Windows 7 ntuser.ini nowhere to be found

[LouiseJ]

Hi there. My user default folder as well as other users' folders are missing an ntuser.ini file. I have enabled view hidden folders, unchecked view protected operating system files, used system restore as far back as I can go and there are no previous versions available from the properties pop up box.

I would like to get the pc ready to sell but after about six or seven failed attempts to upgrade to win10 I have decided to call it a day and sell the pc as is. I really don't want to do a factory reset. I don't have the installation disk etc. But I would like it be in a healthy state for the new owner.

If anyone has any ideas about the ntuser.ini, I would be really grateful. Thank you.

 

[Neemobeer]

I think you mean NTUSER.dat. It's in the root of each user directory and it's the users registry hive file. I'm not sure why you're looking for it as it can't be deleted when a user is logged in and will likely break that user account.

 

[Josephur]

NTUSER.ini still exists even in Windows 10, however I'm not sure it actually contains valuable information anymore. I opened a few in notepad they are about 20 bytes and don't seem to really contain much of anything just a few bytes of binary. It used to be used to set different settings on your profile especially when it came to user roaming. Where are you getting an error about the file missing? Part of Windows 10 upgrade asks you if you want to keep anything, if your prepping to sell it I would just tell it to keep nothing and perhaps that will avoid the error as you will have to make a new user anyways?

 

[LouiseJ]

I think you mean NTUSER.dat. It's in the root of each user directory and it's the users registry hive file. I'm not sure why you're looking for it as it can't be deleted when a user is logged in and will likely break that user account.

Thanks for replying. The NTUSER.dat and NTUSER.log files are there but not NTUSER.ini. It's a long story how I came to be focused on this and all to do with attempted upgrades to win10 which got me curious.

 

[LouiseJ]

NTUSER.ini still exists even in Windows 10, however I'm not sure it actually contains valuable information anymore. I opened a few in notepad they are about 20 bytes and don't seem to really contain much of anything just a few bytes of binary. It used to be used to set different settings on your profile especially when it came to user roaming. Where are you getting an error about the file missing? Part of Windows 10 upgrade asks you if you want to keep anything, if your prepping to sell it I would just tell it to keep nothing and perhaps that will avoid the error as you will have to make a new user anyways?

Thanks for the reply. I had read something similar to your own comments somewhere in an article which criticized the roaming setup as there are real issues with it in a roaming situation. But definitely home users don't need it. So it's good to have your view as it helps me to feel that I don't need to be concerned about not having any NTUSER.ini. Also, I get no error messages and everything seems to work ok. The only reason I got concerned was I was I was attempting to copy a user profile to a new user. Since I was unable to I ventured online and found people saying you can just copy the contents into the new user folder - but not the NTUSER.dat, NTUSER.log and NTUSER.ini. Of course I then found there was no NTUSER.ini and so on!

 

[LouiseJ]

Thanks for replying. The NTUSER.dat and NTUSER.log files are there but not NTUSER.ini. It's a long story how I came to be focused on this and all to do with attempted upgrades to win10 which got me curious.

Sorry Neemobeer - many failed win10 upgrade attempts led to me experiencing that 'never again' feeling due to deleted restore points and decision to tidy up the user profile situation ready for new owner - rather than attempt a factory reset. So I was poking around and got curious.