realised that after I had finished setting up the user account on the fresh XP install AND had run CCleaner, the User Profile size had grown to 2.34 GB! No documents in My Documents folder at all, yet still a User Profile of 2 GB on a completely fresh XP install!