Windows 7 Really need clarification! Need the nuts-bolts low-down on creating new user accounts in diff situat

avery2000

New Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2010
I am/have tried to create a new user account, specifically to take the place of a suspected corrupt user account (per MS Moderator posts re Excel not responding repeatedly when copying). I have looked around the web, MS support sites, and read posts all over a couple of forums and am trying to get things straight.

Below I describe the nature of my need, but first can you confirm the following?:

A) a person should have at least two UA's on their computer, one standard, to be used regularly, and an admin for admin purposes

B) in order to create a new UA and copy any part of the old UA to the new one, one must create a third UA, as an admin, so you can use it to accomplish working with both accounts

Problem-Start
MS has a web page entitled "Fix a corrupted user profile" at Fix a corrupted user profile
While the document pertained to Vista, recent posts from users with W7 have received responses from MS moderators with instructions to access this webpage to fix a corrupted UA. Also within W7's help, these same instructions come up. When I followed the instructions, a number of issues came up and recently a MS Moderator told me not to do the following from the instructions, despite previous posts to the contrary.

In essence, MS instructs you to copy the contents of C:/Users/CorruptAcct to C:/Users/NewAcct, but to exclude all ntuser files from the copy.

Questions to Resolve Problem and Finally Get Some Clarity!!

1) I can't know what part of the CorruptAcct is corrupt, so why would I copy anything over?

2) When you do follow the copying instructions, not everything copies over, e.g. AppData. From my searches, this is to be expected. What other parts of the CorruptAcct or just an OldAcct users' file should be expected to not copy over? And why?

3) What does this (starting with a brand new or incompletely copied over UA) mean in terms of what will change about your computer and what you will have to do to "rebuild" the computer the way you had it or on your other account? What kinds of things will you have to re-download?

4) So isn't there, shouldn't there be a way to share desktop, start menu, taskbar, and other applications between users if keeping both UAs (not deleting a corrupt UA). How do you do this? I know there is a shared users folder, but am unsure re copying, from where, junctions, if they are even related to the Doc&Settings/Users--Shared connection, and how to identify individual files to share, such as a setting or icon file.

5) What is the difference between a user account and a user profile? And is any difference related to creating new accounts just so have another or to replace a corrupt account? Maybe related to copying apps, settings?

With answers to these questions, I will be able to finish the task of no longer maintaining only one account on my computer, having this account be an admin account, create a new account, designated as standard, to be used everyday, and have an admin account, also newly created

I pretty much have the know-how to do whatever needs to be done, but I need to know if any part of corrupted can be copied, and if so, how -- and -- how share rebuilt (assuming will have to) desktop, prior computer configurations, etc. between the two new users I will have.

I really want to settle this issue! After looking for so long for clarity, I want to know what I'm asking simply because now I both have to know! and I need some help to put this to rest!

Any input would be greatly, greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Avery

Sorry, haven't posted specs: HP Pavilion, W7 Home Premium, x64
 
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So many questions, how complicated it should be I suppose would depend on what you need to transfer from one account to the other.

Users are Administrator/standard users or standard users. The first can transfer files between accounts. There is a real administrator account which is normally deactivated and you should not need.

I have seen situations in Win 7 where some directories had multiple versions of the same folders, like they were created by a loop. You might check for something like that in the corrupted account. Deleting the extra ones might fix the account.

Win 7 doesn't really need you to run as a standard user, if you allow the UAC to do its job and pay attention to it.

I would suggest you create the new account as whatever user you want and transfer the files as necessary, but make sure you have at least one good admin account. Then if you did find one that was corrupted, you would be able to delete it.
 
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