Win 7 Administrator Log On Problem

I am running a diagnostic for my Win 7 log-on, which suddenly hit me with a User Profile Service error--I can't log into my Win 7 OS...

The program asks me to create an administrator account as part of the process--but I already HAVE an administrator account--how do I handle this procedure to run the diagnostic?

 

This can have two meanings. Win 7 has a hidden Administrator account which, when activated, has complete access to the system. It is activated by typing net user administrator /active:yes into an elevated command prompt, which brings us to the second meaning. If you type the name of an executable into Start > Search, such as notepad, the name of the executable appears above, and if you right click that there is an option to Run as Administrator. This has the same elevated access to the system as the hidden Administrator account has and which is a lot more powerful than a regular admin user account.

To use either of these methods requires that you are logged into an account with admin privileges, which hopefully your temporary user profile has.

What is this diagnostic btw?

 

The program is called Kon-Boot--less of a diagnostic than a password reset tool. It comes recommended by about technology's Tim Fisher...

I wish I knew of some other programs/procedures that could fix my buggered User Profile service; I did run some diagnostics, such as an AV rescue disc, that didn't find any errors/malware on my hard drives....

 

It's possibly a bit late now but have you checked whether you have available a system restore point that pre-dates this problem?

 

Stupidly, I didn't set any System Restore point prior to this debacle--but I do subscribe to an online backup service, at least...

Regarding that, it would be pretty tricky to attempt any restoration with a still-malfunctioning User Profile Service, I'd imagine....

 

Unless you have purposely turned System Restore off it will have been creating restore points automatically. Worth taking a look?

If you have a Win 7 installation disk you can run System Restore from that, but you may also be able to run it from the profile you are currently using, even though it isn't your normal one.

 

I did try a System Restore from my Win 7 Install disc, but it didn't detect any restore points--and from what I can remember, it cautioned me not to seek any...

I sure wish I could pinpoint the culprit that has neutralized my User Profile Service--this is the second time it's happened since June!

 

When/if you get out of this fix you should start imaging your system regularly. It's the answer to this and so many other suddenly occurring problems.

 

Certainly sounds like a worthwhile procedure!

 

A tech friend created a new User Profile for me; my OS is working OK now, but--

a) How can I detect what caused this problem in the first place?

b) What application is best for imaging my system regularly (I do subscribe to an online backup service, but it doesn't back up system files)?

 

a) There will be clues in Event Viewer but without knowing pretty exactly the date and time this happened you are clutching at straws. If your event viewer is like most others it will have literally thousands of errors and warnings. Hopeless task.

b) There are a number of excellent free applications for imaging your system. I've tried most of them over the years but have settled on Macrium Reflect. That's not to knock the others though as they all seem to work pretty well. What puts a lot of folk off imaging is the time it can take, and with a large disk with a single partition for OS and data that's understandable. If you want to get into imaging, and you definitely should, it's worth spending some time shrinking the OS partition, creating a large data partition, and moving all your personal stuff to it, leaving just the OS and your installed software on C. After that you can typically image the OS partition in 10-15 minutes, storing the image file on a separate hard disk such as USB. This arrangement also makes organising your data backups more straightforward.

 

The User Profile service error occurred around August 7th; maybe the Event Viewer might offer a clue there...

I do have scan reports from Mini Tool Box and OTR that might shed some
light on the problem.

 

I can only wish you all the best with that

 

So there are no other useful diagnostics (with fixes) I can run?