A corrupt profile: create a user and migrate properly

Verified 2026-10-292 min read

How to confirm the profile is the problem, move the data that matters, and rebind the apps that do not survive the move.

Tested onPro (26H2) / Server · Build 26300.9457 / 26100.33650 · x64

Build: 26300.9457 / 26100.33650
Edition: Pro (26H2) / Server
Architecture: x64
Support: Documentation (E1)
Evidence: E1Official documentation
Verified: 2026-10-29
Page type: Task

The short answer

A corrupted profile shows up as one of these:

a temporary profile at logon (“We can’t sign you in to your account”);
an empty desktop with default wallpaper, and your files still on disk under C:\Users\oldname;
apps losing their settings, OneDrive re-syncing from scratch;
error events 1511 or 1515 in the User Profile Service log.

The fix is not to repair the registry — it is to create a new profile and migrate. Ten minutes of copying, no reinstall.

Confirm it before doing anything

# profile events
Get-WinEvent -LogName Application -MaxEvents 200 |
  Where-Object { $_.ProviderName -match 'User Profile Service' -and $_.Id -in 1511,1515,1508 } |
  Select-Object TimeCreated,Id,Message | Format-List

# which profile folders exist, and which one is loaded
Get-CimInstance Win32_UserProfile | Select-Object LocalPath,SID,Loaded,Special
Get-ChildItem C:\Users -Directory | Select-Object Name,LastWriteTime

If your desktop is empty but C:\Users\<you>\Desktop is full, you are on a temporary profile. Do not copy files into the temp profile — it will be deleted at logoff.

Create the replacement

# as an administrator
New-LocalUser -Name "newuser" -Password (Read-Host -AsSecureString "Password") -FullName "New User"
Add-LocalGroupMember -Group "Administrators" -Member "newuser"

Or Settings → Accounts → Other users → Add account. Sign in once to let Windows create the profile, then sign back in as an administrator.

Migrate the data that matters

Copy from the old profile to the new one, while both exist:

Folder	Contents	Copy?
`Desktop`, `Documents`, `Pictures`, `Videos`, `Downloads`	user files	yes
`AppData\Roaming`	most app settings	selectively
`AppData\Local`	caches, some app data	rarely — caches cause the same corruption
`.ssh`, `.gitconfig`, `.aws`	developer credentials	yes, by hand
`Outlook` `.pst`/`.ost`	mail	`.pst` yes, `.ost` no (regenerates)

$old = "C:\Users\olduser"; $new = "C:\Users\newuser"
robocopy "$old\Desktop" "$new\Desktop" /E /COPY:DAT /R:1 /W:1
robocopy "$old\Documents" "$new\Documents" /E /COPY:DAT /R:1 /W:1

Copy AppData\Roaming after the new profile has been used once, and only for apps you actually need to keep settings for.

Rebind what does not survive

OneDrive — sign in and let it re-sync; do not copy the OneDrive folder between profiles.
Store apps — reinstall; their per-user state does not transfer cleanly.
Outlook — create the profile again and attach the .pst.
Browser — export bookmarks/passwords from the old profile, import into the new one.
Windows Hello — re-enrol the PIN and biometrics.

When you are sure, remove the old profile

Only after a week of normal use, and only after a backup:

System → About → Advanced system settings → User Profiles → Settings → select the old profile → Delete. That removes the registry entry; the folder remains and can be deleted manually.

When this is not the answer

The machine restarts during logon — that is a different fault (boot loop).
Every new profile is also temporary — the profile service itself is broken; check disk health and sfc.
The account is Entra-joined — the profile is recreated by policy; contact the administrator instead of hand-editing.

Lab boundary

E1. Profile behaviour and the event IDs are Microsoft-documented. No profile was corrupted on the lab VMs for this page.